Raewyn Connell and the Making of Masculinity Studies in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-128
Author(s):  
Robert Morrell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
Masculinity Studies ◽  
New Research ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Men And Masculinity ◽  
White Minority

The study of masculinity in South Africa scarcely existed in 1990. A minor interest in gender was focused on women and inequality. South Africa was emerging from four decades of apartheid. It was into this environment that Raewyn Connell’s ideas were introduced, adopted and adapted. Raewyn herself made a number of trips to South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s and found a ready reception for her theories about masculinity. South Africa was in transition feeling its way from white minority rule and authoritarianism toward democracy and a commitment to ending poverty, inequality, racism, and the oppression of women. In this article, I describe how Raewyn’s idea energized scholarship, created a new research interest in men and masculinity, and contributed to gender activism.

Black Politics in South Africa Today

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-13
Author(s):  
Joe Latakgomo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
White Minority

The political scene in South Africa today is perhaps one of the most complex in the modern world. The easiest analysis would be to have the white minority government on the one hand, and the back resistance and liberation organizations ranged against it on the other. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. The white minority itself is torn by divisions and differences in ideology, with essentially two divisions into the right-wing and the centrists. Both camps, however, are themselves divided into various notches on the scale to the right, but never beyond to the left of centrist. That position has been reserved for black politics, which is also positioned at various points on the scale to the left.

The ‘Tyranny of Numbers’

2019 ◽  
pp. 255-276
Author(s):  
Ashwin Desai ◽  
Goolam Vahed
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
White Minority

Affirmative action is the most contested policy in post-apartheid South Africa, with most Indians getting the sense that they are the ‘twice-discriminated’, first by the white minority government and now by an African majority government. This chapter examines the different dimensions of the debate, and especially who will be hardest hit amongst Indians, and why this policy requires some re-jigging.

scholarly journals “You Mix Up the Thinking, and then You Look at the Journey”: ‘Pausing’ to Reflect on Masculinities in a South African Township

2020 ◽  
pp. 1097184X2092587
Author(s):  
Antonella (Toni) Pyke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
South African ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Minority Literature ◽  
South African Township ◽  
Gender Change ◽  
Men And Masculinity

Changes in political, social, and economic structures in South Africa during the transition from apartheid to democratic governance in 1994 have put men and masculinity/ies under public and scholarly scrutiny. Attention has generally focused on the links between masculinity and violence, particularly among black men from low-income backgrounds, in attempts to understand the widespread levels of sexual violence throughout the country. Together, but in tension with the focus on men and violence, has been a literature that documents gender change in South Africa. This literature argues for example, that men are embracing fatherhood and becoming more engaged in childcare. Nevertheless this is a minority literature that is overshadowed by a focus on men and violence. In this article, I reflect on the lives of a group of men living in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, who are exploring what it means to be a man in a contemporary township setting, and the issues and challenges they face in attempts to transition their masculine identities.

‘Second to None in the International Fight’: Australian Seafarers Internationalism and Maritime Unions Against Apartheid

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 442-464
Author(s):  
Diane Kirkby ◽  
Dmytro Ostapenko
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
World Federation ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
New Research

The participation of trade unions in the anti-apartheid movement is a subject which arguably merits more attention. This article brings into focus a group of unionists whose activism against apartheid was in the forefront of key initiatives. Drawing on new research the argument recounts the role of Australian seafarers on the international stage, particularly its association with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and shows how knowledge of events in South Africa passed from the WFTU to educate the union membership. By the 1980s, Australian seafarers were taking the lead in bringing European unionists together in united action to enforce the United Nations' embargo on oil supplies to South Africa by founding a new organization, the Maritime Unions Against Apartheid (MUAA). Reconstructing these events demonstrates two aspects of significance: the growing importance of monitoring shipping as an anti-apartheid strategy coordinated and led by European unions, which we point out relied on ships’ officers and crews for knowledge, and the breaking down of the ideological divide between the WFTU and the anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) working together in the MUAA. The article contributes new understanding of connections between anti-apartheid activism and its Cold War context.

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

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-142 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals A newly detected ablation phenomena in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

1995 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 93-96
Author(s):  
C.E Bøggild ◽  
J.-G Winther
Keyword(s):  
Research Effort ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
Deep Drilling ◽  
Dronning Maud Land ◽  
Antarctic Research ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
New Research ◽  
Climate Studies

From November 1993 to February 1994 members of the Geological Survey of Greenland (GGU) participated in a Nordic research effort in Antarctica. The Nordic Antarctic Research Programme (NARP) involves Norway, Sweden and Finland, which are all Antarctic Treaty Consultative Partners; Denmark as an observer has participated only since 1992 (Thomsen, 1994; Boggild et al., 1995). The member countries of NARP have traditionally carried out research in Dronning Maud Land. This region of Antarctica has recently gained new research interest, including survey for a joint European deep drilling programme planned for 1995/96. Future Norwegian climate studies on blue ice will therefore be closely related to the joint European deep drilling programme.

