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Partners The Trust is currently expanding its activities in promoting discussions and debates in other centres in South Africa. At the moment there are two partners, the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) at the University of Durban, Natal, and the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The Centre for Civil Society The Centre for Civil Society was established in the Faculty of Community and Development Disciplines in July 2001. It began with a staff of one but has rapidly expanded and now has a staff of 19. The Centre has a wide range of thriving local, national and international linkages with key organisations and individuals in and concerned with civil society. The Centre's mission has two central thrusts. The first is to promote the study of civil society as a legitimate and flourishing area of scholarly activity in South Africa. The second is to develop and promote partnerships aimed at knowledge sharing and capacity-building in the civil society sector. The Centre’s primary strategies to realise its vision are as follows: Grant Agency: The Centre provides research grants to academics, research institutes, independent scholars and civil society organisations in order to develop a critical mass of literature on the sector. In addition Post-Doctoral fellowships are offered within the Centre to develop a critical mass of scholars with expertise on civil society. As of now, priority areas identified for research grants include, among others, new social movements, the size and shape of the sector, the role of civil society in development, civil society and the democratic transition, and international civil society in the era of globalisation. Research Unit: The Centre also serves as a research unit housing its own internal research programmes. These research programmes have their own staff funded mainly from external resources raised from international foundations. A number of major internal research programmes are currently underway. They include research projects on the nature of philanthropy in South Africa; on economic marginalisation and contemporary social movements and a project on civil society and African integration. In addition the Centre’s staff work on their own research projects. Postgraduate Teaching and In-Service Training: The centre also undertakes post-graduate teaching and in-service training. With regard to the latter the Centre runs a national in-service training programme for people working in civil society to provide practitioners with specific skills relevant to their needs. Information Agency: The Centre also serves as an information nexus for civil society and for the study of civil society. It runs a popular website www.nu.ac.za/ccs and a library and publishes and distributes regular research reports. Discussion and Debate: The Centre runs a listserve with just under 500 subscribers for people who wish to discuss and debate the role of civil society in Africa. (To subscribe to the African Civil Society online discussion forum please visit lists.nu.ac.za and follow the instructions.) The Centre also hosts an in-house seminar series on civil society and a more general seminar programme run together with the School of Development Studies. The Centre also runs the very popular Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture Series in Durban. This is a monthly lecture series that features top class intellectuals and usually attracts an enthusiastic audience of around 250 people. The lectures are held in the Howard College Theatre on the campus of the University of Natal on the last Thursday of every month. The programme and reviews of previous lectures are online at www.nu.ac.za/ccs. The Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) The Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) is a research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand that examines the changing nature of work and industrial relations in South Africa. SWOP strives to conduct high quality research on the world of work. We are primarily academic in orientation, with an emphasis on disseminating research through teaching, publications and conferences. The Unit also attempts to maintain communication and interaction with a broad range of actors within the world of work, in with organised labour, business, government and other research organisations. Rationale for the Workshop South Africa’s triple transition - towards political democracy, economic liberalization, and racial equity - has generated a variety of responses at workplace level. Rather than a uniform response, a hybrid mix of managerial strategies is emerging that reveal both continuities and discontinuities with past practices. The challenge facing the South African workplace is to balance the contradictory demands of efficiency, employee rights and equity arising out of the triple transition. What sort of a trade off, if any, between these competing pressures, is required, and what is politically feasible, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the challenge cannot be met unless the legacy of the apartheid workplace regime is decisively overcome. The findings of research on work restructuring in post apartheid South Africa that the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) and the Workplace Reconstruction Unit of the National Labour and Development Institute (NALEDI) have been conducting over the past three years will be presented. Their website is www.wits.ac.za/fac/arts/swop/home.htm The Centre for Policy Studies The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) was established in 1987 as part of the Business School of the University of the Witwatersrand. Today cps is an independent non-profit research institution, committed to promoting democracy in South Africa and on the African continent, through independent research and policy analysis. We believe that independence of thought and constructive criticism of existing and proposed policies, as well as the development of alternative policy options for public debate and discussion at all levels of society, strengthens a democratic ethos. We are, therefore, committed to continuing to provide an independent voice, as well as innovative research and analysis. Because our value to our society depends on the quality of our research and analysis alone, we are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards in our work. Aside from research, one of our primary objectives is to provide a space for open debate on the issues facing our country and continent and to encourage the free flow of ideas and information to enable this. The Centre’s research activities concentrate on the following areas: Social and Economic Policy Now that South Africa has reached its political milestone of dismantling apartheid, the challenge lies in generating innovative and effective policies to deal with the legacy of poverty and inequality. We believe that poverty and inequality will continue to test and challenge formal democracy. Included in this programme are issues around how states resource themselves (including taxation) and how this impacts on democracy. Strengthening Civil Society and Local Democracy As part of its focus on local democratisation the Centre studied six civil society organizations focusing on their interaction with government as well as their internal decision-making procedures. We believe that the focus on enhancing the policy and research capacity of community-based organizations can prefigure and influence development debates. Governance The Centre has recently completed a study of the gap between policy formulation and implementation in seven areas including economics, development, education, crime-fighting etc. The aim is to provide not just an in depth study of a crucial area of governance but to generate practical suggestions aimed at ensuring a fit between what is said and what is done by government. This, we believe, is essential in ensuring one of the basic tenets of democracy – the accountability of a government to its people. International Relations The Centre has also been playing a visible role on issues pertaining to the strengthening of democracy on the African continent. Without neglecting a strong priority focus on South Africa and the challenges of governance and democracy faced by the country, cps is also focussing on sub regional and continental issues, as well as South Africa’s relations with countries in the sub region and elsewhere in Africa, especially in respect of governance, democratisation, and development. Human Rights & Identity CPS conducts research into human rights and race issues: we believe that unless the challenge of race and race relations is tackled head-on, race issues could become more pronounced than they are at present. Partnership with the Wolpe Memorial Trust CPS in partnership with the Wolpe Memorial Trust, is running a seminar series devoted to the challenges of democracy faced by our fledgling democracy and the African continent in general. The challenge lies not only in building democracy on the continent but also in sustaining democracy wherever it takes root. This seminar series will explore issues vital to the consolidation of democracy, such as new social movements; public participation in governance and policymaking; the challenges that HIV AIDS poses for governance and democracy; NEPAD and the AU and their relevance for continental democracy. It will also consider policies, activities and formations aimed at dealing with the legacy of poverty and inequality both in South Africa and the rest of the continent, as we believe that this will continue to test and challenge formal democracy. The seminar series will bring together academics, analysts, activists, politicians and government and other practitioners, and will provide an intellectual space for engagement and the exchange of views. It will seek to go beyond the opinions of these issues contained in media coverage and provide a platform for the frank exchange of views and the contestation of opposing analyses. Website: http://www.cps.org.za |
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