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In this paper, we aim to explore public reactions to non-normative expressions of masculinity within South African society. We argue that although society has become more accepting of such expressions, there still exists public criticism and heteronormative labelling of sexuality and gender. The case study of a local entertainment celebrity, Sivuyile Ngesi, is used to interrogate the illusion of the "real man" and the construction of heteronormative masculinities in the South African context. Ngesi's personal portrayal of his masculine identity is unconventional and provides an example of an atypical expression of a Black African heterosexual identity. In the paper we draw on a range of local media sources, as well as an in-depth interview with Ngesi himself, to discuss an idiosyncratic vision of an alternative Black African masculine identity and the realities and implications around it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the resurgence internationally of strikes in recent years, studies on the temporality of strike waves within a long-wave perspective has been marked by silence in the literature. This paper revisits the debate on the veracity of long-wave theory to explain the temporality of upsurges in strike activity and the disputes on the measurement of strike waves from an international perspective. The paper applies long-wave theory to South Africa, which is a new contribution and proposes a new quantitative approach to examine the long-term patterning of strikes. This study finds that the predictive power of long-wave theory—that an escalation of the class struggle unfolds around the peaks and troughs of economic long waves—holds throughout the period 1886–2022. This paper makes a new finding that long waves of strikes display a countercyclical patterning to long waves of capitalist development, providing proof of the relative autonomy of the class struggle from long waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Farlam Commission of Inquiry's official discourse on violence within the context of the Marikana mine massacre. The commission was established in 2012 to investigate the killing of 34 mine workers during a wage strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa. The commission was tasked with scrutinising the actions of the police, mine management and labour unions involved in the incident. By employing the concept of legalism, this paper analyses the commission's report and argues that it adopted a legalist perspective on violence, which served to legitimise the prevailing legal framework for collective bargaining while delegitimising the strike action itself. The study highlights Phase Two of the commission's investigation, which was aimed at examining the underlying sociological causes of the conflict within the mining sector. This phase provided an opportunity to delve into the structural factors that fuelled the dispute. However, despite the potential for a more nuanced exploration of structural violence, the final report of the Farlam Commission ultimately embraced a narrative form and simulacrum of legality that reflected implicit moral and political biases concerning specific forms of violence and social action. The commission struggled to assimilate critiques of the collective bargaining framework into its report, instead maintaining a fidelity to legalism, with practical implications for the type of "truth" and "justice" the commission could promote. The paper contributes to a broader understanding of the complex dynamics between legal frameworks, violence and social justice in contexts of labour disputes and collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, the South African government started to discuss the possibility of utilising shale gas in the energy mix to produce cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable electricity. Shale gas was to be used as a 'bridge fuel' in the envisaged transition to renewables. Since 2010, anti-fracking groups and other environmentalists have been at loggerheads with the state and fracking companies. This paper focuses on the effectiveness and role of anti-fracking groups and the wider environmentalism apparatus to stall fracking plans. Data for this paper is based on qualitative research in the Central Karoo between 2019 and 2022. Fieldwork involved in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, observation, documentary study, critical engagement with literature, case law and media analysis. Although the previous literature demonstrated limited power of anti-fracking groups, these groups have set boundaries and gained strides in frustrating fracking processes and conscientising communities about the dangers of fracking. Using the case of fracking, I argue that environmentalists in South Africa have been emboldened by the legal precedents they have created at courts, the secretive and elusive culture of the state, and the global dynamics against fossil fuels, especially in 2021 onwards. If it were not for their activism, fracking would have started earlier. Environmentalists have also been emboldened by global awareness of carbon emissions, especially in 2021. The victories by anti-fracking groups lend support for the argument that civil society movements are central in lobbying governments to embrace good governance, quality democracy and human rights and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa faces several massive, interconnected challenges that reverberate through its political economy, society and education system. This paper offers lessons for the current conjuncture by exploring radical democracy and educational experiments in two other contexts: Brazil, as a point of close comparison, and Rojava (northern Syria), as a point for dissimilar comparison but which offers a "real utopia". The Brazilian student movement (2015–16) involved several waves of mass school occupations in the "student spring" (primavera secundarista), with students demanding free, quality public education and, within the occupations, experimenting with democratic, dialogical, caring educational spaces. The Revolution in Rojava, emerging in 2012 and continuing to date, offers an alternative model of social organisation guided by women's liberation, ecological harmony, and "Democratic Confederalism", a form of anti-capitalist radical democracy. It has provided fertile ground for a profoundly different education system from the statist, authoritarian models previously imposed in the region. This paper draws out several prominent themes from each context, drawing these into conversation with the contemporary South African context. First, the movements demonstrate the pedagogical importance of language and culture, history and social dynamics, the decommodification of education, feminism and ecology. Second, they highlight the political importance of education for self-organisation in relation to broader processes of social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calls for knowledge decolonisation pervade most academic disciplines in South Africa today. In this paper I argue for epistemological decolonisation within men and masculinities studies through "delinking" from western gender paradigms. The paper draws on the Xhosa concept of manhood called indoda to illustrate African-centred ways of decolonising and theorising masculinities research which cater to the needs of indigenous African communities. The evidence suggests that masculinities in Xhosa culture centre on the rites of passage to manhood called ulwaluko, which involve physical alteration of the penis through circumcision. As ulwaluko inserts a fixed bodily