Religion and State - Development Cooperation: A German-South African dialogue on historical and current challenges

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Global South ◽  
The State ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Health Challenge ◽  
The World ◽  
Global North ◽  
Religion And State

This collection of contributions – drawn from different events, in a dialogue between Germany and South Africa, the global North and the global South – focuses on the challenges, obstacles and opportunities related to cooperation between religion and the state in matters of development. The international impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 poses much more than just a health challenge – the economic, social, political consequences have accentuated the existing fault lines and disparities within countries, and between countries across the world.

scholarly journals From Demonic Faith to Redemptive Faith: The Ambiguity of Faith in the Intersection of Religion and State Violence

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 268
Author(s):  
Wonchul Shin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
The South ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Religion And State

This paper aims to examine the ambiguity of faith in the intersection of religion and state violence. I pay attention to the state-operated system of apartheid in South Africa and critically analyze the Afrikaner community’s faith that motivated and justified vicious state violence against people of color. I name this faith demonic faith and present two key features of demonic faith in the South African case: idolatrous absolutization and destructive dehumanization. I also examine how the Afrikaners’ demonic faith came to its existence through the complex dynamics of their existential anxieties, desires, and distorted ways to fulfill the desires. I then argue for the ineffaceable possibility of redemptive faith, and theoretically construct how two features of redemptive faith, consisting of courage and empathy, could have empowered the Afrikaners to break the shackles of demonic idolatry and destruction. Redemptive faith is tragically paired with demonic faith, but truth serves as a key criterion to guide us in this tragic ambiguity of faith.

scholarly journals Legislation and employment relations in South Africa: A narrative overview of workplace dispute

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-177
Author(s):  
Shadrack Themba Mzangwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The State ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Disciplinary Procedures ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Legislative Measures

This paper provides an overview of legislative measures applied in handling grievances and disciplinary matters in the workplace from the South African perspective. South Africa is one of the unionised countries in the world and the involvement of trade unions in resolving disputes including grievances and disciplinary matters is crucial. Trade unions, employers’ organisations and the state play an integral role in employment relations. Unions represent their members during dispute proceedings at various institutions where they (trade unions) are recognised. The country’s statutory measures must always be adhered-to in the handling of grievances and disciplinary procedures. The author relates the manner in which grievances and disciplinary proceedings are handled in a unionised workplace environment.

The case for collation to inform debate and transform practice in decolonising Psychology

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catriona Ida Macleod
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Science ◽  
South African ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Global South ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Global North

Critiques of the ‘relevance’ of Psychology in South Africa and Africa have been raging for a number of decades now. Recent debates about decolonising Psychology and what is meant by African Psychology have been rigorous and necessary. In this commentary, I argue that in order for Psychology to move beyond Euro-American-centric epistemology and practice, these efforts need to be supplemented with the grounded praxis of research and literature collation. The epistemological, empirical, and conceptual knowledges that have been generated within the South African, African, and Global South contexts need to be brought together in coherent forms. As with other analytical processes, the grounded praxis of collating knowledges around a particular topic or approach allows for fresh insights and for the transfer of knowledges generated in context. Gaps in current research may be identified, debates on particular issues strengthened, and practice potentially improved. Drawing on two examples – textbooks and systematic literature reviews – and from my and colleagues’ work in conducting these kinds of collation work, I argue that: textbook writers should use grounded methodologies to generate texts based on South African, African, and Global South research, with reference to research conducted in the Global North being peripheral at best; and systematic reviews enable the cross-fertilisation of ideas from other social science research where psychological research is sparse. Funders should consider funding collation efforts.

Lawmaking and State-Making as Vigilantism

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-212
Author(s):  
Nicholas Rush Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Control Strategy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
African State ◽  
The State ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The World

As apartheid collapsed, South Africa set out on one of the most ambitious police reform projects the world had ever seen. However, in 2008, senior state officials began calling for restrictions on police violence to be lifted with the effect that high rates of police violence have become a primary crime control strategy. This chapter examines this shift in the context of the South African state’s failure to bring the country’s persistent vigilante violence under control. It does so in two ways. First, the chapter examines the contradictory ways in which South African state officials navigate the tensions between advocating for the post-apartheid rights regime while arguing that such rights may inhibit the state’s ability to fight crime. Second, it examines how young men in Durban’s underworld experience the state, showing how rumors of procedureless police violence creates an image for them of the state as a large-scale vigilante organization.

scholarly journals The British and South African approaches to asylum based on sexual orientation and gender identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (59) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Vítor Lopes Andrade
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
South African ◽  
Global South ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Global North ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Since the 1980’s it has been possible to claim asylum on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in some countries. Most studies on this topic focus on countries in the Global North. Therefore, there is still a lack of research that comparatively analyses the Global North with the Global South. The aim of this article is then to analyse and compare the approaches of two countries that grant refugee status on the basis of sexuality and gender identity, one in the Global North (the United Kingdom) and one in the Global South (South Africa).

