Archive for the ‘Academic’ Category
by Amy on Feb 18th, 2013
Wars in the 21st century are wars against the earth: against natural resources like water, soil, forests, minerals, seeds. The global corporate economy based on the idea of limitless growth has become a war economy and the means it uses are instruments of war. Trade wars. Water wars. Food wars.
In a compelling and rigorously documented exposition, Shiva demolishes the myths propagated by corporate globalisation in its pursuit of profit and power by demonstrating its flawed assumptions and devastating fallouts.
Corporate control violates all ethical and ecological limits. It promotes technologies of production based on genetic engineering, geo-engineering and toxins; industrial development that entails the forcible appropriation of land, rivers, mountains; agribusinesses that deplete nature’s diversity; land-grab in Africa, Asia, South America. Exploitation of this order incurs the kind of ecological and economic debt that is unsustainable, unbailable and unbearable.
Making Peace with the Earth outlines how a paradigm shift to earth-centred politics and economics is our only chance of survival; and how collective resistance to corporate exploitation can open the way to a new environmentalism of interdependence and earth democracy.
About the author
Vandana Shiva is an Indian philosopher, environmental activist, author and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books. She is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, et al.) and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, as is evident from her interview in the book Vedic Ecology (by Ranchor Prime) that draws upon India’s Vedic heritage. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain’s Socialist Party’s think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. She was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. Past publications include Soil Not Oil (2008) and Staying Alive (2010).
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by Amy on Jan 17th, 2013
Jacana is pleased to share a preview of the book Spearheading Debate: Culture Wars & Uneasy Truces. The preview contains the contents page, acknowledgements and introduction, as well as the first chapter, which deals with a globalised view of “culture wars”.
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by Amy on Nov 28th, 2012
Last Thursday at The Book Lounge saw the launch of Spearheading Debate by Steven C Dubin, with Pippa Skotnes, fine arts professor at UCT leading the discussion. The talk was introduced with a snippet from Dubin’s website: a quote which states that throughout his professional career, Dubin has been consistent in his “interest in examining the interplay between the arts, ideology and power and the tension between creative freedom and social control”.
In Spearheading Debate Dubin explores how the gallery serves both as a public space and a place of potential controversy. He looks at the interplay between artists and the social environment and assesses the type of stimuli that people react to. As Skotnes explains, Dubin examines “the changing nature of museums, representation and display in South Africa” and “the difference between museums and galleries and the way that, in some cases, galleries have been inheritors of colonialism.”
Skotnes then discussed how Dubin regards “the relationship between what is seen as a threat to people’s values and the power that is marshalled in order to confront that threat”. Despite what the title may imply, this book is not specifically about “The Spear”, Brett Murray’s painting of Jacob Zuma that was recently defaced and caused great controversy. The book covers a wide range of topics from music to art and media.
Dubin said the term “Culture Wars” was coined by James Hunter in 2001. According to Dubin, Hunter defined the concept as “incompatible world views of people who are promoting orthodoxy with progressivism”. He expanded on this notion by saying, “it’s a little more polite to bash art than it is to bash people the art represents”. Furthermore, despite how “disruptive” culture wars can be, Dubin said he feels that “culture wars draw the toxins out of the surface and force people to confront the fault lines in a particular society”. He went on to say, “There’s virtually nothing I wouldn’t defend, except of course if it was a crime”.
Dubin says that living in a free democracy and creating dialogue is essential. “I think to live in a democracy you have to have a thick skin”, he said.
“There’s nothing inherently offensive about something at one particular time,” said Skotnes later on in the discussion, “but it can become so”. She reflected on how the “The Spear” could be seen as a “ventriloquist’s doll” and how there were different people making it speak.
Skotnes asked Dubin whether one could predict a culture war. Dubin responded by arguing that, “We are probably as good at predicting culture wars as we are predicting earthquakes”. He also spoke about “uneasy truces”, explaining that cultural debates do not come to an end as there are always aftershocks… However, the upshot of culture wars is that they can trigger the sort of cultural dialogue around art, space, politics and culture that is essential to a free democratic society.
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by Amy on Nov 21st, 2012
Jacana Media and the Goodman Gallery are delighted to invite you to the launch of Spearheading Debate: Culture Wars & Uneasy Truces by Steven C Dubin.
Dubin will be joined by panelists Frederico Freschi, Charl Blignaut and Vulindlela Nyoni as they use “culture wars” to analyse a broad range of impassioned controversies regarding race and ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and national identity.