mark of Xhosa manhood identity it challenges theories which perceive masculinities as mere "scripted performances" with no permanent bodily impact, and those which argue that masculinities are multiple and unstable. Although multiple masculinities coexist, they are rooted in ulwaluko as primary evidence of manhood. The paper concludes by showing the benefits of decolonised, African-centred scholarship for intervention programmes aimed at fighting gender oppression in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-governmental socioeconomic intervention exists within a framework and history of racialised proximity to power and privilege. The arrangements of race and power in and beyond the sector along with the inequitable distribution of material and nonmaterial resources have therefore been used to affirm the sector's affinity to colonial relations of exploitation and racism. This paper recounts the genealogy of this affinity and outlines the ways in which current arrangements of poverty, power and non-state mediation interpolate with the historical arrangements of race and power through non-state interventions. Data collected with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Makhanda in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province inform the proposition that race and power remain central features of socioeconomic intervention in part, through organisational structures, traditions of engagement with communities, dominant explications of poverty and depictions of "the poor". The paper concludes that the world and work of NGOs—despite dominant assertions of its independence and neutrality—is inextricably bound to its historical and sociopolitical context and is thus a site wherein race and power are not only present but at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper on student mobilisation or youth activism in South Africa from a critical race theory, black consciousness and cultural studies perspective with an emphasis on meaning construction, symbolic action and locating the author centrally in the empirical-analytical process. It is presented through the personalised experiences and reflexive-narrative style (i.e. story-within-the-story) of the author's own point of view, which makes it an auto- (personal experience), ethno- (rich cultural and historical context) -graphic (descriptive and visual) piece. Using the autoethnographic method of narrating observations in the field, at the event of the 23 October 2015 "Fees-must-fall" gathering at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the paper offers a reflexive comparison of the experiences of the author present at two distinct (but historically related, i.e. past related to present and vice versa) political junctures of student mobilisation for higher education in South Africa—first as a student in the late 1980s and then as a passive observer-cum-social science researcher at the 2015 student protests at the Union Buildings, in Pretoria. In adopting this novel qualitative method of interrogating student mobilisation from a personal experiential point of view, this paper offers a different approach to reporting qualitative field research that conventionally presents the ideas and opinions of its participants as the main interrogation point, not that of the author's. The main narrative is therefore premised on the author's own experiences with student mobilisation for educational reform during the height of apartheid and under this current democratic social context of the "hashtag fees-must-fall" (#FMF) movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergenerational support is a common cultural expectation and obligation in most African families. It is a form of reciprocal solidarity wherein a generation uses its privileges to assist a generation in need. This is typical of care and support relationships between parents and their children. As parents care and provide for their children, the unspoken expectation is that they are investing as their children will be obliged to take care of them in the future. In Zimbabwe, the obligations of this social contract have led many to migrate to other countries in search of economic opportunities. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic hardships, these reciprocal relationships have been negatively impacted. This paper assesses the impact of COVID-19 and the economic difficulties faced by migrants in South Africa, drawing from the life histories of dyads of five parents and five adult children. It explores how the governance systems implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and the precarity of transnational migrants in South Africa affected intergenerational material support within transnational families. Findings reveal that the pandemic significantly affected intergenerational support within transnational families. The restrictive measures crafted to curb the spread of the pandemic led to notable adaptations in the provision of parental support by migrant children in South Africa. Parental support went beyond reciprocity and altruism, exhibiting a profound moral value embedded in the moral economy perspective, where children remain committed to providing support to their parents despite the economic struggles presented by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iscor Vanderbijlpark, now ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), is a former state-owned enterprise that was used by the Afrikaner nationalists to advance the political, economic and social interests of poor white Afrikaners. However, since 1994, there has been wide debate about why black empowerment has not happened under post-apartheid South Africa. This article compares the role of various types of social capital in the empowerment of poor whites during apartheid and black people under post-apartheid. The perceived relationship was measured by various networks, trust and the relationship between family members, neighbours and colleagues, as well as with governmental, private sector and civil society organisations (CSOs). The sample of 26 participants, comprising former and current employees of Iscor/AMSA, trade union representatives and members of the community, were assembled using purposive random sampling for the study. My doctoral study found that there was a strong connection and positive relationship between the state, business and CSOs under Afrikaner Economic Empowerment (AEE), and that social capital played a role of bonding and linking communities while under Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) the connection between the state and CSOs was weak and social capital did not contribute to empowerment. This paper attempts to address the current gap in the post-apartheid BEE literature—that is, the role of networks and CSOs in BEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical and comprehensive reflection of information and communication technology (ICT) is needed to prepare South Africa for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Through one uncommonly used theoretical framework in analysing ICT development—dramatism analysis—this article examines South Africa's ICT development. By examining the nature and features of the development through this framework, this article highlights the multitude of South Africa's ICT role players, the tensions among them and the unfulfilled roles from any potential hero in South Africa's ICT drama. The analysis also exposes a shortcoming in current South African ICT literature, which privileges certain aspects of supply-side analysis over other critical supply side as well as demand-side analysis. The article finds that South Africa's ICT development