HSS RESPONSE TO PANDEMIC
NIHSS in association with South African Deans' Association (SAHUDA)
"At a deeper level, we also look to our social scientists, philosophers, historians, artists & others to help us to rebuild our sense of nationhood, our independence and our ability to take our place proudly in the community of nations."
| Title | HSS Response Summary | Download Full Article |
|---|---|---|
| Political philosophy in the midst of crisis | I often begin teaching my Social and Political Philosophy course with a discussion of Rick Turner’s argument, “The Necessity of Utopian Thinkingâ€. This is the title of the first chapter of his book, The Eye of the Needle, which is a political theory reflection on democracy, published in 1972 by the anti-Apartheid activist and (then) University of Natal academic. | |
| Ubuntu and solidarity in the COVID-19 era | Ubuntu and solidarity are concepts that have come to characterise Africans in the precolonial and post-colonial epochs, and are pertinent now amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 has triggered fundamental questions that beg answers: To what extent do communities cooperate with a view to containing and mitigating the spread of the disease through providing mutual support for the vulnerable and economically disempowered sectors of the population? | |
| Traditional rituals and plural medical systems in a pandemic | At the time of writing, the numbers of COVID-19 cases and related deaths have been drastically on the rise in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, despite the province initially having one of the lowest caseloads. As reported by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, 200 COVID-w19 cases in the Eastern Cape are linked to just three funerals in the province. | |
| Twenty-twenty. The positives out of a crisis-COVID-19 | The year 2020; the first year of the 2020s decade; the twentieth year of the twenty-first century and the twentieth year of the third millennium. A leap year, it is said to be, and again it is a year with a palindromic date (02-02-2020). With such characteristics, one could assume that this would be a remarkable year in the history of life. | |
| Conceptualising Ubuntu as deconstruction of solidarity and collective action | In South Africa we have the wonderful concept of "Ubuntu" which translates as "humanity". Ubuntu speaks to solidarity and human collective effort to achieve unity or oneness, and has a beautiful history. Today, however, Ubuntu is often a reduced to a theoretical concept, sometimes used for political or personal gain. |