Making Kin?: Creation and Monstrosity in Mohale Mashigo’s ‘Little Vultures’ (2018)

Review: <i>Rethinking Ownership of Development in Africa</i>, by T. D. Harper-Shipman

Beyond Claim‐Rights: Social Structure, Collectivization, and Human Rights

The concepts of collective management of housing and urban spaces are being revisited within the contemporary discussions about community-driven approaches and practices and, in particular, related to the revitalization of residential neighbourhoods. This research identifies the concepts of self-management and social ownership of housing in the post-World War II period in Yugoslavia as an important legacy of Yugoslav urban planning and housing policies. Although they were subsequently neglected, these concepts can contribute to contemporary global discussions about housing affordability and the role of community in ensuring spatial and social equality. New Belgrade mass housing blocks—the main site for testing the new dwelling concepts, in terms of both policies and modernist design—are the object of this research. The article is mainly a theoretical analysis of the issues of common interest and engagement, common good, and common spaces which played a decisive role in its design. The study applies interpretative and correlational research methods in re-theorizing these concepts and their underlying narratives. It traces how the perspectives on the collective practices and spaces evolved over time, revealing a correlation between changed social practices and the spatial deterioration of the New Belgrade mass housing blocks. The study highlights the importance of both collective practices and common spaces for addressing housing issues, emphasizing their instrumentality, and potentiality for rearticulating the dialogue between public and private, engaging citizens in interactive and inclusive decision-making and co-creation of the urban reality.

Government and policymakers want to engage the public in a dialogue about the conduct and consequences of science and increasingly seek to actively involve citizens in decision-making processes. Implicit in this thinking is that greater transparency and public inclusion will help dispel fears associated with new scientific advancements, foster greater public trust in those accountable, and ultimately increase the acceptability of new technologies. Less understood, however, are public perceptions about such high-level involvement in science and how these map onto public trust and attitudes within a diverse population. This article uses the concept of public efficacy -- the extent to which people believe that the public might be able to affect the course of decision making -- to explore differences in trust, attentiveness, and attitudes toward modern genetic science. Using nationally representative data from the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey, we begin by examining the characteristics of those who have a positive belief about public involvement in this area of scientific inquiry. We then focus on how this belief maps on to indicators of public trust in key stakeholder groups, including the government and genetic scientists. Finally, we consider the relationship between public efficacy and trust and attitudes toward different applications of genetic technology. Our findings run contrary to assumptions that public involvement in science will foster greater trust and lead to a climate of greater acceptance for genetic technology. A belief in public efficacy does not uniformly equate with more trusting attitudes toward stakeholders but is associated with less trust in government rules. Whereas trust is positively correlated with more permissive attitudes about technologies such as cloning and gene therapy, people who believe in high-level public involvement are less likely to think that these technologies should be allowed than those who do not.

From the most recent and directive dimensions of the (?) story of Homo sapiens (Hs), presented as a very limited overview and in broad outlines from an anthropological perspective, the focus will ultimately fall on three key concepts: ecosystems, niche construction and wisdom. These concepts in my academic opinion represent for our pursuit and further exploration on morality and religion from evolutionary perspectives the most important anthropological clues and directives. Against the background of two remarks: firstly, on the contextual state of the present science-religion discourses in South Africa and secondly, on the fluid and messy nature of the relationship between science-religion in contemporary discourses, the (no, a) messy story of Homo sapiens is told, incorporating the most recent post-Darwinian developments within evolutionary theories, highlighting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) and the all-important four dimensions of inheritance that are embodied in these very three concepts.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Reflection on the stories of Homo sapiens within cultural anthropological, theological and philosophical contexts in order to highlight directives and implications for the relationship between morality and religion within contemporary science-religion discourses.

