Children of the New Democracy

The transition to democracy in South Africa brought real improvements in the opportunities open to many children and young people. Some constraints and pressures of the apartheid era have been mitigated or removed. In some respects, however, the lives of children and young people have not changed, and in some respects they may have worsened. The extension of political rights to all adults has not meant an end to poverty among children and adolescents; personal security has declined and AIDS has wreaked havoc.

In this course scholars working on and with children and adolescents consider some of the major dimensions of the lives of young people in South Africa, examining the ways in which they have and have not changed, and the roles that children and adolescents themselves play in shaping their lives. The speakers draw on different disciplines (anthropology, sociology and economics) and different methodologies, entailing a mix of quantitative research, using survey data, and qualitative research, concentrated in various neighbourhoods in Cape Town.

Lecture Titles

• Introduction to the study of childhood and adolescence - Dr Rachel Bray, CSSR, UCT
• Poverty and welfare among children - Assoc Prof Ingrid Woolard, School of Economics, UCT
• Growing up amidst political change - Dr Ariane de Lannoy, Children’s Institute, UCT
• Understanding the moral lives of youth in South Africa - Dr Sharlene Swartz, Human Sciences Research Council
• Schooling and identity - Dr Rachel Bray, CSSR, UCT