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Since its founding 40 years ago the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria has been a leader in studying the behaviour, physiology, ecology and taxonomy of aquatic and terrestrial mammals. During this time the Institute has been led by four directors, namely Jurgens (Waldo) Meester, John Skinner, Johan du Toit and Elissa Cameron. In this article, the history of the MRI is described and the considerable contributions its Directors, staff, students and collaborators have made are presented, as are some of the highlights in the Institute's research. In addition, the future plans of the MRI are briefly touched upon as they will further cement its reputation as a South African centre of excellence and continues to promote the study of both large and small mammals of the southern African subregion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking of an academic discipline in terms of a 'social practice' (MacIntyre) helps in formulating what the ideal captured in the slogan 'African scholarship' can contribute to the discipline. For every practice is threatened by the attractiveness of goods external to the practice - in particular, competitiveness for its own sake - and to counter this virtues of character are needed. African traditional culture prioritizes a normative picture of the human person which could very well contribute here to upholding the values internal to scholarship. I argue, contrary to Matolino, that for these purposes Tempels' notion of the transactional process of becoming more of what you are by virtue of the human insertion in nature, is a useful starting point. But the dominant way philosophy is framed today, the human person outside of 'nature', omitting the key notion of presence-to-self, disallows this dialogue between the dominant tradition and African thought culture. I show, by interrogating what I take to be an impoverished understanding of objectivity in the dominant philosophical approach, how the idea of personal, subjective, growth is crucial to introductory philosophy if the project of African scholarship is to find purchase. As an example I look at rival ways of understanding the value of justice, procedurally or, alternatively, substantively and hence foregrounding participation.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the establishment and development of a leadership centre in a South African university. The article is concerned with reviewing the notion of identity from a systems-wide perspective and uses the concepts of discourse and identity, social identity theory and notions of contested and transitional identity as its basis for exploring the role and effect of working with a plurality of perspectives in the context of transformational change. A longitudinal case study approach was used by the authors to create deeper understandings of the complexity of human and social relations and their effect on an emerging organizational identity in the context of the case. The article supports the view that ‘idealized’ forms of organizational identity and narratives about it often ignore the ‘real’ world of competing rationalities, such as issues related to transitional, multiple and contested identities, and conflicts between social and professional identities and therefore ‘edit out’ what is involved in the struggle to create an organizational identity in a context of transformational change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]