Events

There is a commitment in South Africa to improve the quality of education. One way to achieve this is to ensure that teachers and children are in school and in class. This research, commissioned by the Department of Basic Education, investigated the extent, patterns, reasons, the recording of leave, and the administration and management of educator leave.

World AIDS Day is once again upon us and will be commemorated by the HSRC on Wednesday 1 December.  Events will include a seminar which will run from 9:00 – 10:00 where some of the HIV/AIDS research undertaken in the HSRC will be presented.

DISABILITY AWARENESS MONTH. I AM ALL WOMAN: FROM MARGINS TO MAINSTREAM: WHAT DO WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES HAVE TO DO WITH THE 16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM?

South Africa will host the launch of the World Social Science Report (WSSR) at the 4th Annual Leadership Retreat in Kleinmond, near Cape Town, on 11 October 2010. The WSSR addresses the world's inequalities and how different nations, states and continents have different resources at their disposal for development.

This is to announce the 2010 Social Science Research in Africa conference taking place in Tshwane, South Africa from 26 to 28 August 2010. The Social Science Research in Africa conference which is held every two years is being re-launched as The African Knowledge Producers Series.

Calling all senior leaders, decision makers, entrepreneurs, HR and marketing people, aand innovative South Africans to hear Zapiro, the crew behind the Soccer City Calabash, the CEO of FNB, the Sally Williams team and more to experience the essence of innovation at the 2010 SA Innovation Summit.

What is it like to be growing up young, black and poor in post-Apartheid South Africa? What difference does poor schooling, partial-parenting, a history of dehumanising racial subjugation, and the normalisation of violence make to young people's moral lives? How do they retain their humanity in the midst of filthy environments, struggles for survival, the physiological effects of poverty, the absence of recreation, and the widespread availability of alcohol and drugs? Sharlene Swartz's new book, Ikasi examines these questions through a moral and sociological lens and offers fresh perspective on the challenges facing young people in South Africa today and how best these challenges might be addressed.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation invites you to participate in its symposium on the leadership roles of women in science, technology and innovation. The symposium will address two issues:

• Women as managers in the STI
• Women's scientific output under the theme: "Strategies for women to exist and excel in SET leadership positions"

After 1995 South Africa's automotive industry had to adjust to market liberalisation, rapidly integrate into global supply chains, adapt to World Class levels of competitiveness, and experienced increased ownership by multinationals. The effects of these changes on R&D and innovation activities are examined here.

Please join the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa at a satellite session focusing on children in Southern Africa, with specific focus on orphanhood, surveillance and VCT.  It will draw on information emanating from the HSRC's national household-based survey undertaken in South Africa in 2008.  Findings from this household survey focus on the general health status of infants and children and is contained in a report titled, "The Health Of Our Children".

The Health Sciences Research Office at the University of the Witwatersrand invites you to the third Prestigious Research Lecture ‘Mandela's Children: Securing the health and wellbeing of future generations'.

Guest Speaker: Minister Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Economic Development

About the book:
In this seminal collection, an interdisciplinary team of distinguished scholars begin to examine exactly how South Africa could go about building a democratic developmental state, while drawing on relevant conceptual models and useful comparative experiences from other countries.

With kick-off to the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup a few weeks away, this timely collection takes stock of sport in South Africa, and provides a pioneering exploration of how sport reflects matters such as enduring inequality, racial transformation and the making (or otherwise) of a common South African destiny. Divided into chapters delving into a diverse set of sporting codes, the book enlivens and transcends the technical debates and contestations around transformation that have become such a prominent part of sports discourse.

In distinction to the prevalent gloom and doom scenario approach to Local Government in South Africa, this study takes a different tack and examines the often neglected area of good practice and undertakes a comparative analysis with the local government sector in China in the service areas of water, sanitation and housing. This study is in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) and includes the opportunity for researchers from each institute to take responsibility for one of the case studies in the partner country. The study is currently at the literature review phase and will utilise the comparative case study methodology to be complemented by the key informant interviews, focus group discussions and consultative workshops.

The Centre for Poverty, Employment and Growth together with Agrekon would like to invite you to the launch of this special edition, at which a selection of papers will be presented.

Speaker: Prof Atul Kohli, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA.

Atul Kohli is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs and Professor Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. His Principal research interests are in the areas of comparative political economy with a focus on the developing countries. He is the author of the book entitled State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery (winner of the Charles Levine Award, 2005, of the International Political Science Association). He is the Chief Editor of World Politics and is currently a Vice President of the American Political Science Association.

Growing up in the new South Africa follows the lives of a diverse group of children living in the Fish Hoek, Ocean View and Masiphumelele areas of Cape Town. Despite 16 years of democracy, apartheid still echoes in the continuing relationship between race, neighbourhood and class. Issues, of schooling, violence, sexuality, family life, culture, poverty, race, class, integration and various other social issues are discussed in the book as they relate to young people growing up in a post-apartheid society.

The Human Sciences Research Council, The New Agenda and The Friedrich Ebert Foundation Invite you to a Public Lecture on Sourcing Finance for Development By Dr Joao Carlos Ferraz Director of Research, Corporate Planning and Risk Management, BNDES, National Development Bank, Brazil

Respondent: South African National Treasury

Brazil is now seen as a model of how a developing country can mobilise financing for development by harnessing national pensions and government funds.

HSRC Press cordially invites you to the launch of the recently published book, The Struggle over Land in Africa: Conflicts, Politics & Change co-edited by Ward Anseeuw & Chris Alden.

Conflicts over land are frequent across the African continent, ranging from local disputes amongst urban squatters to large-scale challenges to the prevailing political order. Loaded with economic, symbolic and emotional significance, land is often at the epicentre of violence and, concurrently, of any attempts to develop sustainable solutions to conflicts.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the organisation of an international conference titled Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibility of Academics and Researchers in Africa: What are the new challenges?

The Democracy and Governance Research Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) cordially invite you to a Book Launch and Seminar on ‘The Zuma Administration: What are the critical challenges?'