‘Ek sê, heita!’: Kwaito and the construction of community

Abstract

Kwaito can be described as the new music of the new South Africa. Since its emergence over a decade ago, kwaito still blasts from minibus taxis, on the new urban commercial stations formed after media liberalisation, and on street corners from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Kwaito is young, vibrant and decidedly black. This is hardly surprising in a context where music, like everything else, is a highly racialised terrain. This article describes the emergence of kwaito, and explores community radio station, Bush Radio's, broadcasts of kwaito music, looking at how these broadcasts create a sense of community. First, kwaito's emergence within the context of South Africa's mainstream cultural industries is articulated. Then kwaito music is explored as a signifier of black identity. This article is located within a cultural studies framework, which approaches musical genres as cultural texts capable of generating multiple meanings (Grossberg, 1993).     

STRUCTURES OF ETHNIC CONFLICT: REVOLUTION VERSUS SECESSION IN RWANDA AND SRI LANKA

A structural framework of ethnic politics is presented, contrasting the patterns of inter-ethnic relations found in ranked versus unranked systems of ethnic stratification. This framework allows us to account for why ethnic conflict erupts in some cases but not others, and why that conflict takes the form of ethnic revolution in some situations and ethnic separatism in others. This framework's explanatory utility is illustrated with a comparison of case studies: why ethnic separatism emerged in Sri Lanka while ethnic revolution occurred in Rwanda.     

Japan's Search for the ‘Sweet Spot’: International Cooperation and Regional Security in Northeast Asia

To analyze how Japan's competing objectives and specific policies have been evolving and how they trade off in today's regional security situation, this article argues that shifting Japanese foreign and security policies in Northeast Asia can be understood as ongoing responses to tensions along three key axes. First Japan confronts a tension between bilateralism and multilateralism; second Japan's economic and security interests are often at odds, and third, Japan still struggles with the competing pulls exerted by Asia on the one hand and the West (most particularly the United States) on the other.     

Maquiladoras and market mamas: Women's work and childcare in Guatemala City and Accra

Abstract

This paper analyses work, childcare, and earnings of mothers in the slums of Guatemala City and Accra. Similar factors affect decisions to work and to use formal daycare, but the importance of childcare varies with the role of the formal labour sector. In Guatemala, where formal sector work is important, higher prices for informal care increase formal daycare use. However, daycare prices and proximity to daycare centers do not significantly affect earnings in Guatemala City and Accra, respectively. Providing formal daycare may be more important to mothers' decision to work in cities where formal sector work dominates.