Basic Concepts

In the methodology of the social sciences

Debates about governance both within and outside of the South African state are increasingly turning to the question of co-ordination failure the inability of government to make interventions in key problem areas which require the inputs and actions of several government departments and agencies acting in concert with each other. Too often, the opposite occurs the silo effect where government departments work in isolation, unable and in some cases, unwilling to act on the interdependencies that straddle their governance responsibilities.

The 2015 TIMMS Grade 5 study was administered for the first time in South Africa in August 2015. The study was led by a team of researchers at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

The State of the Nation 2016 volume uses multiple research lenses to analyse the dynamic interface of power and authority structures that characterises the state and South African society as a dynamic constitutional democracy. The volume projects these dynamics in the context of heightening contestations around structural economic, social and political problems such as unemployment, inequality, poverty and land redistribution.

In a compelling blend of narrative history and social analysis, Prophets and Profits contributes to the global literature on educational change by analysing the impact of both managerialism and religious extremism on the restructuring of Jewish community schools in Johannesburg. A landmark study in South Africa, this work is also of international interest because it brings together two divergent yet connected tendencies in current educational transformation. These are the neo-liberal ideologies of the market, manifesting in the application of managerial approaches to school management, and the resurgence of ethnic and religious communities in search of identity. This paradox of globalisation is extremely topical and gains added interest when set against the extraordinary story of transformation in South Africa.