Books

This profile provides an understanding of the main developmental and institutional challenges that confront southern Africa. The authors highlight the political, economic and social conditions in the region and identify common trends. The paper also reviews the progress made in the promotion of greater regional integration.

The social and economic successes of Asia have drawn global attention to the developmental state as a possible model for developing countries. In South Africa, many, including government, see this as a possible panacea to the country's social, economic and institutional crises. However, a government committing itself to constructing a developmental state is one thing; actually implementing the necessary institutional and policy reforms to bring that into reality is another.

Contested Ecologies: Reimagining the Nature-culture Divide in the Global South offers an intervention in the conversations on ecology and on coloniality, and on the ways in which modern thinking, with its bifurcation of nature and culture, constitutes ‘ecology’ within a very particular politics of the cosmos.

Images of striking COSATU workers, singing, marching and toyi-toying are a familiar sight for most South Africans and external observers of the country's politics. Similarly, COSATU's feisty general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi has become a household name, commanding respect and admiration among millions and loathing and fear among his enemies and those who are on the receiving end of his fiery political oratory. But how much do we know about what COSATU workers think about their workplaces, their unions, politics and the economy? What influences COSATU members' decisions to vote for a particular political party? Why has COSATU women members' support for the ANC declined? Why do some union members think there may be good reasons to assault non-strikers and scabs during strikes? What do unionised workers think of service delivery and what role did they play in the recent spate of service delivery protests? These and many other questions are examined in this volume which is based on the fourth run of the COSATU Workers' Survey conducted a few months before the 2009 elections. Contrary to stereotypes reproduced in the media and other public platforms which portray trade union members as a herd led by all-powerful 'union bosses', A Contested Legacy deftly presents a picture of a multifaceted organisation whose members are steeped in the traditions of internal democracy, leadership accountability and mandated decision-making. But these traditions are not static. They are fiercely contested among different groups and categories of union members women and men; migrant and urban workers; skilled and unskilled workers; blue collar and white collar and professional workers; permanent and part-time and casual workers.

In this report, the responses of almost 2 000 unemployed individuals in South Africa in a survey conducted in six provinces are considered. The results are supported by the findings of several local and international research projects on job creation. Strategies to optimise the impact of job creation efforts are also suggested.

Based on case studies from a number of South African municipalities, this groundbreaking publication examines cost recovery and its implications for service delivery in South Africa. This study looks at how cost recovery affects access to services, affordability and privatisation. Alternatives to cost recovery are also explored.

The country we want to live in: Hate crimes and homophobia in the lives of black lesbian South Africans offers a refreshing perspective on violence perpetrated against black lesbians. Based on a Roundtable seminar, held during the 2006 16 Days of Activism for no Violence against Women and Children, the text engages the heteronormative focus of the campaign, profiles aspects of the dynamic conversations, and builds strong arguments about violence against lesbians. It also profiles the voices of women who are central to the activism around hate crimes and homophobia. In capturing key aspects of the lively discussion of 2006, an update of subsequent events that have bearing on the original seminar is provided, concluding with recommendations that have relevance for research, policy and practice. The country we want to live in makes an impassioned plea about citizenship, belonging and social justice, confirming that silence about these issues is not an option.

The new science and technology framework has challenged higher education institutions in South Africa to create research partnerships with industry, to contribute to growing a national system of innovation. Through detailed case studies, this monograph explores how one new organisational form typical of the knowledge society, the network, is currently being created in practice, in all its complex and contingent reality, in three high technology fields. It is the third volume in the Working Partnerships: Higher Education, Industry and Innovation series.

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.

For thousands of years, people have asked the question "How did the world begin?" While many cultures and communities have a faith-based answer to this query, the theory of evolution supplies a science-based solution.