Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) seminars

Social housing is a powerful tool for integrating divided cities. It can also help low income households to get on in life and thrive by providing a secure home base with good access to jobs and amenities. The HSRC recently completed a study of social housing’s contribution to spatial transformation and upward social mobility in South Africa. The purpose of this webinar is to share the findings and to stimulate discussion about the next steps for policy and practice.

A mixed picture emerged from the research, both in terms of location and upward mobility. Although social housing has a unique mandate to promote urban integration, over the last 27 years there has been a ‘spatial drift’ of new projects away from inner cities towards outer urban areas. This has been most apparent in Johannesburg, and least common in Tshwane. The pressure to accelerate delivery is partly responsible, along with the cost of well-located land. Another important conclusion is that insufficient attention has been devoted to supporting household advancement and finding the most effective pathways to improve people’s life chances.

The discussion will test the veracity of these findings and consider what needs to be done to improve the location of social housing and increase the contribution it makes to upward mobility.

INTRODUCTION:

Agence Française de Développement & EU Delegation

PRESENTERS:

Ivan Turok, Andreas Scheba and Justin Visagie (HSRC/UFS)

DISCUSSANTS:

Representatives from SHRA, NASHO, NHFC, Public Works and DBSA.

FACILITATOR:

Helen Rourke (DAG)

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/seminars/social-housing-spatial-transformation-and-upward-mobility

In keeping with the spirit of 1976 Soweto Uprising, Women in Science in partnership with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Impact Centre held a dialogue to commemorate the role the youth played in the events surrounding the historical day. The dialogue looked at developing activities and reflecting on the history, present realities and future of young people in the country. 

It focused on the unemployment crisis in the country particularly the youth who are most acutely affected. The idea was to conceptualise an innovative research approach to confront the challenges and prospects associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which has raised contentious debates about its role in job creation. 

Gloomy statistics 

The 2021 quarterly labour force survey showed that the unemployment rate increased substantially compared to the last quarter of 2020. Furthermore, in an expanded definition that includes job seekers, unemployment is at 43.2%. According to Statistics South Africa, the unemployment rate is the highest amongst people aged 15 to 34. Thus, youth unemployment under the expanded definition is 74.7%. 

South Africa is one of the countries with the highest inequalities, and the year-on-year rise in unemployment points to the need for rigorous engagement on policy, innovation and the industrialisation trajectory as touted in the country’s pathways to economic recovery and job creation. The aforementioned interventions are conceptually targeted at creating employment for youth, stimulate the economic climate and reduce inequalities. 

Strategic plan 

Through knowledge co-creation, innovative solutions can be crafted in order to understand domestic challenges experienced by youth especially in marginalised communities. The strategic plan of the HSRC includes utilising the national, regional and global leadership in the production and use of targeted knowledge to support the eradication of poverty, the reduction of inequalities and the promotion of employment. Through this dialogue, the Partnerships Directorate in the Impact Centre anticipated that the debate will enrich ideas, and build up relations that can identify creative pockets in the public communities. 

The objectives of the dialogue were to engage on the following: 

• To understand the underlying challenges facing the youth in the current economic climate, especially considering the future of work; 

• To establish a mechanism to support skills planning, identify capacity gaps in preparation for the labour market; and 

• To ensure the youth is adequately prepared for a technology driven economy that requires young people to be proficient in science, technology and digital literacy. 

More information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/events/4ir-and-youth-unemployment

Inspiration or Aspiration?

Organised by the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) in the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), this Diplomatic Conversation will address the theme chosen by the African Union (AU) for 2021 – Year of the Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want. Launched during the 34th AU Assembly under the leadership of the current Chairperson of the African Union, H.E. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the theme is a declaration at a continental level for Member States to invest more resources in African cultures and heritages as a vehicle for promoting and achieving the national economic and social development goals outlined in Africa’s Agenda 2063. The AU declaration of 2021 as the year of African cultures, heritages and arts may also be seen as an extension of sort of the 2020 focus on ending conflicts through ‘silencing the guns’, since culture plays a leading role in sustainable peace.

