Xenophobia, criminality and violent entrepreneurship: violence against Somali shopkeepers in Delft South, Cape Town, South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorPiper, Laurence
dc.contributor.authorCharman, Andrew
dc.date.accessioned2013-03-07T09:55:07Z
dc.date.available2013-03-07T09:55:07Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractViolence against Somali shopkeepers is often cited as evidence of xenophobic attitudes and violence in South Africa. However, as argued in this article, it is not necessarily the case that such violence is driven by anti-foreigner sentiment. Instead, as illustrated in the case of Delft, a poor, mixed-race area in the City of Cape Town, violence against spaza shopkeepers may also be explained in terms of criminal activities and economic competition in the form of ‘violent entrepreneurship’. This argument is made drawing on a survey of over 100 spaza shopkeepers, a household survey, police statistics, and interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders living in Delft. The key insight is that despite a recent history of intense economic competition in the spaza market in which foreign skopkeepers have come to dominate, levels of violent crime against foreign shopkeepers, 80 per cent of whom are Somali, are not significantly higher than against South African shopkeepers. In addition, while South African shopkeepers openly resent the Somali advent, most consumers remain indifferent to their presence and certainly prefer the lower prices. While our findings cannot be generalised beyond this case, they do alert us to the importance of locating arguments about xenophobia in the wider context of crime and violence in South Africa, as well as paying close attention to the local particularities that can turn general sentiment into xenophobic action.en_US
dc.description.accreditationDepartment of HE and Training approved listen_US
dc.identifier.citationCharman, A. & Piper, L. (2012). Xenophobia, criminality and violent entrepreneurship: violence against Somali shopkeepers in Delft South, Cape Town, South Africa. South African Review of Sociology, 43(3): 81-105en_US
dc.identifier.issn2152-8586
dc.identifier.issn2072-1978
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/554
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterfalse
dc.publisherTaylor & Francis; Unisa Pressen_US
dc.rightsCopyright Unisa Press.Permission granted to reproduce the article in this Repository. Educational use of this material is encouraged, with full acknowledgment of source.
dc.source.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2012.727550
dc.status.ispeerreviewedtrue
dc.subjectAnti-foreigner sentimenten_US
dc.subjectCriminalityen_US
dc.subjectSomali shopkeepersen_US
dc.subjectViolent entrepreneurshipen_US
dc.titleXenophobia, criminality and violent entrepreneurship: violence against Somali shopkeepers in Delft South, Cape Town, South Africaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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Research Articles (Political Studies)
Prof. Laurence Piper