has largely been unsuccessful due to lack of strong leaders who are able to fulfil the role of a hero, which in turn impedes the country's ability to take advantage of the opportunities and respond to the challenges presented by the 4IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-important tool for quantitative analysis of protests, the potential power of Protest Event Analysis (PEA) has only increased with the rise of Machine Learning technologies and the ubiquity of big data. PEA coders also present an advantage over contemporary Natural Language Programming innovations by being customisable to incorporate locally appropriate terms and vernaculars, expressed as personalised ontologies. As such, there is a need to develop a standard process for deploying machine learning tools that can draw on the local. This paper introduces such a tool, innovating the numeration of abstract indicators. "Machine Learning Protest Event Analysis Keyword Enumerated Recoding" is a protocol that enables PEA coders to read and classify large "event databases", incorporating local terms and abstract indicators into the analysis. Applying this protocol to 150,000 records in a police-recorded database of crowd events in South Africa, protest events could be individually rated by levels of "tumult"—a feat hitherto inhibited by conventional PEA methods. Innovations in estimating crowd sizes, as well as an updated view of post-apartheid protest, showing that protests tend to be more common but less prone to violence than previous theories concluded, speaks to the potential for this protocol to unearth novel insights on even bigger data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with the recent discourse on decolonization of knowledge in South Africa from a sociological perspective. It interrogates the position and relevance of both sociology and sociologists to the development aspirations of South Africa. Its basic assumption is that sociology as a discipline is invaluable to the current needs for social reformation and reconstruction in South Africa. While the relevance of sociology as a discipline consistent with unravelling the complex and complicated dynamics of social formations remains unquestioned, its value as the embodiment of social aspirations and development has been undermined by the unquestioning assumption of the superiority of knowledge systems from outside and the glaring failure to promote sociology that is both contextualized and responsive. There is no arguing the prominent role of sociology in the liberation struggles and initial encounter with imperialism; there is also no doubt that sociologists nowadays have found comfort in an uninvolving study of society and the generation of knowledge that hardly functions as an adequate anchor for the existential needs of society. This paper therefore argues for the emergence of "frontier" sociologists and sociology of relevance which interrogates knowledge from outside and critically builds conviviality between outsider and African ontologies and epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the theoretical framework of German sociologist Ulrich Beck's ‘risk society theory’ of reflexiveness to assist in understanding civil society response to industrial risk in Durban, South Africa. The paper draws on qualitative research and presents viewpoints from key stakeholders at the city level and through a local case study. Following the case, an assessment of the ways in which the risk society concept is useful to examine the empirical results and how it needs to be reconsidered in the South African context is presented. Beck's separation of reflexive spontaneous action and reflective strategic action for reflexiveness is assessed, including his notion that reflexive action, which is devoid of knowledge, precedes reflective action. Besides empirically highlighting that reflexive and reflection actions are tied together in a complex relationship, the paper shows that the degree of reflexiveness in the South is more complex than risk society suggests. There is a need for the applicability of risk society beyond the narrow confines of the First World to explore the geographies of reflexiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of South African textile designers has changed significantly over the last thirty years. Thirty years ago textile designers in the home sector market were recognised as skilled, professional workers. Primarily employed by large textile manufacturers, they were formally qualified, worked in large design studios, and had control over their work and creativity. Designing by hand, their creative abilities were recognised in the industry and they were accorded due status and respect. From the late 1980s/early 1990s technological changes began to undermine some designers’ autonomy and control but there was still a belief that those designing for the home/furnishing market were an elite group and that the new technologies were not suitable for their type of work. However, South Africa's integration, from the mid-1990s, into the global market also intruded upon their work and status. This paper examines the impact of this integration on the work of South African home textile designers. It argues that the way in which the global integration of the textile supply chain has occurred in South Africa has expedited dramatic changes in the work of textile designers. As a consequence textile designers do not enjoy the status, autonomy and control over their work that was previously evident. Furthermore, the paper suggests, that just as the new technologies have played a key role in enabling the development of the global supply chain, so they have also allowed and even facilitated this marginalisation. The paper thus opens up a new area for discussion and draws attention to a different dimension of globalisation in impacting on the work of a particular profession. The research is based on a qualitative methodology. Utilising snowball sampling, in-depth interviews have been conducted with South African textile designers and other key informants in the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on findings from a recent study, which investigated the reasons underlying, possible gendered attrition trends in the South African medical profession. The study included an analysis of national quantitative medical school and professional data over a ten-year period, as well as qualitative interviews with a sample of 27 women medical doctors that graduated from the same, Cape Town-based medical school. While the overall study focused on attrition, this paper focuses more on what the qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts reveal about the construction of gender in the medical profession. Many are of the opinion that male-dominated professions, such as medicine, are gendered male, but exactly how these mechanisms of gendering are maintained or reproduced is not always made explicit. Conceptually and analytically informed by a feminist-organisational approach, this paper hopes to contribute by showing how a specific group of women doctors negotiate and respond to complex and contradicting professional discourses around medicine and being a woman doctor. The findings illustrate respondents, as active agents involved in perpetuating, resisting and changing the constructions of gender in the profession. The analysis asserts that these women are trying to reflect on the masculinities contained within their professional discourses, and they are actively involved in the construction and development of new femininities. The findings raise hope for future more positive discourses about women in the medical