The speakers look at the position of the arts, culture and heritage sector within the national agendas of African countries, and the efforts made towards building the Africa We Want through cultural and creative industries. What can Africa do to ensure that this AU theme does not fall on deaf ears and that there are decisive steps undertaken to respond to it? How can the AU Member States use the arts, culture and heritage as levers of sustainable development? The ultimate question is whether that ‘imagined’ Africa is just an aspiration or a possible projection for a near future.

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/events/diplomatic-conversation-arts-culture-heritage

The South African government is committed to fighting xenophobia and providing a welcoming environment for documented migrants living in the country, despite the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on countries’ fiscal resources throughout the world. Among other things, the pandemic has forced countries to close their borders to manage rates of infection and redirect scarce national resources to meeting the needs of citizens who have already been affected by the lockdown situations. 

While the availability of vaccines have been positive for the economic recovery of many countries, there are new concerns emerging including the impact of “vaccine passports” on the free movement of people.  National vaccination programmes will also not mean an automatic recovery of the economy, which has contracted by 7% and is predicted to only be likely to return to pre-Covid-19 levels by 2023/24. Unemployment figures announced by Statistician-General Risenga Maluleka earlier this month indicate that, at 32.6% it is at the level last seen 13 years ago. 

What then does a shrinking tax base and fewer fiscal resources mean for how South Africa fulfils its international obligations to fight xenophobia? How will our nation protect refugees, asylum seekers and foreign workers from discrimination?

CHAIR: 

Dr Konosoang Sobane (HSRC Impact Centre)

PANEL:   

Dr Steven Gordon (HSRC DCES)

Ms Danaline Franzman, Chief Director: Social Justice and Participatory Democracy, Department of Justice and Correctional Services

Mr Amir Sheikh, Chairman of the Somali Community Board

Ms Sharon S Ekambaram, Manager, Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme, Lawyers for Human Rights

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/seminars/addressing-marginalization-of-refugees-asylumseekers-foreign-workers-in-sa

The South African manufacturing and services sectors remain squarely in the crosshairs of economic and industrial policy makers and, equally, business leaders and sector analysts. Whether to stimulate much-needed growth, as in the case of the manufacturing sector, or to adapt to widespread technological change, as in the case of services firms, the argument for a reimagined industrial strategy could not be more compelling or urgent.

In this context, innovation is centrally positioned as both a key engine of development and a catalyst for growth. However, little is known about the impacts of innovation on productivity in manufacturing and services businesses in South Africa, with studies focussing mainly on the role of R&D.

Showcasing new econometric modelling, using data from the South African Business Innovation Survey, 2014-2016, the seminar delves into relationships between different types of technological and non-technological innovation and business productivity. Policy issues and questions for discussion with national and sector stakeholders include: what factors or firm characteristics influence the decision to innovate? What support mechanisms incentivise innovation? Is the relationship between innovation and productivity always positive?

Presenters: Dr Atoko Kasongo and Dr Amy Kahn, Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators, HSRC

Moderator: Godfrey Mashamba, Deputy Director-General: Evaluation, Evidence and Knowledge Systems, Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME)

Discussant: Saul Levin, Director: Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS)

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/seminars/impact-of-innovation-on-productivity 

Migrants, Thinkers, Storytellers develops an argument about how individual migrants, coming from four continents and diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, are in many ways affected by a violent categorisation that is often nihilistic, insistently racial, and continuously significant in the organisation of South African society. The book also examines how relative privilege and storytelling function as instruments for migrants to negotiate meanings and shape their lives. It employs narrative lifestory research as its guiding methodology and applies various disciplinary analytical perspectives, with an overall focus on social categorisation and its consequences. The featured stories stress how unsettled, mutable and in flux social categories and identities are – just as a messy pencil sketch challenges clear definitions.

