The 'Political Economy' of Alexandra Township

Alexandra Township, also known as "Dark City" by some and "Slaagpaal" by others, and acknowledged by all to have been "Nobody's Baby", presents social scientists with the unique opportunity to pose and perhaps answer questions about one dimension of South Africa that continues to be as yet relatively under-researched, that of the so-called 'ghetto-situation'. Did classes exist in Alexandra Township? And if they did, what classes were they and how did they relate to each other? Were they "squashed together" into one homogenous group, or were they locked into perennial class-struggles? And what would all this imply for their ideological and cultural practices?

This study will attempt to answer precisely such questions by examining Alexandra Township's 'political economy' (a 'local structure') in its 'articulation with the dominant mode of production (the 'global structure').

Abstract based directly on the original source