Essay review: technopolitics, development and the residues of the South African state.

Heffernan, Anne

Abstract

It has been thirty years since the end of political apartheid in South Africa in 1994. Those decades have been marked by single-party dominance under the African National Congress (ANC), and the expansion of democratic rights and public goods like education, as well as neoliberal economic policies, growing inequality and, in recent years, corruption and maladministration scandals. On the heels of a historic election in May 2024, one which marked the end of the ANC's electoral dominance and was shaped, in part, by government mismanagement of the energy sector and extensive infrastructural decline, it is a timely moment to consider the history of South Africa's state and its relation to industries of extraction and energy production. Two new books do just that. , by Gabrielle Hecht, takes a long view of the impact of extractive industries, arguing that contemporary South Africa may offer a cautionary tale of the devastating impacts of the Anthropocene, one that 'foretells planetary futures' in the way that the state has failed to reckon with the enduring communal and environmental impacts of the mining industry. , by Faeeza Ballim, historicizes the development of South Africa's electricity sector under the apartheid state and traces the roots of the current energy crisis back to the pursuit of authoritarian high modernism in the mid-twentieth century.

Citation

Heffernan, A. (online). Essay review: technopolitics, development and the residues of the South African state. British Journal for the History of Science, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087424001031

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Deposit Date: Dec 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 2, 2024
• Journal: British Journal for the History of Science
• Print ISSN: 0007-0874
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-001X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-5
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087424001031
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3115975