MODERATOR:

Leslie Bank, Deputy Executive Director of the Economic Development and Performance Unit at the HSRC. Adjunct Professor at Walter Sisulu University and University of Fort Hare. Author of Migrant Labour after Apartheid: The inside story (edited with Dorrit Posel and Francis Wilson, 2020), Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa: Culture, healthcare and the state (with Nelly Sharpley, 2021), Home Spaces, Street Styles: Contesting power and identity in a South African city (2011) and other books.

PANELISTS:

Oswald Kucherera, Cape Town-based storyteller, human rights activist and educator. Author of The Exodus Down South (2016) and Washing Dishes and Other Stories (2018).

Angelo Martins Junior, Research Associate at the University of Bristol's School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies (SPAIS) and coordinator of the Research Challenge ‘Control, Conflict, Resistance’ at the Migration Mobilities Bristol Research Institute (MMB). Author of Lives in Motion: Notebooks of an Immigrant in London (2015) and Moving Difference: Brazilians in London (2020).

Faith Mkwesha, Researcher and Visiting Scholar at the Swedish School of Social Science Subunit, University of Helsinki. Chief Executive Director and Founder of Sahwira Africa, an anti-racist organisation. Author of Rasismi, valta ja vastarinta: Rodullistaminen, valkoisuus ja koloniaalisuus Suomessa (Racism, power and resistance: Racialization, whiteness and coloniality in Finland, edited with Suvi Keskinen and Minna Kristiina Seikkula, 2021) and Zimbabwe Women Writers from 1950 to the Present: re-creating gender images (PhD Thesis, 2016). 

Alice Ncube, Senior Lecturer at the Natural and Agricultural Sciences; and Senior Lecturer and Programme Director at the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre, University of the Free State. Author of The socio-economic coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by African migrant women in South Africa (PhD Thesis, 2017).

In conversation with the editors of Migrants, Thinkers, Storytellers - Jonatan Kurzwelly (University of Göttingen and University of the Free State) and Luis Escobedo (University of the Free State) and other book contributors.

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/seminars/virtual-launch-migrants-thinkers-storytellers 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is having a major impact on all aspects of life, both in South Africa and globally. The chief technological developments associated with the 4IR offer much promise for human development and improvements in quality of life. Yet, as this book explores, these technologies are a double-edged sword, bringing both benefits and drawbacks, particularly in relation to the realisation and enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. 

This book constitutes the first major investigation of the real and potential human rights implications of the 4IR in South Africa, following the work of the South African Human Rights Commission in this area. Addressing issues such as unemployment, poverty, development and local government in the 4IR; bias, discrimination and the digital divide; internet rights and responsibilities; privacy and cybersecurity; and predictive policing, surveillance and digital justice, this book offers an in-depth review of the current and emerging regulatory frameworks relating to human rights and 4IR-related technologiesin South Africa.

With contributions from social scientists, ethicists and human rights experts, and a Foreword from the SAHRC CEO, Advocate Tseliso Thipanyane, this book will be of wide interest to policy-makers, academics and the public interested concerned with the future of South African constitutionalism.

SPEAKERS

Adv. Tseliso Thipanyane, Chief Executive Officer, South African Human Rights Commission

Prof Sizwe Snail ka Mtuze, Member: Information Regulator; Director, Snail Attorneys @ Law Inc

Dr Rachel Adams, Chief Research Specialist: Science in Society, Impact Centre, Human Sciences Research Council

Mark Gaffley, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town

Nokuthula Olorunju, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/events/events/book-launch-ai-and-future-of-africa

The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (University of Cambridge) and the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, are delighted to announce a series of three virtual workshops entitled ‘Global AI Narratives: Sub-Saharan Africa’. 

