Science Fiction and the Imagined South African and Other Worlds in Lauren Beukes’s Novels

Imbizo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irikidzayi Manase
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
South African ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cyclical Time

This article examines the cityscapes, residents’ experiences and different temporalities depicted in Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland, Zoo City and The Shining Girls. The analysis considers the cityscapes and everyday life experiences in the depicted cyber and futurist Cape Town, futurist fantasy Johannesburg and a cyclically time-travelled and crime-ridden Chicago. It also evaluates the role of the science fiction genre in presenting the sense of space in the different cities and in the process establishes possible comparable visions of urban experiences. Hence, the article argues that the link between space and time and genre assists in mapping the city’s and other worlds’ landscapes and the residents’ experiences vividly, and in that way enables the reader to imaginatively establish the social, spatial and other thematic commonalities between Beukes’s cyber and futurist Cape Town, futurist fantasy/magical Johannesburg and a crime-ridden Chicago that is explored through cyclical time-travelling.

scholarly journals Ayo Menikah (Muda)! : Mediatisasi Ajaran Islam di Media Sosial

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Izmy Khumairoh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Role Of Religion

Abstract This article analyzes the close relationship between religion (i.e. religious discourses in the context of everyday life) and modernization (i.e. the intensive and excessive use of social media in society). This article is based on literature and social media review—in particular it reviews on how the role of religion changed drastically due to mediatization process that occurs in the public sphere; as well as how the social media plays a dynamic role in society. This article concludes that the new image of religion as shown in mass media and social media demonstrates its shifting power from traditional institutions to mass and social media. Religious value immerses into every aspect of the everyday life and the religious aura; and this phenomenon neglects the secularization theory. Keywords: anthropology, social media, marriage, Islam  Abstrak Artikel ini menganalisis hubungan erat antara agama (yaitu wacana keagamaan dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari) dan modernisasi (yaitu penggunaan media sosial yang intensif dan eksesif dalam masyarakat). Analisis berdasar pada studi literatur dan observasi di dunia maya - termasuk beberapa akun media sosial dan interaksi antara netizen - terutama bahasan mengenai perubahan peran agama yang drastis akibat proses mediatisasi yang di ranah publik; sebagaimana media memainkan peran dinamis dalam masyarakat. Artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa citra baru agama, yang terpampang di media massa dan media sosial, mencerminkan pergeseran kekuasaan agama dari institusi tradisional ke media. Nilai-nilai agama terus menemukan celah untuk memasuki setiap aspek kehidupan dan mencakup aspek aura agama sehingga fenomena ini tidak sesuai dengan teori sekulerisasi. Kata kunci: antropologi, media sosial, pernikahan, Islam

Notes: ‘They’re not making land anymore’: A reading of the social function of property in Adonisi

2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-715
Author(s):  
Thomas Coggin
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Case Note ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spatial Environment

In the Western Cape High Court decision of Adonisi, Gamble J framed the prevalence of well-located land scarcity in Cape Town with the phrase, ‘they’re not making land anymore’. In this case note, I present the court’s findings and reasoning in ruling against the Western Cape Provincial Government, and I argue we can read the judgment as an expression of the social function of property through two lenses: first, the manner in which the court situated the dispute within the spatial and historical geography of Cape Town; and, secondly, the way in which it prefaced the use value of property through its emphasis on meaning ful participation and on custodianship. Both lenses indicated the duty incumbent on the province as landowner and in service of its obligations under s 25(5) of the Constitution, which are important when resolving similar disputes given the scarred ownership landscape characterising the South African urban and spatial environment.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Michael P. Roller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semiotic Systems ◽  
Oppressed Group

The conclusion revisits the three major inquiries addressed in the text, drawing together the evidence and contexts provided in the previous seven chapters. The first investigates the role of objective settings, such as the systemic and symbolic violence of landscapes and semiotic systems of racialization in justifying or triggering moments of explicit subjective violence such as the Lattimer Massacre. The second inquiry, traces the trajectory of immigrant groups into contemporary patriotic neoliberal subjects. In other terms, it asks how an oppressed group can become complicit with oppression later in history. The third inquiry traces the development of soft forms of social control and coercion across the longue durée of the twentieth century. Specifically, it asks how vertically integrated economic and governmental structures such as neoliberalism and governmentality which serve to stabilize the social antagonisms of the past are enunciated in everyday life.

Material Culture and Embodiment in American Religion

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Body ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Will

In recent years, the study of religion has undergone a useful materialization in the work of many scholars, who are not inclined to define it in terms of ideas, creeds, or doctrines alone, but want to understand what role sensation, emotion, objects, spaces, clothing, and food have played in religious practice. If the intellect and the will dominated the study of religion dedicated to theology and ethics, the materialization of religious studies has taken up the role of the body, expanding our understanding of it and dismantling our preconceptions, which were often notions inherited from religious traditions. As a result, the body has become a broad register or framework for gauging the social, aesthetic, and practical character of religion in everyday life. The interest in material culture as a primary feature of religion has unfolded in tandem with the new significance of the body and the broad materialization of religious studies.

scholarly journals The Nigerian Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy: Perspectives on literacy learning

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Linda Newman ◽  
Loveth Obed
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Early Childhood Development ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
The Social

Many scholars and researchers now have a broadened vision of literacy that encompasses the social practices that surround literacy learning. What accompanies this vision is a shift towards thinking that children, and their families, can contribute actively to literacy learning by drawing on their strengths and life experiences to create and draw meaning from a broad range of everyday sources. For many, reading and writing from print-based texts is no longer considered the only, or most desirable, avenue to literacy learning. It is now recognised that children’s social and cultural lives should be used as a resource for literacy learning. Using four literacy learning lenses, we examine the Nigerian National Policy for Integrated Early Childhood Development. These lenses are: collaboration with families, the role of educators, literacy-rich environments, and diversity and multimodality. Recent research around early literacy learning underpins our analysis to identify where the policy could more strongly refer to the role of families and educators and to argue that there is scope for greater attention to early literacy learning in the policy.

scholarly journals Pornography: Human right or human rights violation?

