Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa

Symbols or Substance?

Malcolm Langford, Ben Cousins, Jackie Dugard, Tshepo Madlingozi

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781107021143
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107240230
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The embrace of socio-economic rights in South Africa has featured prominently in scholarship on constitution making, legal jurisprudence and social mobilisation. But the development has attracted critics who claim that this turn to rights has not generated social transformation in practice. This book sets out to assess one part of the puzzle and asks what has been the role and impact of socio-economic strategies used by civil society actors. Focusing on a range of socio-economic rights and national trends in law and political economy, the book's authors show how socio-economic rights have influenced the development of civil society discourse and action. The evidence suggests that some strategies have achieved material and political impact but this is conditional on the nature of the claim, degree of mobilisation and alliance building, and underlying constraints.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Constitutional Jurisprudence
• 3 Socio-Economic Rights Beyond the Public-Private Law Divide
• 4 Post-Apartheid Social Movements and Legal Mobilisation
• 5 Political Power
• 6 Rural Land Tenure
• 7 Housing Rights Litigation
• 8 Health Rights
• 9 Social Security Rights
• 10 Urban Basic Services
• 11 Realising Environmental Rights
• 12 Access to Information and Socio-Economic Rights
• 13 Gender and Socio-Economic Rights
• 14 Migrants and Mobilisation around Socio-Economic Rights
• 15 Concluding Perspectives
• Table of Authorities
• Index