Rethinking Masculinity Studies: Feminism, Masculinity, and Poststructural Accounts of Agency and Emotional Reflexivity

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Waling
Keyword(s):  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Masculinity Studies ◽  
Masculine Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Men And Masculinity

The past decades have seen a broadening of critical masculinity studies, where terms like the metrosexual, and frameworks like hegemonic masculinity have become staples in the study of men. Although helpful, such terms denote a categorical experience that is either taken up or rejected by men. If rejected, new identities and forms of masculinity emerge to explain away what men are doing and feeling regarding their masculine identity, with little reflection on the question of men’s agency. Drawing from feminist accounts of agency and emotional reflexivity, this article provides an overview of how categorical analyses have become embedded within the study of masculinity, and how they continue to paint masculinity as a static and fixed entity despite their attempts to theorize its fluid multiplicity. In this work, I challenge men and masculinity scholars to return our analytical gazes to our descriptions of masculinity, and encourage the return to feminist theorizing.

scholarly journals Crown and Root Infection of Lisianthus Caused by Fusarium solani in South Africa

Plant Disease ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Truter ◽  
F. C. Wehner
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Fusarium Solani ◽  
Fusarium Species ◽  
Crown Rot ◽  
Hypodermic Needle ◽  
State University ◽  
Root Infection ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Eustoma Grandiflorum ◽  
A Minor

Cultivation of lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum (Raf.) Shinn.) is a minor industry in South Africa, with only a few growers producing the crop commercially. Commercial production at a location in Gauteng Province is hampered by rotting of the crowns and roots of plants that result in mortality of as much as 22% of the plants. At advanced stages of infection, the crowns of affected plants characteristically are covered with masses of fusoid, curved hyalophragmospores. Crowns and roots of symptomatic plants that were submitted by the grower in January 2003 were surface disinfested by immersing for 2 min in a 3% solution of sodium hypochlorite, and segments excised from the plant tissue were plated on potato dextrose agar supplemented with 50 mg l-1 of rifampicin. Fusarium solani (Mart.) Appel & Wollenw. (1), was consistently and exclusively isolated from the segments. Teleomorph Nectria haematococca Berk. & Broome, commonly developed in culture after incubation for 4 to 6 weeks, although no sexual structures were observed on infected plants. A spore suspension containing 104 micro- and macroconidia ml-1 was prepared for each of two single-conidial isolates of F. solani. Using a 0.8-mm-diameter hypodermic needle, 100 μl of each suspension was injected subepi-dermally into the crown of each of three 1-month-old disease-free lisian-thus plantlets (cv. Texas Blue Bell) growing in 500-ml plastic pots filled with sterilized vermiculite. In addition, each suspension was incorporated at 2% (vol/vol) into three pots with sterile vermiculite, and a plantlet was planted in each pot. Control plantlets were treated similarly, but with sterile distilled water. All inoculated plantlets developed crown rot and wilted within 2 weeks while maintained at 28°C in a greenhouse, regardless of mode of inoculation, and F. solani was readily reisolated from their crowns and roots. Control plantlets remained symptomless and did not yield F. solani. Crown and root infection of lisianthus by F. solani has been described (2,3), but to our knowledge, this is the first report of the disease in South Africa. References: (1) P. E. Nelson et al. Fusarium species: An Illustrated Manual for Identification. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park. 1983. (2) J. J. Taubenhaus and W. N. Ezekiel. Phytopathology 24:19, 1934. (3) S. Wolcan et al. Plant Dis. 85:443, 2001.

scholarly journals A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW OF THE CHILD

Obiter ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
RB Bernard ◽  
MC Buthelezi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Teddy Bear ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Minor Children ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law ◽  
A Minor

Children are considered to be vulnerable, and therefore need to be protected against parents, strangers and even themselves. As a consequence, the State’s quest for the protection of children in South Africa is expressed in the implementation of legislation designed to offer greater care and protection. For instance, section 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, offers a wide range of rights which are designed to offer greater protection to children. The rights of children can, in effect, be categorized into two themes. The first relates to the protection of children – as the child is dependent on those around him or her due to a lack of capacity, and is therefore vulnerable. The second theme relates to the autonomy of children. Section 28(2) of the Constitution provides that in any matter concerning a child, the best interests of the child are of paramount importance. However, most South African legislative provisions that deal with minor children seem to miss this principle, and are riddled with inconsistencies. In many statutes, where the principle is recognized, there is either limited appreciation of the significance of the principle and its overall impact on issues concerning children, or there is no coherence with the manner the courts have interpreted and applied the principle. For example, the recent judgment of  the Teddy Bear Clinic case declared sections 15 and 16 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act unconstitutional. The judgment has been heavily criticized by different segments of society for encouraging teens to engage in wanton sexual intercourse, but illustrates some of the flaws in legislation aimed at protecting the welfare of minor children in South Africa. Furthermore, the common law and other legislation such as the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, the Marriage Act, and provisions of the Children’s Act regulating contraceptives and condoms, all contain such inconsistencies. For instance, the common law and section 24 (together with s 26) of the Marriage Act allow a minor from the age of puberty to enter into a valid marriage; section 129 of the Children’s Act requires that a minor aged twelve be assisted by a guardian to undergo a surgical operation; whereassections of the Choice Act do not require parental consent for terminating a minor’s pregnancy. This note reviews the above and other inconsistences currently prevalent in the law of the child in South Africa. A brief overview of the Teddy Bear Clinic case will be considered. Thereafter, it outlines and examines various gender-based contradictions in the law, and examines the possible rationale for justifying the particular legislative measure concerned. The note concludes by proposing possible solutions to the discrepancies that have been identified.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Harris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Universal Health Coverage ◽  
Essential Medicine ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Universal Health

This chapter summarizes the overall argument and points to the influential role that elites from esteemed professions played in the institutionalization of policy in the three cases. While in all cases democratization provided new opportunities for professional movements in medicine to use the organizational vehicle of the state to advance universal health coverage and the power of the law to deepen commitments to essential medicine, The chapters relate how the differences in outcomes between Thailand and Brazil, on one hand, and South Africa, on the other, hinged on dramatically different political dynamics. I consider the contemporary state of professional movements and health reforms in the three countries; why health has remained a minor concern to mass movements; the durability of professional movements; the influence of professional movements in other policy domains and cases; and their relevance to the United States and other countries in the industrializing world.

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