The event will start at 11 AM on Saturday 24 November at the Goodman Gallery.
See you there!
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by Amy on Nov 14th, 2012
Jacana Media is delighted to invite you to two launches of Spearheading Debate: Culture Wars & Uneasy Truces by Steven C Dubin.
The first will be held at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on Wednesday 21 November at 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM, where Dubin will be in conversation with Pippa Skotnes. The second will take place in Johannesburg on Thursday 22 November at 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM in the FADA building at the University of Johannesburg.
Don’t miss it!
Cape Town
- Date: Wednesday, 21 November 2012
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
- Venue: The Book Lounge,
71 Roeland Street
Cnr Buitenkant
Cape Town | Map
- Guest Speaker: Pippa Skotnes
- RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425
Johannesburg
- Date: Thursday, 22 November 2012
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
- Venue: FADA Building
University of Johannesburg
Bunting Road Campus
Auckland Park | Map
- RSVP: rsvp@jacana.co.za, 011 628 3200
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by Amy on Nov 13th, 2012
New from Jacana, Spearheading Debate: Culture Wars & Uneasy Truces by Steven C Dubin:
The concept of “culture wars” is very familiar to Americans but it is virtually unknown in other parts of the world. Sociologist James Hunter defined culture wars as public conflict based upon incompatible worldviews, what he differentiated as “the impulse toward orthodoxy” from “the impulse toward progressivism”. In other words, divergent moral visions have supplanted economics as the critical factor driving a wedge between different factions in the contemporary world. This robust concept is useful to analyse a broad range of impassioned confrontations between groups within the same society, polarised over hot-button issues regarding race and ethnicity; the body, sexuality and sexual orientation; religion; and patriotism and national identity.
As South Africa’s democracy matures, this book analyses the following questions: how does the state mediate between traditional tribal authority and constitutional law in matters such as initiation customs or the rights of women, children and gay people? What are the limitations on artistic freedom in a society where sensitivities over colonial- and apartheid-era representations are acute? Whose histories are venerated and whose are obliterated? How does race open up discussions or close down dialogue? What are the parameters of freedom of speech when minorities fear that hateful language may trigger actual violence against them? And do legacies of oppression generate exclusive insights and grant special rights? Examining disputes over South African art, music, media, editorial cartoons, history, public memory, and a variety of social practices, Past Imperfect/Future Conditional extends the culture-wars perspective to new territory, demonstrates its cross-cultural applicability, and parses critical debates within this vibrant society in formation.
About the author
Steven C. Dubin is Professor of Arts Administration at Teachers College–Columbia University and Research Affiliate of Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies. He received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago and did post-doctoral work at both Chicago and Yale, all in Sociology. He is the author of four books: Bureaucratizing the Muse: Public Funds and the Cultural Worker (U. of Chicago Press, 1987); Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions (Routledge, 1992; paperback edition, 1994); Displays of Power: Memory and Amnesia in the American Museum (NYU Press, 1999; expanded paperback edition, 2000); and Transforming Museums: Mounting Queen Victoria in a Democratic South Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2006; Mounting Queen Victoria: Curating Cultural Change, paperback, Jacana, 2009).
Arresting Images was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and received the Gustavus Meyers Award for Outstanding Book in the Study of Human Rights. Both Arresting Images and Displays of Power were featured as the lead books of their respective lists; along with Mounting Queen Victoria, they remain in print. Professor Dubin has been The Lady Davis Fellowship Trust Visiting Professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on two occasions; was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship to South Africa; served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the University of Iceland; and has enjoyed numerous writing residencies. He has visited South Africa regularly since 2000, for a total stay of over three years.
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by Amy on Aug 31st, 2012
The launch of (Un)covering Men: Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa co-edited by Melissa Meyer and Helen Struthers was a well-attended event at the 6 Spin Street Restaurant.
The book is an outcome of the HIV&Aids Media Project, with resulted from ongoing collaboration between the Anova Health Institute, Wits Journalism, Johns Hopkins, USAID and PEPFAR.
Meyer and Struthers were joined by Willemien Brümmer and Pieter van Zyl, two fellows of the programme who shared their remarkable experiences whilst undertaking their research.
Meyer, co-ordinator of the HIV&Aids Media Project, commenced the evening’s discussion. She said the primary goal had been to look beyond the “tired, one-dimension images of men typically seen in the press” and to uncover a more layered, meaningful and nuanced understanding of men’s experience.
