ERIN TORKELSON

  • About Me
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Public Scholarship
    • Covid-19 & Grants
    • Debt & Grants
    • Net1's Payment System
    • Land & Housing
  • Events
  • Contact
  • About Me
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Public Scholarship
    • Covid-19 & Grants
    • Debt & Grants
    • Net1's Payment System
    • Land & Housing
  • Events
  • Contact

Announcements & Events

expert presentation:
Stakeholders meeting with DTI, NCR, DSD, & SASSA
zoom / 17 november 2020

Picture
I am very excited to present our report recommendations to the Department of Trade and Industry, National Credit Regulator, Department of Social Development and South African Social Security Agency. We will discuss how to more effectively align the National Credit Act and the Social Assistance Act.

News Article:
Legal but Reckless: Lending to Social Grantees
GroundUp / 29 october 2020

Picture
Check out our new GroundUp piece on the 75% interest rates legally allowed to be charged on loans taken by social grant recipients.

Fellowship award:
hunt postdoctoral fellowship from wenner gren
2 october 2020

Picture
I am so excited to announce I have been awarded the Hunt Postdoctoral fellowship for 2021! This fellowship supports the writing up of already completed research and will help me finish the book manuscript of Bantustan Banking! Check out the great work of other Hunt fellows too!

IN the news:
loan sharks feasting on the poorest by charging interest of 50-112%
cape argus / 20 September 2020

Picture
​​Click here to see a great profile in the Cape Argus by Mwangi Githathu about my research with Deborah and David on debt and social grantees. Thanks Mwangi!!

IN the news:
Report shows how lenders prey on grant recipients
ground up / 6 September 2020

Picture
​Click here to see a fabulous profile in GroundUp by James Stent about my research with Deborah and David on debt and social grantees. Thanks James!

Report Launch:
Social Grants as Collateral
10 September 2020

Picture
I am pleased to launch this report, co-authored with Deborah James and David Neves, mapping the landscape of social grant-based debt in nine cities. Click here to download the report.

Appointment:
Andrew W Mellon, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of the western Cape
July 2020

Picture
I am very pleased to accept a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Geography at the University of the Western Cape.

In The News:
The HUMAn cost of south AFrica's lending explosion
groundup / 13 February 2020

Picture
Check out my research on debt and unsecured lending in Malcolm Rees' excellent article for GroundUp. 

Publication:
World Development 

February 2020

Picture
My article "Collateral Damages: Cash Transfer and Debt Transfer in South Africa was just accepted by World Development! Thanks to Arun Agrawal and the anonymous reviewers for their generous support.

Workshop:
reckless lending 

23-24, 27-28 August 2019, South Africa

Picture
We just finished up a fantastic four-day workshop with the London School of Economics, the University of the Western Cape, and the Black Sash on ongoing indebtedness and social grants. Stay tuned for our report on lending practices in nine cities!

In The Field:
reckless lending research

June - August 2019, South Africa

Picture
Funded by the London School of Economics, I conducted research into ongoing reckless lending to social grant recipients. Even under the new Post Office distribution regime, predatory lending continues.

In the news:
Woodrow Wilson Foundaton

8 January 2019

Picture
"I never thought my research would begin with receipts -- the small, mundane slips of paper that list the things we've purchased, routinely printed by shop clerks, operating cash registers, and carelessly crumpled in pockets or tossed in trashcans. But, when I started talking to people about the South African social grant program..."  Read More Here

Fellowship Award:
Charlotte Newcombe

september 2018 - august 2019

Picture
Great News! I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded the 2018 Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. The fellowship is designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. This award will support the completion of my dissertation.  Read More Here

Conference Presentation:
Africa in the World

May 25-29, 2018 Johannesburg

Picture
I am very pleased to present "Life on an Installment Plan: Social Grants and Debt in South Africa" as part of a panel on Transformative Technologies. Please join me on May 26 at 4:00 pm at the Crowne Plaza Rosebank.  Read More Here

 Research for the ConCourt:
Panel of experts report

 February 2018 johannesburg

Picture
​My research with the Black Sash is now part of a report that has been submitted by the Panel of Experts to the Constitutional Court. This Panel was appointed by the ConCourt to develop a new national social grant payment system. Read the Panel's full Report Here

Guest Lecture:
Geography 10

November 14, 2017 UC Berkeley

Picture
I just finished lecturing on debt and racial capitalism for our Introduction to Geography course. A big thank you to Jake Kosek who asked me to fill his very large shoes while he was away! 

