Shaun Ruggunan

Transforming science in South Africa: Development, collaboration and productivity

Large-scale quantitative studies are rare in South African sociology as most of the work done by South African sociologists tends to be qualitative. It is, therefore, refreshing to see a large-scale quantitative study in Radhamany Sooryamoorthy’s book on collaboration and productivity in and of science. The strengths of a quantitative approach are that it allows the author to deal with vast amounts of data across time and to draw conclusions that are generalisable. Sooryamoorthy puts these strengths to full use in his book which provides an empirical case for why collaboration is important and the correlations between collaboration and productivity of researchers in South Africa and abroad. This is an important contribution since it has direct implications for policy makers both at state and institutional levels. Therefore, the book should be mandatory reading for those in decision making positions at research institutions (especially universities), since it will allow for evidence based decision making.

Towards a South African Sociology of Professions

The sociology of professions has not achieved much purchase within South African sociology. The revisionism of the 1970s (see for example Johnson 1976) and what Webster (2004) terms the ‘critical sociology’ of the late 1970s and 1980s took the sociology of work in the direction of engaging with the labour movement (Buhlungu 2009) and studying the conditions of production and reproduction of the black working class (see for example Sitas 1983; Webster 1985; Von Holdt 2003). This does not mean that there is no research on middle class occupations and white collar work – some of the classic studies that come to mind are those of Shula Marks’ book, Divided Sisterhood, examining the nursing profession, Blade Nzimande’s doctoral study of black managers (1991), Owen Crankshaw’s book (1997) on race, skill and occupations during apartheid, Leah Gilbert’s numerous studies of community pharmacists (1998a, 1998b, 1998c), and Liz Walker’s pioneering work on white female doctors (2001, 2003, 2005). However, the framing of these studies and the questions they have asked (with the exception of Gilbert’s work) has not resonated with some of the traditional debates concerning the sociology of professions (see Crompton 1990; Evetts 2003). It could be that in a society where so many were denied access to these professions, on the basis of their ‘race’, many sociologists saw such questions as irrelevant; or it could have been the turn to a more public sociology taken by so many sociologists of work (see the discussions by Buhlungu (2009), Burowoy (2004), Webster (2004)); or it could have been that the functionalist paradigm within which much of the sociology of professions operated was rejected by South African sociologists of work (Webster 2004). Social closure has always been fundamental to any professionalisation project. Historically South African professional occupations have used ‘race’ (and gender) to exclude black South Africans (see Vavi 2012; Walker 2001; 2003; 2005; Webster 2004) from skilled occupations and thus shape the labour market in particular racialised and gendered ways. The apartheid state was central to this project and through various legislation (from labour market to industrial relations to educational to petty apartheid) actively ensured the whiteness of the state bureaucracy and middle class occupations. We suggest that in post-apartheid South Africa an examination of professional occupations has become increasingly important in assessing the success of the state’s project to ‘deracialise’ the labour market. Furthermore, opening access to professional and expert occupations is vital to ‘growing’ an African (or black) middle class. Traditional professions such as medicine, law, accounting and engineering are still

Race classification at the University of KwaZulu-Natal: purposes, sites and practices

Classification into race groups did not end when the Population Registration Act, the foundation of apartheid policy, was abolished in 1991. Formal requirements for allocation of the South African population into ‘races’ continue in a democratic society, and individuals employed in institutions ranging from schools to businesses are tasked with such processes of sorting people out. We present the results of a study done at a university on the sites of, reasons for, and practices employed in race classification to illustrate decisions that confront classifiers when ensuring race categorisation.

Pursuing a career at sea: an empirical profile of South African cadets and implications for career awareness

ABSTRACT Sustainable job creation remains a challenge in South Africa despite government attempts to increase employment opportunities amongst the youth which include the drawing up of a National Development Plan. Although, the South African maritime industry is suggested as a job growth sector, little is empirically known about the profile of prospective cadets thus making human resource development policy difficult to formulate. The article notes the limited number of seafarers recruited from South Africa and seeks to identify the factors that contribute to current cadets pursuing a maritime career, with the aim of informing recruitment policy. In this cross-sectional survey, census sampling was attempted with 108 respondents completing a quasi-adopted questionnaire from a population of 120 undergraduate students pursuing cadetships at a South African university. Descriptive statistics are mainly used to present findings which provide insight into the biographical details of cadets, the sources of funding for their studies, the importance of funding for their eventual graduation, the awareness levels of their chosen careers and likelihood of them remaining in their chosen careers at sea. The results show that seafaring has the potential to create thousands of jobs, yet there is limited support to reach the desired levels.

