Instead of generating insights for consumption by Western scholarly audiences, what would research look like if we sought to substantively engage problems faced by individuals in precarious situations and identify how they do so on their own terms? … What if one were to strip away the theoretical–industrial complex that characterizes much of management academia, and instead drew from multiple disciplines in order to better grasp the intersections between poverty, race, colonial legacy, urban design, regulation, and economic policy? If we took these questions seriously, the result would look something like Township Economy: People, Spaces and Practices by Charman, Petersen, and Govender. The authors’ assiduous efforts to understand the township economy through multiple levels, voices, and analytical lenses (combined with thoughtful and informed writing) make it an exemplar of what research on marginalized populations should look like.
Joel Bothello, Administrative Science Quarterly (2022).
This attractive and readable book is the product of several years (2010–2018) of detailed on-site ethnographic and statistical research by the three authors and a dedicated team of student and community researchers. The study combines not only quantitative and qualitative data in a mutually illuminating way but features excellent documentary photographs, drawings, maps, charts and numerical surveys. …While the focus is specifically on the “informal sector” of the township economy, the smaller and most precarious commercial micro-enterprises, the findings reach into their relationship with the larger urban retail sector with implications for employment and economic justice for the majority of South Africans.
David B. Coplan, Anthropology Southern Africa (2020).