profession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on domestic work in South Africa has largely focused on the employee, however, here we focus on the 'madam' and explore the way in which the workspace of the domestic worker and the 'private' space of the employer are constructed. The paper focuses on the domestic workers' place in the Indian Muslim madam's space, revealing the contradictory nature of the home as a personal space for the employer and a workplace for the domestic worker. Within the home, emotional and physical boundaries produce spaces that may be more private than others. These spaces are further influenced by the way in which Indian Muslim women construct the religious uniqueness of their home, where some spaces are filled with sacred meaning and access is restricted at certain times. Based on the qualitative data, collected in the North Beach area of Durban, the paper investigates the sharing of the workspace between 'the madam' and the domestic worker and their negotiation of the boundaries within the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research, with a capital 'R', is a subject of considerable concern within South African ruling circles. There's not enough of it, and it's not the right kind, or so the argument runs. Recognising the importance of the material conditions of the researchers and the need for a bottom-up approach to developing research priorities, this paper focuses on the state of sociology research in South Africa today. It demonstrates that, over the past twelve years, a marked increase in the output of masters and doctoral graduates has been accompanied by a decline in the level of completed research by qualified sociologists. In terms of publications, there has been a significant increase in the proportion produced by women, but a negligible change in the number by black scholars. The paper rejects pessimistic assessments of the state of South African sociology. It concludes by arguing that the discipline should place itself at the centre of an integrated and engaged social science by drawing diverse strands together at a local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of international pressure and local concern regarding the repercussions of the AIDS epidemic for children in South Africa, as well as the review underway of children's legislation in the country, there is much debate regarding social security provision for children in the context of HIV/AIDS. To date, the State's social security response to the impact of AIDS on children has been to focus its attention on the provision of the Foster Child Grant for orphans. Draft Children's legislation introduces additional cash grants, some of which similarly target orphans. However, drawing on a combination of primary research and demographic projections, this paper argues against the provision of grants for orphans as a category of children distinct from other children. It argues that. given the pervasiveness of poverty across South Africa's child population, a social security system that directs interventions on the basis of children's orphanhood mistargets crucial resources; is inequitable; is located in questionable assumptions about children's circumstances; risks further overburdening the child protection system; and is not, as a whole, a cost-efficient way of adequately supporting the largest possible number of poor children who require assistance. The paper argues therefore that the most equitable, accessible and appropriate mechanism for supporting children in the context of the AIDS epidemic would be through the extension to all children of the Child Support Grant mechanism that is currently in place. Progressive implementation of a universal Child Support Grant should be based not on providing grants in the interim to particular categories of children (such as orphans) but rather on drawing more impoverished children -- irrespective of their parental circumstances -- into the social security 'safety net'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the largest donor-funded projects since 1994 concerning reform of South African policing is described in this paper. The project, Assistance to Policing in the Eastern Cape, targeted policing work in a province acknowledged to rank lowest in the country on numerous human development indicators. The paper outlines the various components of the project, sketches the overall implementation of its objectives, and attempts to arrive at a provisional assessment of the project's impact in an environment inhospitable for administrative efficiency. It concludes with a brief review of developments at the end of the project cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a working definition of lone motherhood in the South African context is presented. Whilst rejecting any assumption that lone motherhood is necessarily experienced as an identity, it is argued that the category of lone motherhood has analytical value as it exposes the circumstances faced by women who care for children without a partner or spouse present. The working definition is operationalised using household survey data and certain methodological challenges are discussed. A profile of lone mothers is presented and it is demonstrated that lone mothers living with children are more deprived than women who additionally live with a partner or spouse. This raises several policy imperatives including the need for broader debates about valuing unpaid care work and achieving comprehensive social security, particularly within the hostile climate of widespread poverty and unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws felicity from approaching the question of the idea of an African university through probing it from the vantage point of the imagination and its antecedent in the imaginary. Taken as such, the imaginary is that which enables us to be taken up in certain imaginative relations as to how we are predisposed to understand, interpret and take positions which in respect of our purposes are about how we might relate, in the context of Africa, to the Western, Modern "idea of the university". Concretely, it means developing an argument which engages with the Western, Modern idea of the university in its sociohistorical contexts, in this instance, Europe and Africa, to consider ways in which this idea of the university pivots around its social and epistemic imaginaries. It is contended that the over-determination of the social vis-à-vis the epistemic signals the shift from foregrounding the classical Western, Modern "idea of the university", i.e. an epistemic imaginary in pursuit of knowledge for knowledge sake to a transformative idea of the university, i.e. its social imaginary. In this shift the argument is made for the university as critical institutional site for extending the emergence of radical imaginaries and thus for its relevance in nurturing the radical imaginations in pursuit of the "idea of the African University" and what might be encompassed in such a critical reimagining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars studying race in post-apartheid South Africa have largely focused on South African nationals. Little is known about the ways in which non-South African migrants and refugees navigate the South African racial classification system. In the context of continued immigration to South Africa, it is important to examine how refugees negotiate South African racial categories. This paper addresses this gap by interviewing Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, who originate from an ethnicity-based classification system, to examine how they racially self-identify in everyday life as a result of their exposure to a