Rac(e)ing poverty and punishment in South Africa, 1920-1970

Abstract

This paper unpacks the ways in which race and modernity shaped perceptions of crime, disorder, and poverty in South Africa by looking at how aspects of inequality and injustice were inscribed into discourses of disorder in the past. Historically, the issues of race and poverty in South Africa were often used in traditional urban settings to produce numerous images of urban crises.