Spinning off the developmental cycle: Comments on the utility of a concept in the light of data from Matatiele, Transkei

Abstract

Recent interest in the effects of labour migration on life in rural labour exporting communities in southern Africa has focused attention on the cyclical sequences of household development as a prism through which to view the links between wages and rural resources. This paper shows that the idea has, at times, been applied inappropriately. The result has been reduced concern with a classical class analysis. One should not however lose sight of such an important perspective. A focus on the different forms of land tenure obtainingin the Matatiele district of the Transkei is linked with a consideration of a set of personal and household life‐historical sequences. These sequences are shown to be constrained by the material conditions of their existence at different phases of the cycle. A class analysis is thus seen as a necessary underpinning for any analysis using the developmental cycle perspective.