race-conscious host society. Convenience and snowball sampling were used to select participants. The research sites were Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. A qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was employed to analyse data. The results presented here (patterns of Black self-identification) form only part of a larger project involving 46 Eritrean asylum seekers. Only 16 or one-third of the participants appropriated South African Black identity for a variety of reasons. Five themes were identified within Black self-identification: (1) "my phenotype makes me Black"; (2) "I feel Black when around Black South African friends"; (3) "living in Black neighbourhoods makes me feel black"; (4) "I am Black as I identify with the black experience"; and (5) "I check Black on forms to benefit from affirmative action". Participants appropriated Black identity for various reasons depending on different circumstantial factors. For some participants, their physical appearance did not inform their Black self-identification, but other social factors. Through their various tactics and strategies of Black self-identification, participants redefined and re-casted what it means to be Black in post-apartheid South Africa. Their reasons for Black self-identification violate traditional understandings of Blackness in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While whiteness studies often begin from the assumption that being ‘white’ means having access to an unspoken centre of power, the third wave of whiteness studies focuses on nuanced forms of whiteness. In the post-apartheid context, various discursive strategies are employed by South African whites to retain privilege. Yet whiteness is also constructed spatially. Through an autoethnographic methodology, the paper explores the ‘inauthentic whiteness’ of the author. Drawing from the case studies of football supporters’ clubs in Johannesburg, South Africa, the actions of the author travelling through different racialised spaces in Johannesburg football fandom destabilised the supporters’ understanding of whiteness and what it was to be white. This inauthenticity created new opportunities for the supporters’ clubs to engage with the other, which had previously not existed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sexuality education is widely considered a pivotal component for HIV prevention responses for young people and a vehicle for youth empowerment in relation to their sexual identities and behaviours. However, there has been a lack of meaningful engagement between public health discourses and educational theories, and this gap has allowed the educational claims of empowerment discourses to go unquestioned. This conceptual paper, grounded in the South African context, provides a close reading of public health formulations of empowerment discourse through three broad theoretical framings of power and agency and their educational claims: liberal, neo-Marxist and post-structural. This theoretical thinking is applied to educational practice in the South African context in order to encourage discussion about how the promise of education requires making explicit underlying notions of power and agency. It is argued that this educational reading is critical for better responding to the diverse needs of young people as they negotiate their sexual identities and behaviours in the context of a life-threatening disease. The paper offers three potential research directions that could deepen our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of sexuality education as an HIV prevention initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A part of the apartheid state's attempt to maintain hegemony in South Africa was through censorship. The terrain of popular music was no exception. This paper considers popular music censorship by means of the metaphor of space as both a real and imagined area of contest. It is argued that censorship involved contests over the use of space, and those involved in the contest sought to reposition themselves according to the most suitable strategies available to them. Influenced particularly by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the analysis of contest posited in this paper emphasizes that agency is possible, even in contexts of severe repression. Throughout the apartheid era some musicians engaged in instances of resistance within the context of social movements to devise means of overcoming censorship and making themselves heard. Despite apartheid censorship, creative and meaningful spaces of resistance were discovered and successfully manipulated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the author discusses the role of the sociologist after half-a-century of studying science. He explores the problem with misconceptions about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment in South Africa. He provides an overview of the paper "Third Wave of Science Studies," which he and fellow sociologist Rob Evans wrote. He also discusses the new programme called Studies of Expertise and Experience.

The study of men and masculinity has become a strong feature of gendered research and scholarship in South Africa in the last twenty years. Gender policy frequently includes consideration of men and masculinity, marking a significant shift from the days when 'gender' was synonymous with women. The gendered focus on men owes its origins to feminist theory and thus centres on the subordination of women. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is part of a theoretical framework developed to analyse men's power (Carrigan, Connell & Lee 1985). It proposes a multiplicity of masculinities and hierarchies of power and shows how men exercise power over women and other men. In this paper we discuss the concept as it has been developed and then explore how it has been used in the South African context. What is significant is that it was initially adopted to explain the country's high levels of violence and to analyse the gender relationships under colonialism, apartheid and post-apartheid. Among the reasons that the concept of 'hegemonic masculinity' has become widely used in gender research in South Africa is because it can broaden the understanding of questions of gender inequality. The concept is multidimensional and allows consideration of men's power over women, the multiple and unequal location of men themselves, fluidity in power relations and the persistence of patriarchal trends. The pliability of the concept encouraged its adoption across a wide range of disciplines and fields. However, the concept is controversial. Its analytical and pragmatic utility and political potential are questioned and its exact meaning debated. In this paper we reflect on the use of the concept in gender research conducted in southern Africa. We select from a wide range of publications and projects with no claim that this selection is exhaustive or representative. The work on masculinity and men has grown dramatically in the last twenty years and it is not possible in an article of this length to cover all of this work. Instead we have chosen to examine four areas roughly defined by methodology and disciplinary location -- in societal analyses, psychology, education and in health. We highlight the diverse and sometimes confusing ways that the concept is used, while also explaining why it is misused. In the process we identify aspects of the concept that seem more or less valuable and show what value it gives to theory, social analysis, research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revolves around 'grounded theory', based on empirical work undertaken by the author