Competing Marxist Theories on the Temporal Aspects of Strike Waves: Silver’s Product Cycle Theory and Mandel’s Long Wave Theory

Despite the profound changes in capitalist development since the industrial revolution, strike waves and mass strikes are still a feature of the twenty-first century. This article examines two Marxist theories that seek to explain the temporal aspects of strike waves. In the main, I argue that Silver’s product cycle theory, suffers from an over-determinism, and that turning point strike waves are not mainly determined by lead industries. Mandel’s long wave theory argues that technological innovations tend to cluster and thus workers in different industries feature prominently in strike waves. By re-examining and comparing two competing Marxist theories on the temporality of strike waves and turning points, I will attempt to highlight the similarities but also place emphasis on where the theories differ. I examine the applicability of the theories to the South African case, and reference recent world events in order to ascertain the explanatory power of the competing theories. In the main I argue that Silver’s product cycle lead theory does not fit the South African experience. KEYWORDS turning point strike waves; product cycle; long waves; capitalism

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Nanotechnology, Long Waves, and Future of Manufacturing Industry

Foreign Direct Investments ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-2448-0.ch092 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 2053-2080

Author(s):

Cem Okan Tuncel ◽

Ayda Polat

Keyword(s):

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Wave Theory ◽

Comparative Case Study ◽

Industrialized Countries ◽

Capitalist Development ◽

Mena Countries ◽

Newly Industrialized Countries ◽

Long Wave ◽

The Impact

This study concerns the long wave theory of capitalist development with an aim to discuss and analyze the impact of nanotechnology on manufacturing industry. Long wave theory was asserted by Russian economist Kondratieff and it states the capitalist development with subsequent cycles which last 40 to 60 years each. The theory of Kondratieff was also contributed by other scholars as Schumpeter, Freeman, and Perez. Our research attempts to review how nanotechnology contributes economic growth, and how it changes the structure of manufacturing industry at the eve of the sixth Kondratieff wave. This structure was examined by using comparative case study of European Union, East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries and Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.

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WERE THERE POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES IN THE WAKE OF THE SHARPEVILLE-LANGA VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1960?

The Journal of African History ◽

10.1017/s0021853714000644 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 119-142 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

SAUL DUBOW

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Civil Rights ◽

South African ◽

Turning Point ◽

African History ◽

The South ◽

Political Dynamics ◽

Black Resistance ◽

Liberation Movements ◽

New Research

AbstractIn many accounts, the Sharpeville emergency of 1960 was a key ‘turning point’ for modern South African history. It persuaded the liberation movements that there was no point in civil rights-style activism and served as the catalyst for the formation of the African National Congress's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. From the South African government's perspective, the events at Sharpeville made it imperative to crush black resistance so that whites could defend themselves against communist-inspired revolutionary agitation. African and Afrikaner nationalist accounts are thus mutually invested in the idea that, after Sharpeville, there was no alternative. This article challenges such assumptions. By bringing together new research on African and Afrikaner nationalism during this period, and placing them in the same frame of analysis, it draws attention to important political dynamics and possibilities that have for too long been overlooked.

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A South African Public Law Perspective on Digitalisation in the Health Sector

10.35489/bsg-dp-wp_2021/05 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Firoz Cachalia ◽

Jonathan Klaaren

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Technological Change ◽

South African ◽

Legal System ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Health Sector ◽