Invited Presentation:
PLAAS Seminar Series

June 16, 2017 University of the western Cape

Picture
“'It’s like the lotto,' said a Khayelitsha pensioner, 'sometimes I get little money and sometimes I get no money at all.' This conceptualization of the South African social grant system as a gamble — and not a reliable state entitlement — would be heretical in contemporary development literature, which touts cash transfers as the “solution” to global poverty..."  Read More Here

COnference presentation:
Intergenerational relations & social grants

April 10, 2017 University of Cape Town

Picture
Come hear me present a short paper on "Social Grants and the World Bank" at this workshop with UCT's Sociology Department, organized by Elena Moore. I am looking forward to sharing my work with other scholars researching inequality and intergenerational politics! 

Radio interview:
the daily maverick podcast

CLIFF CENTRAL / March 2017 

Picture
I am very excited to be interviewed by Kingsley Kipury on the Daily Maverick Podcast! Nomonde Nyembe from the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Wits and Koketso Moeti from Amandla.mobi are in the CliffCentral studio to offer their excellent analyses of SASSA and the Constitutional Court cases.

Newspaper Article:
What we learn from "Concerning Violence" about Franz Fanon's Writings

Africa is a country / 8 April  2015 

Picture
Here is my first Africa is a Country piece for their series Movie Night. It was a lot of fun collaborating with Michael Watts, Camilla Hawthorne and Brittany Meche on a film review of Göran Olsson's "Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense." 

Publication:
Society and Space
​
26 November 2020

Picture
I am so happy this is finally in print! I have been working on this piece for four years! Thanks to the Black Sash, Natalie Oswin and three reviewers for making this possible. Read it here!!

In the News:
Lending to social grant recipients exploitative
​
uwc / 2 November 2020

Picture
This is a fantastic article in the UWC News by Myolisi Gophe profiling the report I wrote with the Black Sash, Deborah James, and David Neves. #IamUWC

In the News:
The Vicous Cycle of the Debt Trap Fallen into by Social Grant recipients
​
Daily maverick / 22 October 2020

Picture
This is a fantastic article in the Daily Maverick by Ufrieda Ho profiling my research with the Black Sash, Deborah James, and David Neves.

Interview:
The Buring Issue
​
voice of the cape / 29 September 2020

Picture
I had the pleasure of spending two hours in studio with Yazeed Kamaldien of the Burning Issue on Voice of the Cape. We not only discussed the Black Sash report on social grants and reckless lending, but possibilities for decommodified loan products based on Islamic banking.

WEBINAR:
Challenging reckless Lending in South Africa
10 September 2020

Picture
Click here to see our fantastic webinar with Deborah James, David Neves, Lynette Mart, and the National Credit Regulator. Thanks to all the panelists and participants for a really wonderful discussion!

IN The FIELD:
COVID-19 Grant research
1 September 2020

Picture
My very first attempt at (telephonic) field research in an era of Covid! I will be working with colleagues in the Eastern Cape and KZN to learn about the difficulties and benefits of the temporary Covid-19 grant. We are advocating this grant be extended and expanded into a basic income for all 18-59 year old South Africans.

Graduation:
Phd in geography, university of california, berkeley
18 may 2020

Picture
PhinisheD! I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD in Geography in May 2020. The ceremony has been postponed due to Covid-19.

EXPERT MEETING:
National Credit regulator
​
6 March 2020, Pretoria, South Africa

Picture
Along with Lynette Mart and Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker, I presented research on predatory lenders and the social grant system to the National Credit Regulator.

