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Thursday 8th September - 2011

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Podcast        

 

What is a podcast? Click here for find out.

 

Subscribe to the HSRC Press Podcast by clicking on the Podcast feed address below (Podcast software needed).

 

http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/podcast

 

Or listen to the MP3 files directly by click the links below:

 

Podcast

The Deaths of Hintsa: postapartheid South Africa and the shape of recurring pasts

11 December 2008

Is South African history developing an authentic new discourse or is it stuck in the colonial archive? Two years into the democratic transition in South Africa, a little-known healer-diviner, Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka, stumbled onto the stage of history. He claimed to have brought the skull of Xhosa king Hintsa back to South Africa from Scotland, where he said he had traced it. Amidst a flurry of media attention, the skull was confiscated and handed to a team of scientists to “prove” its authenticity. They declared the cranium was that of a human female, and definitely not Hintsa. Gcaleka was proclaimed, at least, laughable, and at worst, a liar.

Gcaleka seems to have highlighted the limits that apartheid posed on the reworking of concepts of nation and identity. Author Premesh Lalu says in his book 'The Deaths of Hintsa: Postapartheid South Africa and the shape of recurring pasts' (HSRC Press), that we are compelled to track the process of how a little-known healer-diviner, in his encounter with the history of colonialism, became entangled in the formation, regulation and transformation of historical statements relating to the deaths of Hintsa. Lalu calls for a history that makes a conceptual difference in the wake of apartheid, and which addresses the transition to a postapartheid era. Lalu proposes that this transition bypassed the colonial archive and therefore failed to anticipate its resilience.

Through mining a rich field of research, from colonial archival material to contemporary museum exhibitions, Lalu states that overcoming apartheid has required coming to terms not only with the effects of history, but with the discourse of history itself. Hear the views of Professor Lalu, along with those of historians Leslie Witz and Ciraj Rassool, in this podcast.

Duration: 9 min 10 sec

 

Podcast

Electric Capitalism: ecolonising Africa on the power grid

8 December 2008

Electric Capitalism: Recolonising Africa on the Power Grid, edited by David A. McDonald and published by the HSRC Press is, in its simplest description, a book about the importance of electricity in Africa. It assesses the development of key electricity restructuring in the region thus far, including the ownership, generation, distribution and consumption of an energy source that is inextricably intertwined with power, policy and politics on the continent. On a more detailed level, it employs the expertise of researchers, energy professionals, academics and activists to shed light on the larger social, economic, ideological and spatial dynamics shaping electricity reforms in southern Africa and the continent. In commentary that ranges from the use of nuclear power to the search for alternative energy sources, the gendered nature of the manufacture and distribution of electricity, the provision of free basic electricity, the building of hydro-electric dams and more, authors David McDonald, Liz McDaid, David Fig and Wendy Annecke probe the intricacies of the contemporary electricity sector in this podcast.

Duration: 9 min 32 sec

 

Podcast

Power, Politics and Identity in South African media

14 August 2008

"People working in the media don't really like thinking about themselves. They report about what other people are thinking. But the South African media has changed radically in the past 14 years. It's become very necessary to think about what role media players are taking in relation to power and identity," said Dr Adrian Hadland, co-editor of Power, Politics and Identity in South African Media, opening up a spirited session at the third Cape Town International Book Fair in June 2008.

Under the banner "Holding us together or pulling us apart? The role of the South African media in the creation and mutation of identities", six panellists plus media veteran Denis Beckett as chair looked at a range of ways that a changing media is currently engaging with a changing society. Listen to the edited podcast of this spirited discussion.

Duration: 8 min 58 sec

 

Podcast

Resource Intensity, Knowledge and Development: insights from Africa and South America

18 July 2008

Are Africa and South America destined to be 'resource-rich underachievers', or can knowledge intensification change all that? Resource Intensity, Knowledge and Development: Insights from Africa and South America was launched at the Cape Town Book Fair 2008 in a public discussion between academic, researcher and volume editor Dr Jo Lorentzen and UCT sociologist Professor David Cooper, where the two speakers shared their views on recent resource-based development and the global economy debates.

