New Releases
Contested Karoo: Interdisciplinary perspectives on change and continuity in South Africa’s drylands
15 May 2024
This inter-disciplinary collection explores significant land-use changes in South Africa’s semi-arid Karoo region and their implications for social justice and the environment, across different scales. It brings together recent scholarship by established and younger researchers, in both the social and the natural sciences, to examine the ways in which the Karoo is being reconfigured as a new... Read more
From Boys to Men: Social constructions of masculinity in contemporary society
30 April 2024
The current emphasis in research and education on women and girls is fraught with problems. It has raised a concern that boys and men should be included in research and intervention work on gender equality and transformation. As a result, academics with a background of many years of work in women’s and gender studies undertook a research project focusing on the construction of masculinities... Read more
Hostels, homes, museum: Memorialising migrant labour pasts in Lwandle, South Africa
26 March 2024
The history of Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, opened in 1998. Lwandle, about 40 km from Cape Town, was established in the 1950s by the apartheid state as a “native location” to house temporary migrant labor.
"Murray and Witz's discussions of architectural restoration, memory and oral history effortlessly incorporate academic debates that have raged for several decades.... Read more
Running to stand still: Politics and path dependency in South Africa’s municipal electricity sector
20 October 2022
The electricity supply crisis that gripped South Africa in 2007 impacted heavily on economic productivity, political stability, and every citizen.
To date, all attempts to understand how the country’s Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) has evolved focus narrowly on Eskom. This approach has become increasingly limited over the last 15 years as the national utility continues to spiral... Read more
Mainstreaming climate change in urban development: Lessons from Cape Town
30 August 2022
Cape Town’s drought crisis grabbed global headlines in 2018 and its causes and solutions were – and continue to be – hotly debated. But managing water shortages and other climate change impacts have been integrated into the city’s urban policy-making for some time, in response to rapid urbanisation and uncertainty about the exact nature, timing and magnitude of city-scale climatic... Read more
Fighting poverty: Labour markets and inequality in South Africa
12 August 2022
Unquestionably, poverty and inequality are among the major challenges that face South Africa today. In this well-researched, comprehensive volume, the authors:
• use new techniques to measure and analyse household inequality and poverty in South Africa;
• analyse the nature and functioning of... Read more
Genes for Africa: Genetically modified crops in the developing world
12 August 2022
In Genes for Africa, Jennifer Thomson separates fact from fiction and explains why and how GM crops can help us combat poverty, starvation and disease in the developing world, in a safe and responsible way.
In the first part of the book the author explains the technology and looks at the differences and similarities between genetic modification, conventional plant breeding,... Read more
Waves of change: Coastal and fisheries co-management in southern Africa
12 August 2022
The oceans that meet along the southern African coast contain a diversity of ecosystems ranging from tropical coral reefs to cool-water kelp forests. Many of the coastal and marine species living in these waters are resources that are harvested by coastal communities to provide important sources of nutrition, income and livelihood.
However, ongoing over-exploitation of fisheries... Read more
Who gets in and why? Race, class and aspiration in South Africa’s elite schools
4 August 2022
A main road snakes from the City Bowl in the north to Fish Hoek in the south, along which corridor sit some of the most prestigious academic schools on the continent, in sight of Africa’s leading tertiary institution, the University of Cape Town. This is a study of patterns of racial segregation in the elite primary schools of one of the ‘whitest’ and wealthiest areas of South Africa,... Read more
Sharing benefits from the coast: Rights, resources and livelihoods
4 August 2022
Coastal resources are vital for communities in developing countries, many of whom live in abject poverty. These resources also hold significant value for a number of different sectors such as mining, fisheries and tourism, which supply expanding global consumer markets. Although these activities provide opportunities for economic and income growth, global patterns indicate growing levels of... Read more
Taking action on climate change: Long term mitigation scenarios for South Africa
4 August 2022
Making a just transition to a low-carbon economy and society is one of the most difficult challenges globally. In South Africa, which needs to address poverty and inequality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions presents a daunting challenge. Nonetheless, the South African government initiated a process to develop long term mitigation scenarios. These were based on rigorous research, involving a... Read more
Upgrading informal settlements in South Africa: A partnership-based approach
4 August 2022
Informal settlements are a pressing urban challenge in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. Intervention and investment are needed, not only to improve material conditions, but also to combat social and political exclusion and marginalisation.