The contributors to (Un)Covering Men have attempted in their essays to write “differently” about men. She said this had brought very interesting results to the fore. “The conversation that opens up when one writes differently – and about different types of men – results in a reconsideration of the tired stereotypes of men as Lotharias, risk-seekers, domineering and insensitive, and how that informs their health-seeking behaviour,” she said.
“We’ve put that notion in the context of the most pressing health concern in the country, which is also the health concern most directly linked to manhood and sexuality, HIV,” said Meyer. “Against the backdrop of the current media coverage of men, using thorough analysis of the media’s engagement with and representation of notions of masculinity, we have concluded that this is either non-existent or rather shallow.”
Meyer said that the book’s primary aim was to challenge conventional and unhealthy images of men and to put forward notions of masculinity that promote insight and empathy for the various roles men play in love, family, culture and society as a whole.
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Liesl Jobson tweeted from the launch using #livebooks:
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by Amy on Aug 23rd, 2012
Jacana Media, in association with the HIV/AIDS and the Media Project, an initiative of the Wits Journalism Programme and the Anova Health Institute, are pleased to invite you to launches for (Un)covering Men: Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa edited by Melissa Meyer and Helen Struthers in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The book will be launched at 6 Spin Street Restaurant in Cape Town on 29 August and at IT Corner in Johannesburg on 30 August.
See you there!
Event Details: Cape Town
Event Details: Johannesburg
- Date: Thursday, 30 August 2012
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
- Venue: IT Corner
Corner 4th Avenue and 7th Street
Melville
Johannesburg | Map
- RSVP: rsvp@jacana.co.za, 011 628 3200
Book Details
- (Un)covering Men: Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa edited by Melissa Meyer and Helen Struthers
EAN: 9781920196585
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by Amy on Aug 22nd, 2012
Between 2009 and 2011, journalism fellows of the HIV & AIDS Media Project undertook in-depth research looking to write about men, masculinity, and HIV in a new way, and the result is this compendium of articles, blogs, and photo essays.
(Un)covering Men: Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa showcases a diversity of men, each facing a unique context and dealing with sexual health and relationships differently. The book is structured around four central themes – men as lovers, men as partners and fathers, men who have sex with men, and men’s relationship to traditional and medical male circumcision – and brings men’s varied roles in the HIV epidemic to the fore.
About the editors
Melissa Meyer is the coordinator of the HIV & AIDS Media Project and the co-author of The Politics of AIDS Denialism: South Africa’s Failure to Respond.
Helen Struthers is a director and cofounder of the Anova Health Institute. She is a former program director for a large multidisciplinary research program funded by the United States Agency for International Development and a former member of the executive management team at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit.
Book details
- (Un)covering Men: Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa edited by Melissa Meyer and Helen Struthers
EAN: 9781920196585
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by Amy on Jun 22nd, 2012
New from Jacana:
The Human Rights Movement in South Africa’s transition to a post-apartheid democracy has been widely celebrated as a triumph for global human rights. It was a key aspect of the political transition, often referred to as a ‘miracle’, which brought majority rule and democracy to South Africa. However, the year is 2012 and South Africa continues to grapple with corruption, growing social and economic inequalities, and the weakening of state institutions by partisan appointments and one-party dominance. Attacks on freedom of expression, particularly attempts by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to tamper with media independence, raised serious concerns about the government’s commitment to the protection of basic civil and political rights. Despite these concerns, institutions of democracy, among them the South African Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector, remain highly active.
Saul Dubow’s South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights contextualises and explains the current concerns about rights and constitutionalism, as well as the populist reaction against the compromises or deals involved in the elite pact which brought about our New South Africa. The mid-1980s played a significant role as it is the time when the apartheid government and the ANC ‘discovered’ human rights at precisely the same time. African nationalist, liberalist and republican traditions were fragmented and episodic, but they help to explain why rights discourse and constitutionalism gained broad acceptance in the last decade of the twentieth century, and so aligned South Africa with global trends.
About the author
Saul Dubow is a professor of history at the University of Sussex, England. He has published widely on the development of racial segregation and apartheid in all its aspects: political, ideological and intellectual. He is the author of A Commonwealth of Knowledge. Science, Sensibility and White South Africa, 1820–2000 (2006); The African National Congress (2000); Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa (1995); and Racial Segregation and the Origins of Apartheid in Twentieth Century South Africa, 1919–36 (1989). He is currently working on a new history of apartheid.
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