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Contextualising socioeconomic change / Peter T Jacobs -- Part 1. Labour, land and food. Improving the quality of work for chronically poor people / Lucy Scott -- Technical change and labour absorption in large-scale commercial agriculture in South Africa / Ajuruchukwu Obi -- Support to smallholder farmers in South Africa: challenges of scale and strategy / Michael Aliber and Ruth Hall -- Translating farmland redistribution project practices into policy outcomes / Tim G. B. Hart -- Farm and non-farm livelihoods in the rural West Coast District, South Africa / Peter T. Jacobs and Ephias Makaudze -- Part 2. Climate and ecological dynamics. Droughts, floods, carbon footprints and agriculture: The case of South Africa in context / Peter T. Jacobs and Rehema Msulwa -- The trade in Pelargonium sidoides: rural livelihood relief or bounty for bio-buccaneers? / Jaci van Niekerk and Rachel Wynberg -- Natural resource pricing and climate change vulnerability: implications for smallholder development in Africa / Ajuruchukwu Obi and Lily Kisaka -- Participation of women in smallholder irrigated agriculture in South Africa: constraints and opportunities / Maxwell Mudhara, Stanley Sharaunga and Sithembile Sinyolo -- To what extent does conservation benefit local communities? / Melville Saayman, Riaan Rossouw and Andrea Saayman -- The challenges of climate change and biofuel production in South Africa: the perspectives of smallholder producers / Ephias Makaudze -- Part 3. Science, technology and innovation. Rural innovation adoption pitfalls: The case of interrupted diffusion of sericulture among Rwandan farmers / Alexis Habiyaremye -- Social technology and sewage treatment in rural areas of Brazil / Milena Serafim and Rafael Dias -- Innovation and the dynamics of rural economic development / Lindile L. Ndabeni.

ABSTRACT
This critical review of an edited volume of Archie Mafeje's writings closes gaps in what is known about his political upbringing, his scientific methodology and posthumous intellectual influence. Trained in the radical political tradition of the Unity Movement of South Africa, Mafeje was a celebrated social theorist, broke with liberal functionalism in social anthropology and wrote prolifically. This important volume is silent on standout questions, such as: why did Mafeje, the mature scholar–activist, dissociate himself from practical politics after relocating from Cairo to Pretoria, given the crisis of the radical left in South Africa? To what extent did Mafeje wield his mastery of dialectical logic not only to interpret the world but actively change it? What was Mafeje's orientation toward agrarian transitions beyond capitalism in countries like South Africa? In response to these thematic questions, this essay synthesises insights from relevant chapters.

Critically appraises the "pro-poor" components expressed in South Africa's 2007-08 national budget in order to understand what this new discourse actually means in terms of anti-poverty actions implemented by the state. The South African leadership replaced its earlier Reconstruction & Development Program with a Growth Employment & Redistribution policy based on a globally hegemonic market-led approach. An overview of post-apartheid economic development policies since 1994 is followed by a critical review of pertinent elements of the 2007-08 national budget which showed a surplus for the first time ever. The surplus is the result of economic growth, efficient tax collection, & reduced expenditures; however, economic growth has largely been achieved by an expansion in luxury consumption by the nation's elite & sharp cuts in state spending which have reduced the provision of essential social services to poor neighborhoods. It is argued that the "finance minister continues to fall short of pro-poor budgeting" by relying on developmental state discourse & flawed "trickle-down economics" that hurt the working poor. References. J. Lindroth