since 2000 involving case studies of a set of application-oriented research centres/units at Western Cape universities. Most of these research groupings were involved in what are termed triple helix research relations linking university-industry-government (U-I-G). The first part of the paper relates this grounded theory to ideas of Henry Etkowitz and colleagues, about the new third mission (of socio-economic development) of universities undergoing what they term a '2nd academic revolution'. But it is argued that absent from the latter ideas are important additional concepts of "use-inspired basic research' and a (new post-1970s) 'third industrial capitalist revolution'. The second part relates this set of analytical concepts including the 'additions', to the theoretical framework of ideas and questions being developed by the author in a new research project: this focuses on what he terms the 'fourth helix' of university-civil society (U-CS) research relations, with new case studies to investigate these CS linkages. The latter currently have an 'orphan' status alongside the dominant triple helix relations -- but questions are raised about how a scholarship of engagement of university researchers with CS can be enhanced in South Africa and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we explain the rapid rise in popularity of Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president of the country, who was fired by president Thabo Mbeki after he was charged with accepting kick-backs from arms manufacturers and who subsequently won the presidency of the African National Congress? This paper analyses data collected by the Centre for Sociological Research in Soweto in June and July 2006 to gauge the extent of sympathy for Zuma in Soweto and produce a social sketch of those who supported Zuma. The data questions the common sense views that Zuma's support is exclusively rural, male and crudely sexist, but confirms that Zuma's support has some Zulu basis and some trade union base. However. the data additionally shows that poverty, a sense of deprivation and recent involvement in strikes were also factors associated with support for Zuma in Soweto. Further, since none of the factors associated with support for Zuma provides an overarching explanation, it becomes apparent that there is no single typical Zuma supporter, but rather that Zuma represents a range of different things to a range of different people. The second half of the paper refines the analysis by considering the 'non-typical' categories of Zuma support - the non-poor, non-Zulu, non-trade union member. Finally, the paper situates these findings within studies about leadership and protest. While social circumstance was important in explaining sympathy for Zuma, political leadership must also enter the picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between civil society and the state in the field of small arms control over the last ten years, focusing on the shift from policy formulation to implementation of new legislative frameworks. It uses a South African case study to examine the challenges and dilemmas for civil society organisations and the state, arguing that civil society has taken the lead in putting the issue of armed violence on the political agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Still a problem, HIV stigma necessitates strategies to deal with it. One such strategy is support group attendance. The role that support groups play in the lives of HIV + people is multi-faceted, providing a range of different types of support that help deal with HIV stigma. Based on research which took place in a public hospital in Johannesburg at which a support group is run, this paper consolidates various previous contributions from a range of fields and explores a previously unexplored form of support -- normative support. This form of support is particularly practical in dealing with stigma, particularly self-stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Department of Science and Technology Ten Year Plan seeks to move the system of innovation toward growing a knowledge economy. It sets ambitious targets for scientific production (PhD graduates; world share of scientific publications) whose attainment in port rests on the effectiveness of the universities. The paper commences with a thumbnail sketch of the system of innovation. This is followed by a discussion of the international ranking of universities and South Africa's standing. Next we provide a comparative analysis of the domestic ranking of universities. A limited survey of five countries shows that concentration of research in a cluster of universities is 'normal.' Turning to the South African case we use the national R&D Surveys (HSRC, 2008) to examine the changing diversity among the universities over the merger period. This reveals two concentrations, the first comprising the 'Big Five' research institutions and second the 'Next Six.' This implies a double gap in the distribution of universities according to research expenditure and appears to be a feature unique to the South African higher education system. We then unpack the meaning of the targets of the Ten Year Plan and analyze the potential of the universities to meet these in the light of the gaps. The paper concludes with suggestions for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, punk is explored as an 'identity', in order to account for individual experiences within the collective identity and to locate this identity within a larger social context. It is found that punk identities are informed by a range of sub-categories and cross-cutting identities, resulting in a diverse array of individual interpretations. Yet despite these differences, there are several spaces and 'shared experiences' that facilitate the realisation of a punk collective identity in post-apartheid South Africa. This 'punk family' provides a sense of belonging to a white South African minority who claim a strong South African identity despite their potential marginalisation in the post-apartheid context. Whilst in outlook more optimistic than punk scenes of the past, this is the result of both a global shift to new school punk and their location in the post-apartheid South African context. Whereas few punks identified with an overt political agenda, some social critique lingers in layers of lyrics and ridicule. This paper explores a range of post-apartheid punk identities from the radical to the purely hedonistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are, of recent, expressed concerns, albeit small in number, about the failure of sociology to 'engage with the wider society'. Implicit and explicit in the concerns is the suggestion that sociology is no longer as exciting as it was during the period of the struggle against apartheid. The period of apartheid was taken as one of the 'rise' of sociology because of sociology's engagement with the political issues of the day. This paper argues that the assumed 'rise' and 'fall' of the discipline in South Africa can better be characterised as the visibility of sociology in the 'public'. It is argued that the decades 30s. 40s and 50s were decades of success for sociology just like the 60s, 70s and early 80s that some point to as the period of 'rise' of the discipline The earlier decades saw the ascendancy of positivism, and sociology of that period contributed in great measure to the construction of apartheid, which was subsequently dismantled with contributions from sociology, specifically, the Marxist sociology. If there is therefore a 'fall' of sociology, it is the 'fall' of a theoretical perspective in sociology. However, given the call for a 'critical