Biko

Philosophy, Identity and Liberation

Crisis! What Crisis! The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis argues that the Zimbabwean crisis is in fact a series of crises. From infrastructural problems and disease to a depreciating currency and an increasing muscular militarism, the citizens of Zimbabwe have faced an ongoing struggle to survive. The book explores the resilience of a people as they navigate the multiple challenges they face in the country of their birth. In an inter-disciplinary approach, the authors of Crisis! What Crisis! engage with issues as diverse as resource politics and livelihoods, migration and disembedment, language, and humour to demonstrate the ingenious ways in which citizens mediate the crisis. Topically, the book explores how social media offers a subversive space that flies in the face of increasing restrictions placed on conventional media within Zimbabwe and the governments aggressive efforts to suppress freedom of speech and spread their nationalist agenda. The book concludes with a sobering reflection on the past and what the future might hold.

Young Families: Gender, Sexuality and Care draws together unique and compelling essays about the contexts of early childbearing, a topic that is now taken for granted. It draws on empirical data, multi-level approaches and inter-disciplinary perspectives on the dynamics that underpin young people’s experiences of being pregnant, having a child and caring for the child.

The book explores the contexts in which young families are constituted and shaped along with the kinds of social relationships and communities of care that early childbearing creates (or in some instances destroys). It shows the entanglement of gender, sexuality, race, age and class in the formation of young families and its effects on caring practices.

This book draws together unique and compelling accounts that address a gap in the existing literature on families in South Africa while also providing an understanding of the diversity of young South African families. Young Families will be of interest and of benefit to those in the fields of Women and Gender studies, Anthropology, Education, Sociology, History and Demography.

This paper examines the political and socio-economic factors that influence democratisation throughout South Africa and the African continent. The emphasis is on the policies and impact of government, business and civil society in reducing inequality and poverty. Issues of community empowerment are also examined as a way to promote sustainable development.