Public Law ◽

The South ◽

Working Paper ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution

We explored some of the questions posed by digitalisation in an accompanying working paper focused on constitutional theory: Digitalisation, the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and the Constitutional Law of Privacy in South Africa. In that paper, we asked what legal resources are available in the South African legal system to respond to the risk and benefits posed by digitalisation. We argued that this question would be best answered by developing what we have termed a 'South African public law perspective'. In our view, while any particular legal system may often lag behind, the law constitutes an adaptive resource that can and should respond to disruptive technological change by re-examining existing concepts and creating new, more adequate conceptions. Our public law perspective reframes privacy law as both a private and a public good essential to the functioning of a constitutional democracy in the era of digitalisation. In this working paper, we take the analysis one practical step further: we use our public law perspective on digitalisation in the South African health sector. We do so because this sector is significant in its own right – public health is necessary for a healthy society – and also to further explore how and to what extent the South African constitutional framework provides resources at least roughly adequate for the challenges posed by the current 'digitalisation plus' era. The theoretical perspective we have developed is certainly relevant to digitalisation’s impact in the health sector. The social, economic and political progress that took place in the 20th century was strongly correlated with technological change of the first three industrial revolutions. The technological innovations associated with what many are terming ‘the fourth industrial revolution’ are also of undoubted utility in the form of new possibilities for enhanced productivity, business formation and wealth creation, as well as the enhanced efficacy of public action to address basic needs such as education and public health.

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Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South ◽

10.36615/sotls.v4i1.135 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 69

Author(s):

Shashi Cullinan Cook

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Learning Context ◽

The South ◽

Scholarship Of Teaching ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Creative Commons ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽

University Of Technology

The second biennial ‘SOTL in the South’ conference was held at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in October 2019. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is gaining increasing traction in South African universities, and this conference was a collaboration between the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at CUT, and SOTL in the South. The theme of this conference was ‘Creating space for Southern narratives on Teaching and Learning’ and the keynote speakers were Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Joanne Vorster, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Catherine Manathunga. In this piece I reflect on the conference and identify some of the narratives that emerged from it. I share some of the discussions by keynote speakers and presenters which help to expand discourses on the interconnectedness of decolonisation, and economic, social and environmental justice, and I explain why I look to ‘Southern SOTL’ for guidance in negotiating contradictions in my teaching and learning context. In this piece I consider the response-abilities of higher educators to contribute to these urgent matters.Key words: SOTL in the South, research in teaching and learning, global South, north-south, decolonisation, 4IR, fourth industrial revolution, response-abilityHow to cite this article:Cullinan Cook, S. 2020. Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 4, n. 1, p. 69-85. April 2020. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=135This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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THE STRATEGIC COMPETITIVENESS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINING INDUSTRY IN THE AGE OF THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering ◽

10.7166/32-3-2627 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 185-200

Author(s):

Steven Zulu ◽

Tinus Pretorius ◽

Elma van der Lingen

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Mining Industry ◽

Operating Costs ◽

Financial Sustainability ◽

The South ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽

History Of ◽

Innovation Strategies

The South African mining industry has a history of a range of major challenges, including high operating costs that have had a negative impact on mines’ profitability and financial sustainability. The advent of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies has opened up new opportunities for the mining industry, among other things, to improve its cost-effectiveness and future competitiveness. Most South African mining companies have begun to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies; however, quite a large number of their projects have not been successful. The main objective of the paper is to conduct an integrative literature review to determine why some of the companies in the minerals, mining, and processing industry have not been successful in implementing Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. The findings of the study outline areas of organisational and technological capability on which the industry could focus when developing future innovation strategies.

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BRICS Message From South Africa

Revista Amazonia Investiga ◽

10.34069/ai/2020.26.02.60 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (26) ◽

pp. 529-544

Author(s):

Natalya Zavyalova ◽

Evgenia Evgenevna Frolova ◽

Vitaliy Vasilievich Bezbakh ◽

Ekaterina Petrovna Rusakova ◽

Mihail Nikolaevich Dudin

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

South African ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Complex Mixture ◽

