Abstract

This article offers a thematic review of criticism directed at high-level public discourse surrounding the South African Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) agenda. While the South African adoption of the World Economic Forum's 4IR strategy for economic growth and skills development has been met with widespread enthusiasm, it has also attracted considerable criticism. This article thus seeks to offer insight into the debate surrounding the legitimacy and contextual propriety of the South African 4IR agenda. Insofar as the local criticism directed at the 4IR agenda reflects international criticism of the concept, the first part of this article draws on global critiques to explore objections raised against the 4IR's constitutive legitimacy. The second part of the article identifies critical themes surrounding more locally specific rejections of the 4IR agenda, such as it being an imported and contextually inappropriate framework for addressing local problems. Finally, I analyse an editorial cartoon that captures the various grounds on which the South African 4IR agenda is commonly critiqued. While this article provides insight into a particular public policy controversy, it also elucidates some general oppositional values as expressed by critics in their assessment of development rhetoric.

摘要

本文对针对围绕南非第四次工业革命 (4IR) 议程的高层公共话语的批评进行了专题回顾。虽然南非采用世界经济论坛的 4IR 经济增长和技能发展战略受到了广泛的欢迎，但也招致了相当多的批评。因此，本文旨在深入了解围绕南非 4IR 议程的合法性和背景适当性的辩论。就针对 4IR 议程的本地批评反映了对该概念的国际批评而言，本文的第一部分利用全球批评来探讨针对 4IR 的构成合法性提出的反对意见。文章的第二部分确定了围绕更具体地拒绝 4IR 议程的关键主题，例如它是用于解决本地问题的进口和上下文不合适的框架。最后，我分析了一部社论漫画，该漫画描绘了南非 4IR 议程受到普遍批评的各种理由。虽然本文提供了对特定公共政策争议的洞察，但它也阐明了批评者在评估发展言论时所表达的一些普遍的反对价值观。