Programmes Across the Higher Education Landscape

Against the backdrop of the 20th year of democracy, unemployment, inequality and poverty remain urgent social challenges; the ANC-led government has put forward the National Development Plan (NDP), as a response to this challenge. While scientific and technological knowledge are proposed for ‘development,’ the humanities and social sciences have been promoted – by often contradictory social forces – as necessary for critique. In this context, what are the purposes and possibilities of sociological knowledge? There have been calls for ‘decolonising’ knowledge, and for re-locating it (e.g. ‘theory from the South, even ‘Sociology from the periphery). There have been calls for knowledge to be ‘relevant’ (e.g. in service of social policy), and revolutionary’ (i.e.in service of social movements). There have been calls to revitalise the humanities - both by the state, and by social forces opposed to it. There have been calls to deepen public critique, and to democratise academic knowledge. In 2013, the SASA Congress engaged the location from which knowledge is produced. In 2014, 20 years after the dawn of democracy in South Africa, with the urgent social and political challenges confronting South African society, the SASA Congress will ask: What is - or should be - the point of critique in contemporary South Africa? Institutional Welcome Message Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Prof Derrick Swartz Vice-Chancellor The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is privileged to host the South African Sociological Association (SASA) XXIst Congress. The conference theme “The Point of Critique: Knowledge, Society and the State in South Africa after 20 Years of Democracy” assumes great significance at this time of our country’s transition and provides us with a unique opportunity to pose critical and reflexive questions. NMMU has a keen interest in the importance of scientific and technical knowledge and its relation to development. For this reason, NMMU is constantly seeking ways to create and sustain an environment that encourages, supports and rewards a vibrant research, scholarship and innovation culture, whilst positioning the university as an engaged Institution that contributes to a sustainable future through critical scholarship. There is a deeply felt institutional conviction to be part of the social building process by uniting professional knowledge, scientific consciousness, and social commitment. This resonates with the rising voices for a radical rethink about the social (re)production of knowledge and its relevance for South Africa’s transition. NMMU is an active proponent for raising the status of the social science disciplines and programmes across the higher education landscape. It is this effort, combined with improved social science post-graduate programmes and linkages across academia and civil society, that will enable the establishment of a dynamically re-modelled post-school education and training system. This new system must, in turn, promote social justice and a more equitable society. NMMU welcomes all Congress delegates both to the university and to Nelson Mandela Bay and wishes the SASA Congress every success in its endeavours. 1 MESSAGE FROM THE SASA PRESIDENT Against a background of profound social inequalities, calls for substantive social justice, questions about the capacity of and manner in which state institutions ought to respond, and a concomitant deepening of public debate and contention, both locally and globally, the South African Sociological Association’s twenty-first congress reflects upon the nature of critique and scholarship twenty years after South Africa became a democracy. With its congress hosted in the historic Eastern Cape at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the year following the death of Nelson Mandela, SASA honours this historic moment with a focus on exploring the relationship between knowledge, society and the state. At once the meeting place of a professional organisation and a community of sociologists, a critical location for social enquiry and critique, and the site for the launch of future scholarly careers, there is a certain kind of vibrancy, as well as intensity and liveliness to SASA congresses that stimulate and animate our social and scholarly projects. I want to thank our colleagues at NMMU for putting this event together, for generously hosting us, and for creating a platform where we can engage with current scholarship and open up new enquiries. Irma du Plessis 2 SASA President: 2013-2014 MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARIAT OF THE NMMU LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE The 21st SASA Congress theme puts a critical ideological frame around, and links knowledge, society and state. Knowledge is the key factor of productio n; our society is in the throes of transition as well as globalization; and the state is yet to yield itself as the instrument of the people. The framework clearly places knowledge at the conceptual centre towards consolidating democratic gains, integrating our society, and energizing the state in the process. The social production of knowledge in South Africa was deeply divided as a result of apartheid. One episteme served apartheid, others buttressed capital, and yet others sought to overcome apartheid-capitalism. Our history shows that only a small group of neo-Marxian sociologists supported the democratic movement and exposed the idea that apartheid was conducive to capitalist development. Subsequently however, it took a few decades to acknowledge the neglect of social sciences locally, and in the South. Locally, the emerging institutional arrangements, such as the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, to strengthen the social sciences are clear opportunities for us to rethink the social production of knowledge. In the South, concrete steps are also in place to address this neglect. One such effort is the development of a Sociology of BRICS – driven by some of the top academies and universities in the respective BRICS countries. Crucially this means, on the one hand, a radical paradigmic response to the global capitalist crisis, and on the other hand, we in South Africa need to give critical content to the conceptual linkages of knowledge, society and state. Additionally, given the disorganization of the social sciences and the diversity of sociology at South African institutions, we may conclude that they are all not at the point of critique. The restructuring of higher education has further complicated developments in the social sciences and the discipline. There is some hope however, around the recurriculation process of disciplines and programmes, but much more work needs to be done. There are four points at which we may begin the work: our institutions and academics must support the Special Project on the Future of the Humanities and the Social Sciences; our South African Sociological Association must rethink its functional relationship to society; departments at our institutions must rethink how they will give content to, and programatize a scholarship of engagement; and the introduction of sociology in our schooling system must be seriously pursued. Jayanathan Govender NMMU LOC Secretariat 3 PLENARY 1: The State of Critique | the Critique of the State KEYNOTE PANEL: CHAIR – Dr Shireen Ally PROFESSOR ARI SITAS PROFESSOR IVOR CHIPKIN PROFESSOR XOLELA MANGCU PROFESSOR SAKHELA BUHLUNGU Ari Sitas chairs the Board of the National Ivor Chipkin completed his PhD at the Xolela Mangcu is Associate Professor of Sakhela Buhlungu is currently a member Institute for the Humanities and the Social Ecole Normale Superieure in France and Sociology at the University of Cape Town, of the Committee on Scholarly Publishing Sciences. He is a sociologist and a writer was based at the Wits Institute for Social and Oppenheimer Fellow at the Hutchins in South Africa of the Academy of Science and was a key thinker and activist in the and Economic Research (WISER) between Center for African and African American of South Africa. He served as board anti-apartheid movement. He is currently 2001 and 2004. He received an Research at Harvard University. He is the member, editor, and secretary of the Head of Department of Sociology at UCT. Oppenheimer fellowship in 2005 and took author and co-author of seven books, Research Committee on Labour He has served as President of the SA up a position at St Anthony’s college at including, Biko: A Biography (Tafelberg, Movements (RC44) of the International Sociological Association and Vice- the University of Oxford. 2012; The Arrogance of Power Sociological Association (ISA) since 2002. President of the International Sociological (forthcoming Tafelberg Press, 2014); and Association. He spent 4 years in the Democracy and The Colour of Our Future (forthcoming He also served on the editorial board of Governance Programme at the Human Wits University Press 2015). the South African Labour Bulletin and was He is currently a Fellow at the Institute of Sciences Research Council where he a board member of the National Labour, Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru acquired an intimate knowledge of Xolela was a columnist for the Business Economic and Development Institute University, New Delhi and a Guest government departments and agencies. In Day, the Weekender and the Sunday (NALEDI). Professor at the Albert-Ludvigs University 2007 he published “Do South Africans Independent, and currently writes a bi- of Freiburg. Exist? Nationalism, Democracy and the weekly column for the Sowetan. He has published widely on the changing Identity

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