The South ◽

Max Planck ◽

The World ◽

World Economic ◽

Video And Audio

The paper features the data obtained from the analysis of a video strip with the help of ELAN 5.4, the free software developed by the experts from Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, the Language Archive, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The software enables to annotate video and audio strips, describing pauses, the duration of utterances, gestures, pronunciation and other linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The speaker in the video – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – delivers his official address to the leaders of the 10th BRICS leadership summit in Sandton, Johannesburg on July 26, 2018. BRICS is a powerful link of a global financial architecture. Its main targets are to mobilize resources for sustainable development projects of BRICS and to facilitate the global growth of multilateral and regional financial, educational and industrial institutions. The material and the speaker for the analysis belong to the domain of BRICS top level politics. South Africa was the main host of the leadership summit in 2018. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in his speech stressed the significance of the fourth industrial revolution highlighted by Professor Klaus Schawb at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016. The notion of the revolution appeared in the South African leader's address 7 times. Nevertheless, the authors of the paper see more messages hidden between the lines of the South African President's address. In the paper it is argued that BRICS architecture has a right to be interpreted as an attempt of keeping the world away from further plunging into environmental degradation, the development of critical thinking and innovation among BRICS citizens. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the method of pauses analysis to reveal a more complex mixture of speakers' visions. Long pauses are meaningful and extremely informative for discourse analysis. The data may be relevant for discourse analysis experts, political journalists, educators and copywriters.

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The emergence of an education policy dispositif in South Africa: An analysis of educational discourses associated with the fourth industrial revolution

Journal of Education ◽

10.17159/2520-9868/i80a01 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Aslam Fataar

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Research Association ◽

The South ◽

African Education ◽

Generic Skills ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽

South African Education ◽

The Impact

The notion of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has recently entered the public and policy domain in South Africa. It has rapidly found resonance in policy discourse and the popular media. It has also entered the language of educational policy and institutions. The impact of 4IR on educational thinking and practice has hitherto not featured in academic discussion on education in South Africa except for a keynote plenary session at the annual conference of the South African Education Research Association (SAERA) in Durban (October 2019). The South African Education Deans Forum recently published a call for the submission of chapters for a book on teacher education, 4IR, and decolonisation. In this article, I develop an address that I delivered at the SAERA 2019 conference as part of the plenary panel. The article consists of four sections. The first offers a consideration of the entry of 4IR discourse into the educational imaginary. I suggest in this section that 4IR discourse has installed a socio-technical imaginary in South Africa's unequal educational dispensation. The second section concentrates on the construction of educational governance. Based on research on 4IR-related policy making, I discuss the policy directions taken by the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Basic Education in giving effect to ways of engaging with 4IR in each of their domains. The third section features a discussion of the impact of technological disruption on society, the economy and education. The final section presents a discussion of the emerging educational architectures in the 4IR and a critical consideration of the curriculum and pedagogical dimensions of 4IR, which, I argue, are informed by an orientation that prioritises the acquisition of generic skills. Sidelining knowledge and concepts as central to the structuring of the curriculum, a generic skills approach succumbs to what might be called a knowledge blindness that holds pernicious consequences for epistemic access in South Africa.

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Insights into the reversal error from a study with South African and Spanish prospective primary teachers

Pythagoras ◽

10.4102/pythagoras.v42i1.613 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Calos Soneira ◽

Sarah Bansilal ◽

Reginald Govender

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Word Order ◽

Word Problems ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

The South ◽

African Students ◽

Bachelor Of Education ◽

Reversal Error ◽

Matching Strategy ◽

Direct Proportionality

This study, using a quantitative approach, examined Spanish and South African pre-service teachers’ responses to translating word problems based on direct proportionality into equations. The participants were 79 South African and 211 Spanish prospective primary school teachers who were in their second year of a Bachelor of Education degree. The study’s general objective was to compare the students’ proficiency in expressing direct proportionality word problems as equations, with a particular focus on the extent of the reversal error among the students’ responses. Furthermore, the study sought to test the explanatory power of word order matching and the static comparison as causes of the reversal error in the two contexts. The study found that South African students had a higher proportion of correct responses across all the items. While nearly all the errors made by Spanish students were reversals, the South African group barely committed reversal errors. However, a subgroup of the South African students made errors consisting of equations that do not make sense in the situation, suggesting that they had poor foundational knowledge of the multiplicative comparison relation and did not understand the functioning of the algebraic language. The study also found that the word order matching strategy has some explanatory power for the reversal error in both contexts. However, the static comparison strategy offers explanatory power only in the Spanish context, suggesting that there may be a difference in curriculum and instructional approaches in the middle and secondary years of schooling, which is when equations are taught.

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