Being caught without a passbook meant humiliation.

Fear of forgetting

How does society create and control our social world? How do passports and passbooks function as agents of government control? And what are the purposes of citizenship tests and ceremonies? This album provides insight into how large communities are organised to regulate their social behaviour. People who lived under Apartheid in South Africa describe how their passbook governed their social world, from alcohol consumption to medical health. Philosophers, politicians and academics offer differing perspectives on requirements for citizenship and the importance of citizenship ceremonies in the UK and Australia. In the two audio tracks, course team members Liz McFall and Sophie Watson put the ideas covered in the album into their academic context. This material is taken from The Open University course DD308 Making social worlds.

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Making social worlds

Transcript -- Making social worlds

Obligatory passbooks governed life in South Africa under Apartheid.

South African passbooks

How races were classified after the introduction of the 1950 Population Registration Act.

Fear of forgetting

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