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Disability and social mobility in Johannesburg

Project description

A closer look at inequality in South Africa

Racial categorisation did not disappear with the end of apartheid in South Africa. While legal discrimination was abolished, huge imbalances remain off paper. The EU-funded DisaMob project will study this new reality, focusing on people who live with a physical disability – a departure point from where the applicant of this Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship will be able to engage with people from various racial and class backgrounds. The findings will shed new light on how racial and social categories impact disabled people’s professional trajectories. Social mobility will also be explored. By tapping into a network of local researchers, the project will conduct up to 80 biographical interviews with disabled people.

Objective

Since the end of apartheid, the role of racial categories in the reproduction of inequalities appears to have decreased in South Africa but, the extent of these changes remains debated. This project aims to renew our understanding of these processes by adopting a transversal approach to understanding post-apartheid society. To do so, I will attend to the life trajectories of people who live with a physical disability: a departure point that will allow me to engage with individuals from various racial and class backgrounds.
As a counterpoint to statistical surveys on social mobility and to the Marxist tradition of social class in South Africa, I will draw on Bourdieu’s multidimensional analysis of the social space to articulate the impacts of racial and social categories, but also of disability and gender, on professional careers. I will also question how expectations and claims for support impact on disabled people’s careers, based on an analysis of social configurations as forms of interdependency that have ambiguous effects on disabled people’s professional trajectories. For instance, could the delegation of care to women explain why women with disabilities find work less easily than their male peers? Therefore, this project also aims to integrate the issue of disability within the study of social mobility.
The outgoing phase at the University of Johannesburg will help me foster my knowledge on current social sciences debates in this country, extend my network with local researchers and conduct ethnographic research (60–80 biographical interviews with disabled people and 6–9 study cases of social configurations based on observation and interviews). In return, the acquired knowledge and the research results will serve as a comparison point during the incoming phase for research undertaken at the University of Liège around work, dynamics of inequalities, and health policies in other parts of Africa.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 191 856,96
Address
PLACE DU 20 AOUT 7
4000 LIEGE
Belgium

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Region
Région wallonne Prov. Liège Arr. Liège
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 191 856,96

Partners (1)

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