HSRC Catalogue

African research that changes global thinking

How central are the media to the functioning of democracy? Is democracy primarily about citizens using their vote? Does the expression of their voice necessarily empower citizens? Media and Citizenship challenges some assumptions about the relationship between the media and democracy in highly unequal societies like South Africa. In a post-apartheid society where an enfranchised majority is still unable to fundamentally practise their citizenship and experiences marginalisation on a daily basis, notions like listening and belonging may be more useful ways of thinking about the role of the media. In this context, protest is taken seriously as a form of political expression and the media’s role is foregrounded as actively seeking out the voices of those on the margins of society. Through a range of case studies, the contributors show how listening, both as a political concept and as a form of practice, has transformative and even radical potential for both emerging and established democracies.

Governing Cities in Africa Politics and Policies, Governing Cities in Africa, Cities in Africa, Politics and Policies in African Cities, Service delivery, policy and practice issues, Simon Bekker, Laurent Fourchard, Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Alain Dubresson, Karine Ginisty, Sylvy Jaglin, Ayodeji Olukoju, Sam Owuor, Jeanne Vivet, Sverine Awenengo, Hlne Charton, Odile Goerg, Denise Brgand, Rasheed Olaniyi, Amandine Spire, Liela Groenewald, Marie Huchzermeyer, Kristen Kornienko, Marius Tredoux, Margot Rubin, Isabel Raposo, Jeremy Grest Axel Baudouin, Camilla Bjerkli, Hlne Qunot-Suarez, Jean-Fabien Steck, Sophie Didier, Mariane.

Capital cities today remain central to both nations and states. They host centres of political power, not only national, but in some cases regional and global as well, thus offering major avenues to success, wealth and privilege. For these reasons capitals simultaneously become centres of 'counter-power', locations of high-stakes struggles between the government and the opposition.

Postcolonial African Anthropologies showcases some postcolonial ethnographies and aims to figure out how and why anthropology has engaged with conversations on decolonisation and postcolonialism. The postcolonial ethnographies in this book show that Africans may not necessarily interpret and communicate their experiences in the ways that anthropologists trained in Western institutions and disciplines do, but they are multi-vocal and are ever present to speak with authority on their experience. This book then, deepens and diversifies conversations on Africa and in particular, a ‘postcolonial’ Africa to understand the position of anthropologists, the position of Africans and the positioning of the discipline of anthropology in Africa.