RE-IMAGINING THE SOCIAL IN SOUTH AFRICA | HEATHER JACKLIN IN SOUTH AFRICA

Subtitle: Critique, Theory and Post-apartheid Society Author: Heather Jacklin and Peter Vale Publisher: University Of KwaZulu-Natal Press (2009) ISBN-10: 1869141792 ISBN-13: 9781869141790 Condition: Very Good. The cover has a few light scratches. Else a very good copy. Binding: Softcover Pages: 308 Dimensions: 23.0 x 15.0 x 1.8 cm +++ by Heather Jacklin and Peter Vale +++ As apartheid ended, why did the South African academy shift from critique to subservience? Why have common sense explanations of the social world of South Africans replaced searching questions? Why are conversations on social issues in South Africa controlled by technology, management, and, until their recent collapse, the idea of markets? Why has serious thought in the new South Africa become an indecent activity? These, and other, questions are at the heart of this book, which brings social theory to bear on social practice to disrupt received conceptions and representations of the social in post-apartheid South Africa. This subversive volume seeks to revive the tradition of intellectual argument that marked apartheid's final years. Using critical theoretical perspectives, the contributors offer explanations of narrowly focused, post-apartheid discourses, and imagine different orderings of contemporary South African life. Re-imagining the Social in South Africa revitalizes thinking on 21st-century South Africa by positioning the humanities, especially its critical spirit, at the very center of the national conversation.