In the News:
Best social protection papers
​
19 December 2019, world bank blogs

Picture
Check out Ugo Gentilini's list of Social Protection Papers of the year! "Collateral Damages" is on it, along with other very fine work.

presentation:
Southern african labor & development research institute

20 November 2019, UCT, Cape town

Picture
Wednesday at lunch time, I will be presenting my World Development article, "Collateral Damages: Cash Transfers and Debt Transfers in South Africa." Thanks to SALDRU for the invitation!

Conference presentation:
Rethinking Economics for Africa

6 September 2019, Wits University, Joburg

Picture
Please join me at 11:45 pm this Friday for the panel Household Debt and Dispossession. We are Session 3 under the theme of Economics and Human Rights.  Room assignment TBD.

Conference presentation:
Association of American Geographers

5 april 2019, washington, DC

Picture
Stephen McIssac, Meredith Palmer and I organized two panels called: Health as "Fix": Geographies of the Biopolitical in Settler- and Post-Colonies. Please join us and our fantastic presenters on Friday afternoon! I will be giving a paper in the second session.

IN The FIELD:
RECKLESS LENDING research 

july-AUGUST 2018 Port elizabeth & DeLFT

Picture
In July and August, I spent time with the Black Sash offices in PE and Cape Town. With the Black Sash team, we tracked down loan companies offering financial products to grant holders. We mapped their locations in relation to SASSA offices, grant distribution points and other social services. We wrote up case studies about how grants are being used as collateral for loans.

Expert Presentation:
Panel of Experts, Constitutional Court

March 16, 2018 Pretoria

Picture
Very excited to attend to this Meeting of the Panel of Experts with Lynette Maart and the Black Sash! We'll be discussing the creation of a recourse system for social grant beneficiaries, who experience abuses on their bank accounts.

Documentary:
The Green Card

March 13, 2018 South Africa

Picture
I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of the documentary crew that created this short film for Cutting Edge. ​Tune in to SABC 1 on March 27th @ 9:30 to see our work with EasyPay card holders in Ceres. Sarina and Jacobus will tell us how indebtedness has become part and parcel of the South African social grant system.

IN The FIELD:
EasyPay research for the Black Sash

June-july 2017 Port elizabeth and limehill

Picture
​In June and July, I spent time with the Black Sash offices in PE and KZN. With Alexa, Evashnee, Jerome, Nelly, and a group of grant holders, we tracked down Net1 offices to test whether or not it was possible to cancel EasyPay cards. We wrote up a dozen case studies about the difficulties of navigating this techno-financial system.

Newspaper Article:
social grants: Has belamant answered his critics?
​​GROUND UP / ​May 9, 2017

Picture
"Net1 CEO Serge Belamant has hit back at critics of the company’s management of its contract with the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA), accusing them of conspiracy theories and political agendas. He has referred investors in his company to a 37-page auditors’ report which according to Net1, “sets the record straight”. But does it?" 
​Read More
 Here

Newspaper Article:
The World Bank's Role in South Africa's Social Grant SysteM
​​GROUND UP / ​March 23, 2017

Picture
"As the main South African investor in Cash Paymaster Services, Allan Gray has been under the spotlight over the social grants controversy. As a result, a bigger investor, the World Bank, has not received much attention..."  Read More Here

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:
​Sophia's choice: Farmworker has to decide which child to feed
​
Ground Up / March 16, 2017

Picture
"When loan repayments left Sophia destitute, she had to beg a little money from her cousin and make a terrible choice. Either she could feed herself ant her six-month-old baby, or she could feed her 8 and 13-year-old daughters..."  Read More Here

 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: 
​deductions from social grants:
​how it all works

​Ground up / MArch 3, 2017, 

Picture
"As the SA Social Security Agency prepares to negotiate a new social grants payment contract with Cash Paymaster Services, CPS's parent company, Net1, is using the payment system to benefit its subsidiary companies..."  Read More Here

Fellowship Award:
Wenner-Gren

september 2015 - august 2016

Picture
I am excited to announce that I am a 2015 Wenner Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grantee. The fellowship is designed to support research that makes a solid contribution to the discipline of anthropology. This award will support my fieldwork in South Africa this year.  Read More Here
Proudly powered by Weebly