Social Work and Indigenisation: A South African Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lobelo David Mogorosi ◽  
Dumisani Gaylord Thabede
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Work ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World View ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Global North ◽  
Work Education

For relevance to societal reality and challenges, countries should structure their social work education to deal with specific conditions and cultures. From its global North (i.e. Western Europe and North America) origins, social work has contributed to the expansion of the discipline and profession to the developing world, including South Africa. During the three decades (from the mid-1980s until the present day) during which they have taught social work in South Africa, the authors have witnessed half-hearted efforts to really integrate indigenous knowledge into the curricula. In writings and professional gatherings, scant attention was paid to curricula transformation imperatives enriching practice. To its credit, the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) advocates for decolonisation and indigenisation of social work education. Discussing decolonisation and indigenisation in social work curricula, the paper critiques assumptions of global North ideas, cloaked as if universally applicable. An example is about some principles of social casework – a method of choice in South Africa – which mostly disregards cultural nuances of clientele with a communal collective world view that relies on joint decision-making. A culturally sensitive approach is adopted as theoretical framework for this paper. The paper concludes with recommendations that should help ensure that social work curricula strive towards being indigenous, contextualised and culturally appropriate.

Language, gender and sexuality in 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaspal Naveel Singh
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Diverse Populations ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Global North

The Global South is a postcolonial imagined community that bears the potential to imagine powerful south-south solidarity between the struggles for decoloniality of diverse populations across the world. To prepare our field’s pan-global future, this year-in-review overrepresents literature on gender, sexuality and language from/on the Global South. This decolonial move aims to notice and promote southern tactics of resistance, southern epistemologies and southern theories and evaluate what can be learnt if we look southward on our way forward. Some literature from the Global North will be considered too. The review is structured using three overlapping foci: (1) embodied and linguistic resistance, (2) mediatisation and scale and (3) fragile masculinities. I conclude by suggesting that our research should stay locally situated and globally radical.

scholarly journals An Evaluative Study of Criminalistics: A Case of South African Counterfeiting and Knock-Off Menace

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Godfrey Thenga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Capital Flight ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Counterfeit Goods ◽  
Evaluative Study ◽  
The World

Counterfeit goods are a health hazard to human life, environment and business. More so as the goods destroy the viability of legitimate businesses across the world. Counterfeit goods are characterized as a threat to the financial viability of legitimate businesses and has a dire impact on the tax revenue of countries, necessitating its effective and efficient policing for the financial wellbeing of countries. If not well managed, counterfeit goods could lead to unemployment, disinvestment and capital flight in countries. The available evidence reveals that even though counterfeit goods has dire consequences for the economic wellbeing of countries, its penalties in most African countries are less severe in comparison to penalties for other crimes. The sight of counterfeit goods in many places, such as on busy street corners and transportation terminals in the Southern parts of Africa, attests to its prevalence in the continent. Especially in South Africa as the country has become a transit point for contrabands. Post 1994, South Africa opened its borders to the world of branded and protected goods and this enabled rogue people to trade in counterfeit goods. Effective policing is hindered by the use of sophisticated skills and expertise that leads to counterfeit goods resembling genuine goods. Moreover, in South Africa, the problem persists despite the promulgation of the Counterfeit Goods Act 37 of 1997, thus questioning the effectiveness of the policing strategies in use to quell the problem.

scholarly journals Developing evaluation standards and assessing evaluation quality

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Leslie ◽  
Nishendra Moodley ◽  
Ian Goldman ◽  
Christel Jacob ◽  
Donna Podems ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
South African ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
The State ◽  
Routine Activity ◽  
The South ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Evaluation Practice ◽  
Quality Assessments

The article explains the rationale for the development of standards for evaluation practice, the process followed in developing those standards, and how those standards inform the quality assessment of evaluations. Quality assessment of evaluations are conducted as a routine activity of the South African National Evaluation System (NES). The importance of quality assessment for improving the state of evaluation practice in South Africa is illustrated by presenting results from the quality assessments undertaken to date. The paper concludes by discussing the progress on the development of a public Evaluations Repository to manage and provide access to completed evaluations and their quality assessment results, and offering some concluding analytical remarks.

scholarly journals TEOLOGIA PÚBLICA NO BRASIL: UM PRIMEIRO BALANÇO

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (122) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Rudolf Von Sinner
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
South African ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Rio Grande Do Sul ◽  
The South ◽  
The World ◽  
Uniform Definition ◽  
Different Parts

À luz de desafios atuais presentes no espaço público brasileiro, a discussão sobre a presença de crucifixos em tribunais gaúchos e a atuação de políticos evangélicos no Congresso, o artigo propõe-se fazer um primeiro balanço da reflexão sobre uma teologia pública no Brasil. Assim, procura responder à pergunta “o que é teologia pública?” não de forma definitória, inequívoca, uniformizante. Antes, mostra uma variedade de origens do termo e de oportunidades, bem como de perigos contidos neste conceito. Num primeiro passo, o artigo apresenta quatro linhas de abordagem presentes na emergente discussão brasileira. Em seguida, recorrendo ao sul-africano Dirk Smit, mostra a diversidade de origens e usos do conceito em várias partes do mundo. Por fim, procura evidenciar a pertinência e o potencial de uma teologia pública no Brasil – com ousadia e humildade.ABSTRACT: In view of actual challenges present in the Brazilian public space, the discussion on the presence of crosses in courthouses in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as on the activities of evangelical Congressmen, this article ventures into a first balance of reflection on a public theology in Brazil. It seeks to respond to the question “what is public theology?” not with a clear and uniform definition. Rather, it shows a variety of origins and opportunities, as well as dangers contained in the concept. In a first step, the article presents four lines of thought present in the emerging Brazilian discussion. Then, with reference to the South African theologian Dirk Smit, it shows the diversity of origins and uses of the concept in different parts of the world. Finally, it seeks to show the pertinence and the potential of a public theology in Brazil – both with boldness and humility. 

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