Daniel Hammett

Educating the new national citizen: education, political subjectivity and divided societies

This paper explores the ways in which citizenship education is used in an effort to create particular kinds of citizens as part of a larger effort at nation- and polity-building. This paper addresses the purpose of citizenship education and its role in creating political subjectivities for citizens. We argue that policies and programmes often attempt to heal social divisions by fostering a common linkage between citizens and nation, but in ways that may be ineffective, and in some cases, deeply problematic. This argument is developed through a consideration of the ways in which different agents involved in citizenship education use their own experiences to develop and interpret citizenship education programmes. Through this, both the meaning and the teaching of citizenship may be reworked. This conceptual argument is supplemented through a consideration of citizenship education programmes in South Africa.

Local beats to global rhythms: coloured student identity and negotiations of global cultural imports in Cape Town, South Africa

High school student identities in South Africa are informed by negotiations of global cultural flows, local histories, and social expectations. Students appropriate and give new meanings to the cultural flows they use to frame their identities, informed by the local context and by globalisation. Several aspects of these practices are of interest, notably the way in which American hip-hop interpellates coloured students in South Africa, drawing them into particular topographies of globalisation and framing their identity formations and engagement with race. The identities produced remain contested, malleable and incomplete. Understanding these identity formations therefore requires the recognition of the interactions and negotiations of global and local influences.

Ongoing contestations: the use of racial signifiers in post-apartheid South Africa

Despite hopes for the development of a non-racial citizenry in South Africa, race remains a salient factor in identity claims. Much of the recent literature has focused on issues of black and white identities or on discussions of the reification or erasure of racial identities. This paper addresses questions of coloured identity in South Africa to explore the ways in which these identities are formed through iterative processes and continually in flux. Through a series of vignettes I argue that identity claims are frequently incomplete, uncertain and reworked in different and changing contexts. I highlight the shortcomings of ideas of erasure and reification when analysing identity claims and argue for a more nuanced approach that provides for consideration of post-apartheid racial identities as complex, dynamic and contested.

Cuban Intervention in South African Health Care Service Provision

This article considers the reasons for, and implications of, Cuban development assistance being provided to the South African health care system. The provision of skilled Cuban doctors to South Africa has been a feature of post-apartheid health care services. Under a series of bilateral agreements, over 450 Cuban doctors have taken placements in South Africa and over 250 South African medical students have undergone training in Cuba. The economic, political and symbolic incentives for this co-operation for both parties are considered against the costs incurred. Drawing upon historical links between the ANC and the Communist government in Cuba, this agreement provides both states with much-needed resources. It is shown that whilst short- to medium-term benefits outweigh the costs to both parties, questions remain over its sustainability. South Africa is drawing upon Cuban expertise in health care services to mitigate its shortage of health care staff whilst providing financial and symbolic capital to an anti-apartheid ally. In the long term, concerns exist over the sustainability of this agreement in a post-Castro Cuba, as well as restrictions on families accompanying doctors travelling to South Africa, and recent rulings over the possibility for Cuban doctors to remain in South Africa beyond their initial contract.

British media representations of South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup

According to government estimates 500,000 foreign tourists were expected to visit South Africa to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. During the course of 2010 these estimates were systematically and significantly downgraded. The global economic downturn, overpricing of tickets and hospitality packages and increased costs within South Africas tourist industry have all been identified as contributors to the lower than anticipated international take-up of tickets. Obscured within these developments are dynamic processes by which South Africa is represented as a tourist destination. This paper presents a discourse analysis of representations of South Africa within four British print media outlets – The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Mail and The Daily Star – between January and July 2010. Themes of Afro-pessimism, African essentialism and (neo-)colonialism are identified as contributing to problematic and colonial representations of South Africa in the build-up to the tournament.

Beyond Decoding: Political Cartoons in the Classroom

Geographers and other social scientists have argued that cartoons can play an effective role in enhancing the classroom experience and foster the development of critical thinking skills. We confirm the case for the use of cartoons in the classroom while arguing that recent writing underestimates the potential of this medium as a teaching resource. Our argument is that this medium can and should be used in teaching theoretical and conceptual debates in geography. We use recent cartoons by the South African cartoonist Zapiro to provide a framework for how this can be achieved in the classroom.

Transition and the Education of the New South African Citizen

South Africa’s democratic transition was a time of optimism, with immense hopes pinned on the youth who would be educated to see themselves as equal citizens. It was also a time of pragmatic decision making, not least in the education sector, which would shape the future of the country. Negotiating the imperatives of redress, development, and equality set in train many contradictory pressures within the education sector, within which teachers were tasked with instilling ideals of equality and social justice amidst a context shaped by entrenched social and spatial inequalities. Policy debates surrounding the meaning of citizenship and equality are shown to be removed from the everyday classroom challenges in South Africa. In particular, realization of the values of citizen education is hindered by differential resourcing of schools and education, the underlying poverty experienced by many students, and the challenge of finding ways to talk about difference and inequality without recourse to racialized explanations. These constraints act to limit the possibility of education as a site in which the new South African nation is (re)produced.

Political Cartoons, Post-Colonialism and Critical African Studies

Political cartoons function as a key indicator of the democratic health of a polity. These images provide individual, momentary insights into the expressions and experiences of power and the creative ways in which these are responded to. Through an exploration of the potential for analysis of political cartoons to contribute to the post-colonializing of knowledge, key questions of power, resistance and representation are addressed. This introduction sets the scene for the subsequent contributions while arguing for a broader, critical role for political cartoons and humour in research and teaching about Africa.

Research and Fieldwork in Development

Part One: Planning Research 1. Introduction 2. The Contested Terrain of Development Fieldwork 3. The Lone Wolf and the Pack: Entering the Field Alone and in Groups 4. Ethics in Development Fieldwork 5. Risk and Fieldwork 6. Integrating Methods Part Two: Collecting and Analysing Data 7. Interviews and Focus Groups 8. Ethnography and Participant Observation 9. Participatory Methods 10. Archives, Documentary and Visual Data 11. Quantitative Methods and Survey Data 12. Big Data and Social Media 13. Locational/Spatial Data Part Three: Presenting and Writing Up Research 14. Visualising Data 15. Writing for Different Audiences 16. Knowledge Exchange and Research Methods

Envisaging the Nation: The Philatelic Iconography of Transforming South African National Narratives

South Africa has experienced two periods of contrasting nation-building, with apartheids exclusionary ideology of separate development contrasting with the inclusive nationhood discourse of the democratic period. Throughout these periods, the South African government has utilised iconography within the cultural landscape in efforts to promote the changing national narrative to domestic and international audiences. Analysis of postage stamps issued by the South African government during and after apartheid demonstrate the continuing evolution of nationalism and identity. The appropriation of the iconographic power of postage stamps by the ANC, through their production of propaganda postage labels during the 1980s, reinforces the importance of such ephemeral, quotidian objects while complicating national narratives presented in official philatelic issues.