2010 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabet Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
South African Population ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
Systemic Discrimination ◽  
Human Rights Violation

The article investigates the availability of pornographic media to under-aged users, specifically the already marginalised under-aged sector of the South African population. It argues that the availability of pornography is just another illustration of the systemic discrimination against this section of the population. Theoretical, non-experimental and clinical evidence illustrating the negative impact that the exposure to pornography has on children is presented against the background of the social reality of South Africa. The article finds that exposure to pornography leaves children even more vulnerable than they already are. The investigation of relevant legislation indicates that those who broadcast and/or sell pornography contravene South African law. The article concludes that the effects of pornography on children are far-reaching and potentially harmful. Children should be more effectively protected against exposure to pornography. Lastly, the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) and the possibilities of their effective involvement, is explored.

PATCHWORKED MEDIA: MOBILE DEVICES AND CREATIVE PRACTICE IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Anja Venter
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Material Reality ◽  
Development Trajectories

There has been a recurring narrative in research that revolves around mobile technologies and society, particularly in relation to Africa: that these technologies have the potential to reconfigure and revolutionise the development trajectories of entire countries (Donner & Locke, 2019). But if these narratives are to be the case, then, indeed, the role that mobile devices can play in production (in this case of art, media, and design) is going to have to be something that allows people in the global South to earn a living. This paper presents an exploration of the creative practices, with a focus on mobile creative practices, of a cohort of Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) Visual Design students from a university in Cape Town, South Africa (2014). All of these students came from low-income, resource constrained contexts in the townships that surround Cape Town. In questioning whether mobile technologies can help young South African creatives forge careers or attain resources that could help them do so, the role of mobile technologies is complicated. While these devices offer new emerging creative affordances, and in some cases, can offer means to generate income, the material reality is a different story. I conclude by arguing that instead of these devices offering access to a global network, they, at best, provide the means for young creatives, such as those featured in this study, to a forge a media patchwork.

EVERYDAY POLITICS AND COLLECTIVE MOBILIZATION AGAINST FOREIGNERS IN A SOUTH AFRICAN SHACK SETTLEMENT

Africa ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamlyn Monson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Equal Citizenship

ABSTRACTIn contrast to the tolerant and largely peaceful ‘living politics' of informal settlements, as embodied by the social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, this article considers a darker side of squatter politics: ‘xenophobic’ mobilization. I show how the historical stratification of citizenship in South Africa remains spatially embedded in longstanding informal settlements, where distinctive repertoires of collective action have been shaped by a (still unfinished) history of struggle for inclusion. Using archival research and interviews conducted in the informal settlements of Atteridgeville, Gauteng, I show how the continuing struggle for equal citizenship draws on shared experiences of mundane hardship and collective labour, giving rise to social distance between established local squatters and politically indifferent foreign newcomers. At times of protest, this polarity is concentrated by and converges with familiar practices of insurgent citizenship, creating a context for mobilization against foreigners. In this sense, ‘xenophobic’ mobilization may be seen to articulate a claim for inclusion by structurally excluded ‘citizens', rather than an exclusionary claim by those who already belong. The article provides a useful counterpoint to readings of ‘xenophobic’ violence that focus on the role of elite discourses, instrumental leaders or crude racial identities in shaping such mobilization.

scholarly journals Rural education: Reimagining the role of the church in transforming poverty in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Thesnaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The desire to remember the plight of the poor in South Africa has reduced in the last 20 years after the transition from apartheid to freedom. To a large extent, Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and the religious society at large have lost their ‘dangerous memory’ which keeps us mindful of those who suffered and whose plight is usually forgotten or suppressed. In this contribution the conditions of poor farm school children in multigrade rural education will be scrutinised by unpacking the contextual factors that cause us to forget their plight. This article will seek to reimagine the role of the church in poverty-stricken South Africa by engaging with the work of Talcott Parsons, the practical theologian Johannes A. Van der Ven, as well as the work of the political theologian Johann Baptist Metz in order to affirm the focus of Practical Theology to transform society and to contribute to the quest for justice and liberation for the poor in rural education. This reimagining discourse has a fundamental responsibility to challenge the social, political and economic realities that shape the lives of human beings within rural education, remembering the plight of the poor, and participating on their journey towards liberation and healing. It is proposed that if the church can activate its ‘dangerous memory’ it will be able to reimagine its role by transforming our poverty-stricken South African society, open new avenues for breaking the cycle of poverty and contribute to rural education.

Review Symposium: Interdisciplinary Readings of Ari Z. Bryen's Violence in Roman Egypt: Where Law, Violence, and Culture Collide: A Sociolegal Reading of Violence in Everyday Life

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (03) ◽  
pp. 802-806
Author(s):  
Jill D. Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social World ◽  
Review Symposium ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
Cultural Resource ◽  
The Social ◽  
Roman Egypt

This comment considers Ari Bryen's Violence in Roman Egypt (2013) from sociological and sociolegal perspectives. Although Bryen is a historian, and his site of inquiry is second‐century Roman Egypt, he turns to contemporary sociologists and law and society scholars to highlight the interplay between law and the social world in the construction of violence. In doing so, he finds a new way to analyze the role of law as a cultural resource for nonelites to make sense of their social world but also to change it (albeit with limits) through law.

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