Inclusive Dualism

W. Arthur Lewis the founding father of development economics proposed a dualist model of economic development in which 'surplus' (predominantly under-employed) labour shifted from lower to higher productivity work. In practice historically this meant that labour was initially drawn out of subsistence agriculture into low-wage labour-intensive manufacturing including in clothing production before shifting into higher-wage work. This development strategy has become unfashionable. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) worries that low-wage labour-intensive industry promises little more than an impoverishing 'race to the bottom'. <em>Inclusive Dualism: Labour-intensive Development Decent Work and Surplus Labour in Southern Africa</em> argues that decent work fundamentalism that is the promotion of higher wages and labour productivity at the cost of lower-wage job destruction is a utopian vision with potentially dystopic consequences for countries with high open unemployment many of which are in Southern Africa. <p/>Using the South African clothing industry as a case study <em>Inclusive Dualism</em> argues that decent work fundamentalism ignores the inherently differentiated character of industry resulting in the unnecessary destruction of labour-intensive jobs and the bifurcation of society into highly-paid high-productivity insiders and low-paid or unemployed outsiders. It demonstrates the broader relevance of the South Africa case examining the growth in surplus labour across Africa. It shows that low- and high-productivity firms can co-exist and challenges the notion that a race to the bottom is inevitable. <em>Inclusive Dualism</em> instead favours multi-pronged development strategies that prioritise labour-intensive job creation as well as facilitating productivity growth elsewhere without destroying jobs.<br>