Political Science in South Africa
Political Science in South Africa

Author: Peter Vale

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-01-13

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1317665767

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In 2013 and in 2014 respectively, the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) and Politikon (the South African Journal of Political Studies) celebrate their 40th anniversary. Also, in April 2014 South Africa celebrates twenty years since the advent of the post-Apartheid democracy, and the birth of the ‘rainbow nation’. This book provides a timely account of the birth and evolution of South African politics over the past four decades, but also of the study of Political Science and International Relations in this country. Fourteen political scientists contribute chapters to this volume, situating the study of politics within its global context and recounting the development of politics as a field of study at South African universities. The fourteen contributions evaluate the state of the discipline(s) and suggest conclusions that are surprising and in many instances unsettling, not only with regards to what and how politics is taught, but also how its study has variously gained and lost pertinence for South Africans’ understanding of their own polity as well as its place in the world. The implications are uncomfortable, and pose interesting challenges for South African scholarship, pedagogy and national self-reflection. This book was published as a special issue of Politikon.

Decolonisation after Democracy
Decolonisation after Democracy

Author: Laurence Piper

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-21

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0429788541

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Decolonisation after Democracy addresses the provocative idea that we need to rid higher education of lingering forms of colonial knowledge. This matters because in the colonial era much knowledge was put to the service of subjugating indigenous peoples, and the assumptions from this era may linger into the present. Examples of deep-rooted and ‘foundational’ forms of knowledge that carry colonial traits are normative binaries such as ‘civilised and backward’, ‘modern and traditional’ and ‘rational and superstitious’. In addition, some accounts of positive values like freedom, equality, justice and democracy may hide the assumption that the western experience is the norm, from which other kinds are rendered imitations, deviations or pathologies. In this collection, some of South Africa’s leading political scientists and academics engage with the challenge of decolonising knowledge in the research and teaching of politics. It includes new insights about the state, international relations, clientelism, statesociety relations and land reform; and introduces new ways to engage the colonial library, curriculum reform, and the marginality of historically black institutions. Finally, the contributors deal with the decolonial challenge posed by the #FeesMustFall student movements, reflecting on issues of revolutionary politics and gender and sexual violence. This book was originally published as a special issue of Politikon.

Reaction and Renewal in South Africa
Reaction and Renewal in South Africa

Author: Paul B. Rich

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1349247723

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This volume is a timely survey of the changes that have been occurring in South African politics and society since the unbanning of the exile liberation movements in 1990. It brings together a collection of seasoned scholars who examine the debates over changes in such areas as the economy, the state, the legal system, the position of women and foreign relations. The volume explores the forces pushing for radical change in South African society as well as those resisting it and is particularly notable for bringing a political science perspective to bear on such issues as the restructuring of government and the constitution.

South Africa, Race and the Making of International Relations
South Africa, Race and the Making of International Relations

Author: Vineet Thakur

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-01-17

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1786614650

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This book offers readers an alternative history of the origins of the discipline of International Relations. Conventional, western histories of the discipline point to 1919 as the year of the ‘birth of the discipline’ with two seminal initiatives – setting up of the first Chair of IR at Aberystwyth and the founding of the Institute of International Relations on the side-lines of the Paris Peace Conference. From these events, International Relations is argued to have been established as a path to create peace in the post-War era and facilitated through a scientific study of international affairs. International Relations was therefore, both a field of study and knowledge production and a plan of action. This pathbreaking book challenges these claims by presenting an alternative narrative of International Relations. In this book, we make three interconnected arguments. First, we argue that the natal moment in the founding of IR is not World War I – as is generally believed – but the Anglo Boer War. Second, we argue that the ideas, methods and institutions that led to the making of IR were first thrashed out in South Africa – in Johannesburg, in fact. Finally, this South African genealogy of IR, we show in the book, allows us to properly investigate the emergence of academic IR at the interstices of race, Empire and science.

South Africa in Focus
South Africa in Focus

Author: C. C. Wolhuter

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781626185821

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In 1994, South Africas image in the world changed instantaneously from the polecat to that of being a model. The intensity of the societal conflict in the run-up to 1994, and the nature of the post-1994 societal reconstruction focused the attention of the whole world on South Africa. The societal changes have been of a social, economic, political and educational nature; the foundation of which had been laid by a Constitution and a Bill of Human Rights widely hailed as one of the most progressive in the world. After almost two decades, the time is ripe for an assessment. This book offers nine essays written by scholars who are recognised authorities in their fields of expertise, critically surveying some aspects of that societal reconstruction project.

Neoliberalism and the State of Belonging in South Africa
Neoliberalism and the State of Belonging in South Africa

Author: Derick A. Becker

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-02-17

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 3030399311

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This book explains the making of the South African state and thereby contributes to the development theory by analyzing the concept of the embedded neoliberal state. The author offers a theoretical exploration of state formation as an inherently interconnected international and domestic social process as applied to the history and development of South Africa. A genuine social science that eschews disciplinary boundaries, this will appeal to a wide audience of scholars in the fields of political development, political science, African and development studies.

Politics and Society in South Africa
Politics and Society in South Africa

Author: Daryl Glaser

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2000-12-22

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1446264270

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`Darryl Glaser supplies an illuminating overview of the scholarship since 1970 on South Africa′s political history. His emphasis is on the debates between liberals, Marxists, and to a lesser extent "post-structuralists" about the origins and the course of South Africa′s racial order′ - Tom Lodge, University of Witwatersrand `A well-researched, well-argued, readable, interesting, informative and competent study′ - Capital and Class Providing a wide-ranging and critical introduction to contemporary South Africa, this book uses an interdisciplinary lens to introduce the student to the main debates, historical context, and issues that have characterized the study of South Africa over the last three decades. Key topics include: the role of colonialism, capitalism and modernity in the formation of the racial order; changes in the South African state; questions of class, race and ehtnicity; black resistance; and the transition to democracy. A number of underlying debates are critically evaluated. For exmple, the contribution of materialist and class-analytic approaches, the application of post-structuralism and theories of modernity, and the prospects for democratic liberalism and socialism in post-apartheid South Africa.

A Turbulent South Africa
A Turbulent South Africa

Author: Jérôme Tournadre

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2018-03-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1438469772

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Highlights the continuing social unrest and public protest occurring in South Africa’s poorest districts. Frequently praised for its democratic transition, South Africa has experienced an almost uninterrupted cycle of social protest since the late 1990s. There have been increasing numbers of demonstrations against the often appalling living conditions of millions of South Africans, pointing to the fact that they have yet to achieve full citizenship. A Turbulent South Africa offers a new look at this historic period in the existence of the young South African democracy, far removed from the idealistic portrait of the “Rainbow Nation.” Jérôme Tournadre draws on interviews and observations to take the reader from the backstreets of the squatters’ camps to international militant circles, and from the immediate, infra-political level to the worldwide anti-capitalist protest movement. He investigates the mechanisms and the meaning of social discontent in light of several different phenomena. These include, the struggle of the poor to gain recognition, the persistent memory of the fight against apartheid, the developments in the political world since the “Mandela Years,” the coexistence of liberal democracy with a “popular politics” found in poor and working-class districts, and many other factors that have played a crucial part in the social and political tensions at the heart of post-apartheid South Africa.