edge' in the discipline, it is suggested that such an edge would need to start from the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS-related stigma is conceptualised as multi-dimensional, and indices are designed to measure its different dimensions. Findings show that it is uncommon for young adults to have high levels of negative behavioural intentions towards people living with HIV/AIDS, but the majority show some tendencies to discriminate. Expressions of negative judgement (symbolic stigma) and fear of HIV infection (instrumental stigma) are both prevalent. Instrumental stigma is expressed by more respondents and to greater degrees than symbolic stigma. Resource-based stigma, on the other hand, is rare. Understanding of HIV transmission is the most significant (negative) predictor of HIV/AIDS-related stigma, thereby highlighting the importance of HIV/AIDS education campaigns for reducing stigma. The importance of education in general is also indicated by the association of higher levels of education with less instrumental stigma. Symbolic stigma and prejudices towards other groups are also significant (positive) factors predicting negative behavioural intentions and stigmatising attitudes. This suggests that although HIV/AIDS education is necessary for stigma alleviation, it is by no means sufficient. In the case of Cape Town, racial differences are also salient in predicting both the magnitude of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and its determinants. This corroborates the theory of stigma as a complex social process dependent on particular cultural and environmental contexts. It also highlights the necessity of considering cultural and environmental aspects in understanding and addressing stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today one of the most contentious issues within the emerging field of Science and Technology Studies in South Africa relates to the position and participation of women scientists in academia. This paper presents the results of a secondary analysis of data contained in a national database of journal publications and their authors. The objective is to describe the nature and extent of gender differences in journal publication productivity among South African academics during the period 1990-2001. The paper also makes a methodological contribution by highlighting issues and making recommendations for further analyses of South African bibliometric databases. The data show that, on average during the period studied, men published almost twice as many articles in accredited journals as women, and that gender differences in both extremes of publication productivity determined this gap. Possible explanations for the observed differences are put forward in the form of a summary of the most important theoretical explanations for gender differences in publication productivity. An assessment is made of their potential relevance in the South African context, in order to identify priorities for future research on the issue of gender differences in publication productivity among South African academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall aim of this paper is to set out some of the debates about the sustainability of low-income housing projects, including informal settlement relocation, in cities where polycentrism emerges. Housing policies and projects in South Africa have not always been synchronised during the post-apartheid era. The localisation of low-income projects raises some crucial issues for local governments in terms of urban management. This paper takes a step back to gain a metropolitan point of view, using the case of the eThekwini Municipality, Durban, and thus explores the consequences of low-income housing developments. Housing policy has to be thought of as a piece of a bigger puzzle of which the goal is to alleviate poverty and implement a more compact, integrative or inclusive city. The current emergence of polycentric urban shapes is one noteworthy component of the process of 'metropolisation', which is defined by Claude Lacour as the "urban imprint of globalization" (Lacour, 1999). Because cities are changing under the influence of urban dynamics (real estate property market, flagship projects, etc.), this policy has to take into account the articulation between the localisation of housing projects and metropolitan centralities, such as the Central Business District (CBD) and the suburban economic nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the incidence of lethal police violence since, and prior to, the transition to democracy in South Africa in the mid 1990s. Independent Complaints Directorate statistics on 'deaths as a result of police action' indicate that they have declined to their lowest levels since 1997 in five of South Africa's provinces, though two provinces also demonstrated dramatic increases in deaths in the last year. The possible impact of new legislation on the use of lethal force for arrest, implemented in South Africa in 2003, on the number of deaths, is briefly considered. Statistics on killings by police from the apartheid period are then examined in relation to the question of whether levels of killings by police have changed since apartheid. It is suggested that there is reason to doubt the reliability of official figures on people killed by police from the apartheid era. While deaths have declined since 1997, and it cannot be said that current levels of deaths are comparable to apartheid era levels, figures, such as those on innocent bystanders killed by police, and on the legality of shootings, provide cause for concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do South Africans demonstrate such high levels of immigrant population innumeracy? This tendency to overestimate the number of immigrants in one's country has been linked to consequences, including support for anti-immigrant legislation and participation in xenophobic violence. Some have called for disseminating accurate information as a means to reduce anti-immigrant hostility. However, most of what we know about innumeracy comes from research in the Global North, and it remains unclear whether it operates similarly in other parts of the world. Thus, the current study seeks to understand innumeracy as it exists in South Africa with the goal of informing efforts aimed at improving perceptions and reducing tensions. Using patterns established in the existing research and logic based on the cognitive availability and affect heuristic processes, the current study compiles a list of possible correlates and tests their effectiveness for understanding South Africans' misperceptions. The analysis also goes beyond replication by examining a wide array of cognitive availability factors, many of which have not been considered in previous innumeracy research. Overall, findings from the 2019 South African Social Attitudes Survey identify several predictors of immigrant population innumeracy, some which are unique to South Africa. In particular, relational information channels, like friends, family, and local leaders, have a much larger impact on perceptions than non-relational media channels, like television and the Internet. These new insights into the innumeracy phenomenon as it exists in South Africa may prove useful for designing targeted interventions to encourage more accurate perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse on masculinities mainly focuses on men's power over women and more emphasis should be geared towards understanding how the dynamics are changing, especially in the context of high levels of poverty. This study relied on qualitative interviews to examine dominant notions of