ABSTRACTArguably for the first time in human history there is now the emergence of an inclusive existential ethical sensibility that claims to transcend religious and cultural categorizations and is accessible to, and potentially resonates with, a diverse and multifarious mainstream majority. Compassion stands at the centre of this project as a collective commonality and a cohesive driver of contemporary imagination and discourse. The recent global Charter for Compassion is a signpost and codification of this new movement. But how does it correspond with the challenges of an African context, where the concept of ubuntu has a long history? South Africa is indeed a microcosm of the rest of the world and our engagement with the questions of a modern-day moral vacuum and religion is important for its significance on a global scale. This article aims to engage with contemporary discourses around ubuntu and the Charter for Compassion in order to investigate possible correspondences between these two humanitarian approaches.

The reception of the Barmen Declaration in South Africa

Venus rising, Furies raging: bodies redressed in contemporary visual art

The South African National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) recently released a final draft revision of the standard material transfer agreement (MTA) that was promulgated into law in 2018. This new draft MTA raises pertinent questions about the NHREC's mandate, the way in which the draft MTA deals with data and with human biological material, and its avoidance of the concept of ownership. After South Africa's data protection legislation, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), became operational in mid 2021, the legal landscape changed and it is doubtful that the NHREC has a residual mandate to govern personal information in health research. Furthermore, data is dealt with in a superficial, throw-away fashion in the draft MTA. The position with human biological material is not substantially better, as the draft MTA fails to recognise that human biological material can contain pathogens, which has important legal and ethical ramifications that are not sufficiently addressed. A central problem with the draft MTA is its use of the term 'steward', and avoidance of the legal concept of 'ownership'. This is not only misaligned with the South African legal framework, but also fails to consider the ethical case for recognising ownership. Finally, a call to embrace decolonial thinking in health research underscores the importance of recognising ownership in order to foster the growth of the local bio-economy. Key recommendations to reshape the draft MTA include: Making use of the eventual revised MTA optional, and allowing it to evolve with input from scientific and legal communities; regulating the transfer of associated data in a separate data transfer agreement that can be incorporated by reference in the MTA; enhancing guidance on liability and risk management in respect of human biological material that contains pathogens; and, finally, adopting a decolonial approach in health research governance, which requires recognising the ownership rights of South African research institutions.

Objectives: To assess the feasibility of case finding with regard to genetic disorders through the Primary Health Care Genetic Services System in the rural Northern Province, which is one of the poorest and least developed provinces in South Africa. Methods: Achondroplasia was used as the object of this pilot study. Genetically trained nurses invited patients with known or suspected achondroplasia to attend a clinic. The patients were seen by two medical students and a genetic scientist, who selected cases meeting predefined clinical and anthropometric criteria. X-rays were taken and blood was sampled for mutation analysis. The study took place in the period from March to August 1997. The patients were seen at six local hospitals. Reviewing of the X-rays and mutation analysis took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Results: Thirty-one patients were selected and invited to the clinics. From this group, presented to the medical students, 17 patients were thought to have achondroplasia. The selection was based on clinical features and anthropometrical measurements. After reviewing the X-rays and adding the results from the mutation analysis, 15 out of these 17 patients were diagnosed as having achondroplasia. Conclusion: The genetic nursing system proved to be effective for case finding in this rural setting. The system may serve as a model for genetic services in other underdeveloped regions.

This study investigates the role of macro-economic indicators in explaining direct real estate returns in South Africa (SA). Literature review is conducted to identify factors that drive direct commercial real returns and the identified drivers are tested in an emerging market. The study applies SA annual commercial real estate returns including total returns, rental growth and capital growth published by the Investment Property Databank (IPD) over the past 20 years, from 1995 to 2014, as an independent variable. The most dominant and significant factors that explain total returns across all property types and provinces in South Africa are GDP, unemployment rates and interest rates which are macro-economic indicators. Our study finds key differences between the determinants of total return and change in capital values which are different from the variables which determine rental growth – the results also highlight the heterogeneity and complexity of real estate returns. These results are important for asset managers as well as government regulatory agencies to make better informed decisions in relation to factors which affect direct real estate returns in an emerging economy.