An exploratory study of the training of South African officers in the merchant navy

According to the latest BIMCO and Drewry reports, there is a global shortage of officers for the worlds’ merchant fleet. This article focuses on the South African labour market for officers and examines some of the maritime education and training challenges facing these officers in accessing global labour markets. The paper argues that despite processes of globalisation, the nation state can still be an important actor in shaping global labour markets. Using a qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with 10 key informants in the maritime human resources management sectors in South Africa. Interview data was analysed and coded for themes using NVivo qualitative data analysis software (QSR International Pty Ltd., Version 10, London, UK). This was theoretically informed by Braun & Clarke’s six-step method of thematic analysis. This was combined with a review of labour market statistics to demonstrate that the key challenges facing South African officers are the lack of training berth availability and the lack of South African ship ownership. The solutions adopted by the state includes a limited adoption of best practices adopted by global MET institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Nigeria. The article contributes to filling the gap in empirical-based maritime studies that are located on Africa.

Labour Process and Professional Status: An Exploratory Case Study of Histopathologists in Kwazulu-Natal

ABSTRACT This article intends making three contributions to the sociology of professions. Firstly, it examines empirically the way work is organised (labour process) for histopathologists in KwaZulu-Natal. Secondly, it demonstrates that concepts from labour process theory (LPT) and the sociology of professionals literature can provide useful ways to understand how work is organised for medical specialists and how this work organisation may contribute to the construction of professional status. Thirdly, the article contends that work on medical professionals tends to treat all medical specialists as a homogeneous professional category. It argues that the sociology of professions needs to recognise that intra-professional processes are fundamental to the ways in which specialist medical professions are constructed. An exploratory case study design is adopted and data collection occurs through a series of in-depth interviews with 16 histopathologists. The findings suggest: that understanding the labour process of histopathologists can provide insights into how professional status is constructed; that the labour process can act as a form of gendered gatekeeping into the profession; and that a broader empirical contribution is made by adding to the limited South African literature on the sociology of professions.

The Global Labour Market for Filipino and South African Seafarers in theMerchant Navy

ABSTRACT This article examines how profound shifts in the global labour market for seafarers have impacted on the labour market for South African and Filipino seafarers in the merchant navy. The article contends that the shift towards flag of convenience (FoC) shipping in the global shipping industry is a business strategy by ship owners to circumvent high labour costs and fiscal regimes. However, despite the shift to FoC shipping, wage rates and unionisation levels remain high for both Filipino and South African seafarers. Through extensive surveys of seafarers as well as drawing on secondary literature, the article demonstrates that the globalisation of labour markets and industries does not always imply an erosion of the bargaining power of organised labour.

The Transformation of Business Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

The aim of this chapter is to explore the ways in which business schools and business school education have been transformed (or not) in South Africa since Apartheid and to posit ideas about the kinds of pedagogical, structural, and ideological changes that could accelerate transformation. The chapter begins with a summary of the current South African context and the associated challenges for business schools. This is followed by an overview of the key features and prevailing philosophical assumptions of business school education during the Apartheid years. The second part of the chapter evaluates the extent to which business school curricula, ideology, content, and pedagogy have been redesigned in the post-Apartheid era in response to political and social transformation. This evaluation includes discussion of the impact of Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) on business education and whether commitment to these principles is sufficient to encompass the scale of educational transformation needed in South Africa. The third part of the chapter considers what changes might look like in practice and suggests key elements of a transformational business education in the South African context.

The Role of Organised Labour in Preventing a ‘Race to the Bottom’ for Filipino Seafarers in the Global Labour Market

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how organised labour at both the national and global level can influence the nature of global labour markets. This aim is achieved through an empirical investigation of the restructuring of the global labour market for Filipino seafarers, and the influence of the Associated Marine Officers and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in this restructuring process. The article concludes that despite the global attack on labour unions, organised labour continues to be a powerful agent in preventing ‘a race to the bottom’ for Filipino seafarers working conditions and wages.

Publications in a South African Journal

The publications in a specific management journal add value to the analysis and understanding of both the publications and the background of the scholars. Generally, studies of this nature do not cover demographic variables such as gender and race as the data is not readily available. These are crucial to finding out who produces the knowledge in a specific subject field. We present the analysis of publications which appeared in the South African Journal of Human Resources Management from 2005 to 2015. The authorship of these publications is examined for race, gender, coauthorship, sectoral, institutional and departmental affiliation, and the provincial location of the institutions. The relationship between these variables highlights the unique features of knowledge production in management studies in South Africa.