masculinity among a sample of young migrant men residing in an informal urban settlement in Durban, South Africa. The interviews suggest that men face a multitude of challenges. In the informal settlement, toxic notions of masculinity are adopted by men that are demonstrated by their use of violence, denoting their power and authority. This study highlights the importance of incorporating men into multidisciplinary research in an effort to understand and combat widespread acts of violence inflicted by men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African nursing remains a largely feminised and devalued profession, further undermined by the popular construction of nurses as indifferent and the healthcare systems as hindered by multiple challenges. Over the last 20 years of democracy, multiple efforts have been made at the level of policy, practice and knowledge production to address the challenges of the primary healthcare sector where nurses are such central role players. There are clearly resource challenges in South Africa which may undermine caring practices; however, this article also foregrounds the dominant discourses that shape international and local nursing, and which arguably mitigate against care that is democratic, socially responsive and sensitive to the diverse care needs of communities and individuals. Drawing on Tronto's political ethics of care and on Foucauldian frameworks, the paper analyses the processes currently shaping the experience of nurses and practices of care. Key themes are the hierarchical, regulatory framework of surveillance in nursing, the dominance of biomedical discourse and the mechanistic framework that fragments nursing practice. These aspects not only disempower nurses and deny them recognition but, together with institutional disregard for the need for self-care, also reproduce a system that is inherently unable to provide humane healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviewers make an important contribution to the quality of data collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires. However, once this data has been collected not much attention is paid to non-sampling errors and the data is accepted at face value. Failure to adequately understand and address these issues can severely limit the usefulness of the research outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore ambiguous contexts in household survey data production in South Africa, and to understand the origins of the ambiguities and how interviewer decisions could affect data collection within these contexts. For this purpose the South African Household Financial Wellness Survey conducted by the Personal Finance Research Unit at Unisa in 2011 was used as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idealization of the natural environmental as a virtual garden of Eden during colonization and apartheid in South Africa has continued to influence mainstream conservationists focusing purely on nature – excluding environmental justice concerns. If issues of environmental justice are neglected, then biodiversity is also at risk. The paper draws on empirical analysis in Durban and Johannesburg with conservationists and environmental advocates to explore the relationship between conservation and environmental justice. Results indicate that the potential for collaboration is complex. Issues of leadership, social networking/participation, divergent ideologies and corporate sponsorship hinder effective integration. Despite limitations, the WESSA (Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa), KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) serves as a model for integrating with environmental justice concerns. Not only must conservationists and environmental advocates forge linkages by strategically networking, but there is a need to negotiate between divergent ideologies to engage on a common platform for a more holistic green agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an observation of Academic Freedom in the United States and South Africa. It compares academic freedom in both countries drawing on what is referred to as the Big Five in the United States. It suggests that the threat to academic freedom in the United States is from outside the university whereas such threats come from inside the academe in the South African case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the issue of the public interest in 'Protected Areas' in national environmental legislation and policy frameworks. It draws on Jacklyn Cock's critique of 'ecological modernisation' to argue that the current orthodoxy for settling land claims in 'protected areas' premised on commitment to social justice for those who were dispossessed of their rights in the past tends to downplay or disregard the interests of other constituencies who are not claimants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contribution of Jacklyn Cock's work on child care and the working mother in relation to both the process of research and the content. It identifies the challenges to capturing the specificity of women's subordination in the context of predominant concerns with class and race discrimination in the early 1980s. The paper argues that subsequent gains in rights of women and sexual minorities, amongst others, were made as a result of a paradigm of inclusive citizenship. However, in the post-apartheid period, this paradigm has been severely tested as people living with HIV/AIDS and other minorities have had to take up their own struggles in the absence of a public national commitment that values people with all their differences and guarantees them the benefits of citizenship, including access to resources, social recognition and political representation. It uses the concept of sexual citizenship to identify ways in which diverse minorities and marginalized groups share common cause and proposes that these may provide the basis for alliances to build an alternative vision of citizenship that continues to give priority to addressing poverty while building a more inclusive notion of social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The golf course is a significant social and ecological space which contributes to both increasing social polarisation and environmental injustice. Golf illustrates the shift from race to class-based exclusion that has characterised South Africa since 1994, and the increasing conspicuous consumption that shift has involved. The paper first demonstrates how golf involves the exclusion of the majority of South Africans from crucial resources, and then how golf is promoting inclusion into a new power elite that is marked by the co-existence of political and economic power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the world, including in South Africa, there is a growing recognition that the state police are but one actor within a hybrid policing field involved in the production of security. How exactly this mix works at micro levels, and through what processes and with what outcomes requires a great deal of investigation. Based on an ethnographic study of two distinct local initiatives that illustrate the 'nodal' character of security governance, this paper explores the broader question of how the public police are, and should be, locating themselves within networks to ensure the delivery of 'good' public security outcomes. The authors advance a conception of 'minimalist' policing -- one centred on re-affirming and bolstering the unique authority and capacities of the public police -- as a possible normative guide to the design of optimally effective and democratic nodal arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]