This book investigates governance practiced by non-state actors.&nbsp;It analyses how multinational mining companies protect their sites in fragile contexts and what that tells us about political ordering 'beyond' the state. Based on extensive primary research in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Europe and North America, the book compares companies' political role in the 19th and 21st centuries. It demonstrates that despite a number of disturbing parallels, many contemporary practices are not a reversion to the past but unique to the present. The book discloses hybrid security practices with highly ambiguous effects around the sites of contemporary companies that have committed to norms of corporate social and security responsibility. Companies invest in local communities, and offer human rights training to security forces alongside coercive techniques of fortress protection, and stability-oriented clientele practice and arrangements of indirect rule. The book traces this hybridity back to contradictory collective meaning systems that cross borders and structure the perceptions and choices of company managers, private security officers, NGO collaborators and others practitioners. The book argues that hybrid security practices are not the result of an encounter between a supposed ‘local’ with the liberal ‘global’. Instead, this hybridity is inherent in the transnational and part and parcel of liberal transnational governance. Therefore, more critical reflection of global governance in practice is required. These issues are sharply pertinent to liberal peacebuilding as well as global governance more broadly.&nbsp;The book will be of interest to anyone interested in business, politics and human rights; critical security studies; peacebuilding and statebuilding; African politics; and ethnographic and sociological approaches to global governance and international relations more generally.

BackgroundThe South African Constitution protects the right to vote for every citizen. The Electoral Act (No. 73 of 1998) limits registration on the voter’s roll on the basis of being declared of ‘unsound mind’ or ‘mentally disordered’ by the high court or detention under the Mental Health Care Act (No. 17 of 2002). There is limited information regarding voting knowledge and subsequent voting-related decisions amongst South African involuntary mental healthcare users (MHCUs).AimTo compare voting knowledge and related decisions between hospitalised MHCUs and non-psychiatric hospitalised patients (controls).SettingParticipants were recruited from Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital (MHCUs) and Chris Hani Baragawanth Academic Hospital orthopaedic wards (controls) in Gauteng, South Africa.MethodA cross-sectional survey was conducted using a modified Cognitive Assessment Tool for Voting (MCAT-V) questionnaire. Scores on the MCAT-V were compared between the MHCU and control groups, along with socio-demographic variables and clinical variables.ResultsThere was a significant association between group (MHCU vs. control) and HLOE (p = 0.016). Although the median overall score for the controls (11; interquartile range [IQR] 10–12) was significantly higher than that for the MHCUs (10; IQR 8–12) (p = 0.043), when controlling for education level, there was no significant association between group (MHCU/control) and MCAT-V scores (p = 0.011). The MCAT-V scores of the ‘Doe questions’ between the MHCUs and controls were not significantly different (p = 0.063). There was a difference in ‘reasoning scores’ between MHCUs and controls (p = 0.0082) and this was associated with level of educational attainment (p = 0.013).ConclusionThe limitations regarding voter registration legislated in the South African Electoral Act, are not supported by the findings of this study. The MCAT-V demonstrates a possible educational bias and therefore is not recommended as a screening tool for assessing voting competency.

In South African high schools, many learners have limited support in making career related decisions to prepare them for the world of work after school. An important early transition for career-related decision-making is at the end of Grade 9 when learners are expected to decide which subjects they will select for the last phase of high school. Grade 9 is also the juncture where adolescents may decide to exit their formal schooling and enter the labor market. To support Grade 9 learners in making informed career-related decisions, this study examined the effectiveness of a group-based career guidance intervention implemented in eight secondary schools located in resource-constrained communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. The intervention aimed to improve learners’ career decision-making readiness and aid in making subject choices and subsequent career choices. The intervention consisted of interest assessment conducted in a group-format with the learners, after which a workshop was facilitated to share relevant information pertaining to their interests, other career attributes and pending subject choices. The results of this study demonstrate a significant impact of early adolescents’ career adaptability and ability to engage in the career decision-making process. These results show promise in the implementation of group-based career intervention, supporting learners to make informed decisions in relation to their career paths.

African Vernacular Symbols of Black Intersex Children in Sinethemba Ngubane's Installations (2007-2016)