What would a progressive upgrading agenda for informal settlements entail, and how could it be achieved? This has been widely debated in... Read more
The House of Tshatshu: Power, politics and chiefs north-west of the Great Kei River c 1818-2018
3 August 2022
‘In 1852 Sir George Cathcart pronounced that the amaTshatshu chieftaincy no longer existed: “I have broken and banished the tribe”, he boasted. This deeply researched book, at once clear-sighted and moving, traces the consequences of this proscription to the present day. In the course of a detailed examination of 200 years of this Thembu chieftaincy, Mager and Velelo illuminate a number... Read more
Food security in South Africa: Human rights and entitlement perspectives
2 August 2022
Ensuring that every man, woman and child has access to adequate food at all times is one of the basic social and political goals of democratic South Africa, a right which is guaranteed in the country’s Constitution as in international law. Yet food insecurity remains widespread and persistent, at levels much higher than in countries with similar levels of per capita GDP. What in South... Read more
Steward leadership: A maturational perspective
2 August 2022
Steward Leadership is a form of leadership which focuses on others, the community and society at large, rather than the self. Many senior leaders and executives across the globe appear to move into a steward leadership mindset when their careers have matured, or when they are in the second half of their life- or career cycles, whereas executives of around 30 years old are typically focused on... Read more
The Reb and the rebel: Jewish narratives in South Africa 1892-1913
12 July 2022
The personal histories of an immigrant father and his Cape-born son burst from some tattered Hebrew notebooks and a translucent typescript, giving the Jewish diasporic settlement in South Africa an immediacy seldom encountered before. The manuscripts of two Schrires – Reb Yehuda Leib (1851-1912) and his youngest son Harry (1895-1980) – include a diary, a memoir and an epic poem. They... Read more
Confronting fragmentation: Housing and urban development in a democratising society
27 June 2022
The fragmentation of South Africa’s cities persists despite the ending of apartheid. New forms of segregation are emerging in the context of globalisation and a largely neo-liberal policy environment. This poses an enormous challenge for policy-making, planning, and community activism. Although there has been an improvement in service infrastructure in certain parts of South African cities... Read more
HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding the implications of culture & context
27 June 2022
Popular understanding of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa is riddled with contradiction and speculation. This is revealed in HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, which explores the various contexts in which debate about HIV/AIDS takes place and examines how the pandemic is perceived by scholars, religious leaders and traditional healers, among others – in communities in and... Read more
From prohibited immigrants to citizens: The origins of citizenship and nationality in South Africa
27 June 2022
Jonathan Klaaren blends legal and social history in this engaging account of early conceptions of South African citizenship. He argues that distinctively South African notions of citizenship and nationality come out of the period 1897 to 1937, through legislation and official practices employing the key concept of ‘prohibited immigrant’ and seeking to regulate the mobility of three... Read more
Domains of freedom: Justice, citizenship and social change in South Africa
27 June 2022
Freedom ... Justice ... Citizenship ... What do they mean in South Africa today? In striving for them, have historical inequalities been recognised? Have political changes over the last 20 years translated into economic redistribution? Have the struggles for social change enhanced the project of decolonisation? Examining a wide range of social issues, from economic policy, land reform, gender... Read more
A Dictionary of South African Indian English
27 June 2022
Bunny chow, larney, lakker, roti-ou, thanni, Satyagraha, Kavady ... these are all terms from South African Indian English, an important dialect in South Africa, particularly KwaZulu-Natal, and one of the better-known varieties of English in the Linguistics literature. It arose out of the language accommodations that occurred as Indians arriving in South Africa in large numbers in the... Read more
Child and adolescent development: An expanded focus for public health in Africa
21 June 2022
Global public health has improved vastly over the past 25 years, and especially in the survival of infants and young children. However, many children, particularly in Africa, continue to live in poverty and in unhealthy, unsupportive environments, and will not be able to meet their developmental potential. In other words, they will survive but not thrive. The United Nations Sustainable... Read more
Cities with ‘Slums’: From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa
21 June 2022
The UN’s Millennium Development Target to improve the lives of 100 million ‘slum’ dwellers has been inappropriately communicated as a target to free cities of slums. Cities with ‘Slums’: From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa traces the proliferation of this misunderstanding across several African countries, and explains how current urban... Read more
The Anatomy of a South African Genocide: The extermination of the Cape San peoples
20 June 2022
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Dutch-speaking pastoralists who infiltrated the Cape interior dispossessed its aboriginal inhabitants and damaged the environment with their destructive farming and hunting practices. In response to indigenous resistance, colonists formed armed, mounted militia units known as commandos with the express purpose of destroying San bands. Pervasive settler... Read more
Beyond impunity: New directions for governance in Malawi
13 April 2022
"This comprehensive, compelling, accessible and timely volume should be compulsory reading to academics, policy makers, social activists, and the general public in Malawi and elsewhere on the continent. It is the best book I have read recently on the country’s complex, contradictory, messy, and disappointing political and socioeconomic dispensation since the dawn of the era of multiparty... Read more
Making urban places: Principles and guidelines for layout planning
11 April 2022
In recent years there has been a growing consensus among town planners, and other involved professionals, that a change of approach is required. This shift has been fuelled by the demise of apartheid-based town planning and an acceptance that urban reconstruction and development is a priority. An important gap, however, has been the absence of an alternative concept of urban spatial... Read more
Just transitions: Explorations of sustainability in an unfair world
11 April 2022
Current economic growth strategies around the world are rapidly depleting natural resources and eco-systems. Just Transitions provides an overview of these challenges from a Global South perspective. How do developing countries eradicate poverty via economic development, while encountering the consequences of global warming and dwindling supplies of clean water, productive soils,... Read more
Substance use and abuse in South Africa: Insights from brain and behavioural sciences
8 April 2022
South Africa’s high levels of substance abuse represent one of the most pressing health problems afflicting the country. In particular, alcohol, stimulants such as tik (methamphetamine) and opiates such as heroin are devastating communities, aggravating poverty and crime, and contributing to child abuse and gender violence.
Substance Use and Abuse in South Africa emerges... Read more
Traditional African religions in South African law
8 April 2022
Since colonial times, traditional African religions have been misunderstood and misrepresented. Victims of the prejudice of Christian dogma, they have been said to be nothing more than magic and superstition, or at best mere ancestor worship. South Africa’s new constitutional order, however, with its celebration of diversity and its guarantee of equal treatment, demands a change in thinking.... Read more