Different cultures see Artificial Intelligence through very different lenses: diverse religious, linguistic, philosophical, literary, and cinematic traditions have led to diverging conceptions of what intelligent machines can and should be. The Global AI Narratives: Sub-Saharan Africa workshops are part of a series of events dedicated to the dissemination of these diverse AI narratives around the world. 

Funded by DeepMind Ethics and Society and the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc., the Global AI Narratives Project aims to establish new connections between academics, artists, writers, designers and technologists working on AI in different regions of the world. 

Workshop 3 - Afro/African-futurisms

Meeting Chair:             Dr Rachel Adams

14:00 – 14:05:              Welcome, opening and introductions - Dr Rachel Adams

14:05 – 14:10:              Opening remarks - Dr Stephen Cave

14:10 – 14:25:              Dr Ralph Borland: Dubship I and Digi-Dub Club: Telling Tales  with Technology

14:25 – 14:40:              Dr Nedine Moonsamy: Notes on Conceptualising the African Technoscientific Imaginary through African Science Fiction

14:40 – 14:55:              Dr Divine Fuh: Revenge of the Nerds: AI, Ethics and Masculinities

14:55 – 15:05:              Discussant: Dr Buhle Khanyile             

15:05 – 15:50:              Open discussion and Q&A - Moderator: Rachel Adams

15:50 – 16:00:              Closing Remarks – Dr Kanta Dihal

For more information: https://www.ainarratives.com/sa-workshop-iii-programme

International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry

Part 1: Speaking, Wednesday, 26th May

Intersectionality helps us to recognise that people experience the world differently based on social identities— such as gender, sexuality, age, race, class, and disability, among others. For many marginalised people, these mutually reinforcing identities create unique experiences of oppression and discrimination. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on these inequalities. Poetry provides a vehicle for expressing and seeing how unfair exclusion and unearned inclusion are embodied, expressed in the silences we inhabit, in the ways we are in(visible) to self, others, community and our environment.

Poetic Inquiry to render voice and visibility:  Opening talk by Canadian Dr. Monica Prendergast who played a pivotal role in the establishment of poetic inquiry as a research method. Followed by a discussion moderated by Yvonne Sliep with Duduzile Ndlovu and Heidi van Rooyen (all South African researchers and poetic inquirers). 

Poets traverse intersections of silence and (in)visibility: A poetry performance and discussion moderated by Raphael d’Abdon (writer, scholar, editor and translator) with three incredible young South African poets Maneo Mohale, Mjele Msimang and Pieter Odendall.

More information: https://www.poeticinquiry.ca/2021-ispi-webinars.html

Professor Pearl Sithole, Vice-Principal of the University of the Free State, delivers this year’s lecture under the theme, Lessons from Mafeje’s theories and positionality of Africans on Science and Innovation.

Objectives of the lecture are:

•To explore Africanity as a means to respond to Africa’s diverse challenges through decolonising and promoting science and innovation. 

•To reflect on Africa’s response to pandemics and interpretations thereof;

•To provide recommendations on how African institutions can participate in the science revolution through pedagogy and practice.

The event also features an address by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Buti Manamela. 


SPEAKERS

Dr Awino Okech

Reader in Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London.

Panel Session Chairperson

Prof Puleng Lenka-Bula

Principal and Vice-Chancellor of University of South Africa

Archie Mafeje and the significance of his work in the education landscape

Dr Mpho Tshivhase

Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria and Stanford University Fellow

The quest to explore interdisciplinary inquiry through Mafeje’s ideologies

Prof Adebayo Olukoshi

Director, International Institution for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, West Africa and West Asia

Archie Mafeje and the agenda to decolonise knowledge in Africa

Prof Edith Phaswana

Associate Professor & Head of Academic Programmes at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public & International Affairs 

Reflection on Archie Mafeje’s quest to decolonise knowledge and its relevance for public and international affairs in Africa.

For more information: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/media-briefs/general/archie-mafeje-memorial-lecture-press-release#ArchieMafejeMemorialLecture2021