Imaginaries of Freedom: How Imagined Futures Shaped South Africa’s Transition from Apartheid, 1976-1996
Author: Elizabeth F Soer, soer.elize@gmail.com
Department: Sociology of Markets
University: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Germany
Supervisor: Prof. Jens Beckert
Year of completion: 2024
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Imagined Futures
, South Africa
, Decolonial Theory
, History
Areas of Research:
Historical and Comparative Sociology
, Futures Research
, Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change
Abstract
This dissertation provides a historical sociology of the role of imagined futures during South Africa’s transition from apartheid. Since the transition was essentially a struggle over the future, it offers an apt opportunity to investigate why some imaginaries prevail over others, become hegemonic, and influence policy – particularly economic policy. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources supplemented with interviews, the dissertation investigates three sets of imagined futures. First, it focuses on the imaginaries of the Nationalist Party (NP) as it attempted to regain “promissory legitimacy” in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. In collaboration with neoliberal academics, the NP attempted to secure white minority rule by promising a free-market future. Thereafter, the dissertation considers the United Democratic Front (UDF) and its vision of direct democracy and economic equality, which stood in opposition to the NP’s authoritarian capitalism. Finally, it investigates the ANC’s economic conversion from social democracy to neoliberalism in the early 1990s. The imaginary of globalization, propagated through scenario planning exercises and various conferences, played a critical role in this conversion. The power of the imaginary was at least partly related to its future-orientation and its supposed inevitability. This part of the dissertation highlights the connections between imagined futures and global power relations in shaping economic policymaking in the Global South. In addition to new insights on South Africa’s transition, the dissertation provides a crucial expansion of the theoretical canon on imagined futures by rethinking it from a Global South perspective and bringing it into dialogue with decolonial and postcolonial theory.
