An approach to human development in rural Western Cape with specific reference to farm workers

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Using the conceptual framework of the human development approach as proposed byAmartya Sen, this dissertation attempts to measure the absolute and relative developmentstatus of Western Cape farm workers for 1996 and 2001. The dissertation begins bypresenting a critical analysis of the traditional neo-classical model of development, andgoes further to demonstrate how, from the early 1970s, the validity of this model wasincreasingly questioned by the broader development fraternity and eventually supplantedby the human development approach in the 1990s.The human development approach is based on two conceptual roots namely; socialexclusion theory and the capability model of Amartya Sen. Social exclusion theoryidentifies important themes such as gender and culture which the neo-classical developmentapproach failed to reflect in its theoretical and methodological structures while thecapability model establishes the philosophical and theoretical foundations of humandevelopment. More specifically it clarifies the question: 'what is wellbeing, how do wemeasure it and how is it linked to development and poverty?From the perspective of the human development approach, wellbeing is about being ableto exercise economic, social and political choice or freedom. These freedoms are labelledcapabilities and are they are derived from functioning choices. A functioning representsdifferent aspects of the state of a person, and can either be an activity such as working ora state of existence such as being educated. A functioning is an achievement whereas acapability is the possible options or choices open to a person. It is on the basis of aperson's capability set that an evaluation of their level of wellbeing is possible. Thehuman development approach therefore measures development in terms of capabilitiesThe key methodological challenges related to measuring development in terms of humancapabilities are numerous. The theory of human development does not specify whichcapabilities to include when measuring poverty or wellbeing, in addition it provides nomethod to rank capabilities. Capabilities can simultaneously expand in some areas whilecontract in others. Because there is no method of ranking capabilities it is impossible toconclude whether on balance, development has taken place. Finally on a practical levelthe data requirements to measure wellbeing in a multivariate way are significant and aremore often than not based on detailed household socio-economic surveys that are noteasily replicated over time. For these reasons, while development economists endorse thetheory of human development on an ideological and strategic level, methodologicallythere is still a tendency to measure it in terms of income levels.Despite these challenges a number of empirical applications of the human developmentapproach have emerged in recent years and a cross-section of these studies is described aspart of this dissertation. The main methodological issues that have to be confronted whenoperationalising the human development approach are also documented while theappropriateness of using the theory of fuzzy sets to measure vague concepts such aspoverty and wellbeing, is emphasized. Drawing on data from the 1996 and 2001 Population Census this dissertation confrontsthese measurement challenges and by limiting the analysis to 6 functionings namely;housing, housing services, education, health, social relations, employment and economicachievements, attempts to measure the overall development status of Western Cape farmworkers. By comparing this result with the achievement of other labour groups such asthe unemployed and workers employed elsewhere in the economy it is also possible toconclude on their relative development status.With respect to functioning achievement (measured as fuzzy scores), in 2001 farmworkers scored the lowest of all the labour groups in terms of housing services, socialrelations and education achievement. In terms of their access to economic resources,while farm workers individual and household monthly income levels exceeded that of theunemployed - their fuzzy score was roughly half of that achieved by workers in othersectors. These various functionings were weighted and aggregated to arrive at an overallwellbeing indicator, and almost no difference could be detected in the score achieved byfarm workers and the unemployed. This result was found to be relatively insensitive tothe weight assigned to a particular functioning. While there is almost no difference in theoverall level of human development enjoyed by farm workers and the unemployed, alarge difference was found between farm workers and other workers in the economy. Itcan be argued that this discrepancy is indicative of the high concentration of unskilledworkers found in the agricultural sector. However when occupation was brought intoconsideration, a relatively large discrepancy in development levels between farm workersand employed unskilled workers, could still be detected.In terms of gender, overall women farm workers scored slightly higher than men,however in terms of personal income they scored considerably lower than men. Thisdifference could not be attributed to differences in the number of hours worked per weekand confirms the findings of other studies that showed that women farm workers do notreceive equal wages for equal work effort.In terms of development status, the results generated by the 1996 population census, wereconsistent with 2001 however, here farm workers scored poorly in terms of the housing,housing services, education and social relations functioning. It was only with respect tothe employment and economic resources functionings that farm workers ranked abovethe unemployed. By applying the frequency-based membership functions generated for1996 to the 2001 data set, it was possible to detect absolute changes in developmentstatus that took place between 1996 and 2001. Relative to the other labour groups, farmworkers consistently exhibited the highest rate of progress. Education, social relationsand housing services functionings scores in 2001, were 20% higher than 1996 levels.Key Words: Poverty, development, wellbeing, human development approach,capabilities, functionings, fuzzy sets, Western Cape, Western Cape agriculture, farmworkers

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University