Despite long-standing patterns of agrarian change in South and Southern Africa, rural locales remain home to millions of people, characterised by widespread poverty and vulnerability. This is evident in South Africa’s former ‘homelands’, the site where this study examined changes in rural livelihoods over a 14-year period. Detailed survey data (collected in 2002 and 2016) from two villages in the Pondoland region of Eastern Cape province, and augmented by in-depth fieldwork, are analysed to explore the drivers of contemporary livelihood change. Key livelihood activities are examined, namely paid employment, social grant receipt, horticulture and livestock production, marine-resource and firewood harvesting. So too are changes within, and between, these diverse livelihood activities over time. Both monetised (income-earning) activities, and ‘unremunerated’ or unmonetised activities (for example, subsistence agriculture or marine-resource harvesting) are measured, aggregated and compared, in order to consider the drivers, consequences and prospective future trajectories of livelihood change. Key findings for impoverished households in the villages are that waged work has decreased significantly, while expanding social welfare provision has prevented plunges into deeper poverty. Agriculture and marine-resource harvesting remain dynamic, albeit unevenly engaged in by villagers. Amid these larger patterns, local-level variations are evident, with discrepant employment and agricultural production patterns across villages. The role of the state is ambiguous, being both a restrictor and enabler of local livelihoods. As jobs and other livelihood opportunities diminish, the villagers express frustration with the state, but remain simultaneously heavily reliant on state fiscal transfers, through grants and public employment schemes. The findings speak not only to the dynamics of rural livelihoods in South Africa’s former homelands; they also point to changes in rural dwellers’ livelihoods, within contexts of agrarian change, rural dispossession, inequality and receding prospects for employment, increasingly evident across the global south.

中文翻译：

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南非东开普省农村地区生计的变化（2002-2016年）：减少就业和扩大社会保护

尽管南部和南部非洲长期存在着土地变化的模式，但农村地区仍然是数百万人的家园，其特征是普遍存在的贫困和脆弱性。这在南非以前的“家园”中很明显，该研究研究了该地区过去14年中农村生计的变化。分析了来自东开普省蓬多兰地区两个村庄的详细调查数据（于2002年和2016年收集），并通过深入的实地调查加以补充，以探索当代民生变化的驱动力。检查了主要的民生活动，即有偿就业，社会补助金收据，园艺和畜牧生产，海洋资源和柴火收成。随着时间的流逝，这些多样化的生计活动内部和之间的变化也是如此。既通过货币化（创收）活动，测量，汇总和比较“无酬”或无货币活动（例如，自给性农业或海洋资源收获），以考虑驱动力，后果和未来生计变化的轨迹。对村庄贫困家庭的主要发现是，有薪工作显着减少，而扩大的社会福利提供了防止陷入更深贫困的机会。尽管村民从事农业和海洋资源的活动不尽相同，但仍然保持活跃。在这些较大的格局中，地方差异是显而易见的，村庄之间的就业和农业生产格局差异很大。国家的角色是模棱两可的，既是当地生计的制约者也是推动者。随着工作和其他生计机会的减少，村民对国家表示沮丧，但同时又通过赠款和公共就业计划严重依赖国家财政转移支付。这些发现不仅说明了南非前家乡的农村生计的变化，而且还说明了这一点。他们还指出，在全球变化日益明显的农业改变，农村剥夺，不平等和就业前景恶化的背景下，农村居民的生计也在发生变化。