The book provides evidence that, given the right conditions, resource-based industries can become knowledge intensive. Knowledge, experience and skills accumulated in resource-based activities, such as sugar farming or mining, can be exploited in different sectors, such as plastic production. It also gives examples of where things can go wrong. In this engaging podcast, Lorentzen provides background to revisited theory around resource-rich economies and development, and Cooper adds greater texture on the role of universities and civil society in 'the third capitalist industrial revolution', the era of the knowledge-intensive economy.

Duration: 9 min 38 sec

 

Podcast

Changing Social Policy: the Child Support Grant in South Africa

1 July 2008

In November 2007, the HSRC Press hosted a debate at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, on the question 'Do state pensions and grants create dependency?' This debate coincided with the launch of a new book by Francie Lund entitled Changing Social Policy: The Child Support Grant in South Africa. Featured in this podcast are the views of the author and researcher Professor Francie Lund; Dr Monde Makiwane, senior research specialist at the HSRC; and Hein Marais, a Johannesburg-based writer and journalist focusing on AIDS, political-economy and development issues.

Duration: 11 min 09 sec

 

Podcast

Racial Redress & Citizenship in South Africa

10 June 2008

In May 2008 Racial Redress and Citizenship in South Africa, edited by Kristina Bentley and Adam Habib, was launched in a three-city seminar roadshow. Made possible by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, South Africa, these seminars presented key opportunities to engage in and to share new thinking. Complementing the content and the structure of the book, the seminars featured a range of commentators who collectively focused on the success of redress so far, and explored whether alternative methods may have more beneficial consequences. Listen to the views of Kristina Bentley, Crain Soudien, Geoffrey Modisha, Vinothan Naidoo and Zimitri Erasmus.

Duration: 9 min 26 sec

 

Podcast

Stealing Empire: P2P, intellectual property and hip-hop subversion

30 May 2008

April 2008 saw the launch of Dr Adam Haupt's book Stealing Empire: P2P, Intellectual Property and Hip-Hop Subversion, which takes a fascinating look at the impact of issues such as global monopolist tendencies on different aspects of media and culture, from the commodification of hip-hop music to attempts to “fence in” the internet. From law, technology, and the Internet to the media and all things cultural - listen to the views of Adam Haupt, Martin Hall, Burni from Godessa and Caco the Noble Savage on Stealing Empire.

Duration: 8 min 22 sec

Right of Rights 1948-2008: Centre for the Study of Human Rights public debate
This site provides free access to a podcast of a public lecture hosted by the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, London School of Economics on Thursday 4 December 2008, 6.30-8pm. The event commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and featured a panel of speakers debating which is the greatest right. They include Shami Chakrabarti, Jonathan Cooper, Professor Conor Gearty, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Professor Francesca Klug, Professor Peter Townsend. The debate can be downloaded in MP3 format (approx 85 minutes). Technical and copyright information is displayed on the website.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublicLecturesAndEvents/events/2008/20080821

Podcasting in the teaching and learning of Politics and International Relations
This site provides information about the Podcasting in the teaching and learning of Politics and International Relations The project was supported by C-SAP Higher Education Academy the subject network for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics and conducted by POLIS at the University of Leeds and the School of Social Science at Liverpool John Moores University during 2007/8 in order to investigate what role podcasting can play in supporting the politics student learning experience. The website provides background information on the aims of the project and its outcomes. It includes free access to some papers and powerpoint slides. Intute.ac.uk
http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/subject_areas/politics/polcasting/

HotSeat podcast series: LSE Government Department This website provides free access to a collection of podcast interviews with leading members of the London School of Economics (LSE) Government Department academic staff. They offer insight into recent cutting edge research, many covering topics of British politics and international affairs Interviews are generally monthly and date from mid 2007 onwards. Some include video and audio files. Examples include comment on the resignation of Tony Blair and British relations with the EU. Technical and copyright details are displayed on the website. It is possible to sign up to receive RSS alerts when new titles are added. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/government/raw/hotseat/