Episodes
Social housing is a powerful tool for integrating divided cities. It can also help low income households to get on in life and thrive by providing a secure home base with good access to jobs and amenities. The HSRC recently completed a study of social housing’s contribution to spatial transformation and upward social mobility in South Africa. The purpose of this webinar is to share the findings and to stimulate discussion about the next steps for policy and practice. A mixed picture emerged...
Published 08/26/21
In keeping with the spirit of 1976 Soweto Uprising, Women in Science in partnership with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Impact Centre held a dialogue to commemorate the role the youth played in the events surrounding the historical day. The dialogue looked at developing activities and reflecting on the history, present realities and future of young people in the country.  It focused on the unemployment crisis in the country particularly the youth who are most acutely...
Published 08/16/21
Inspiration or Aspiration? Organised by the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) in the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), this Diplomatic Conversation will address the theme chosen by the African Union (AU) for 2021 – Year of the Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want. Launched during the 34th AU Assembly under the leadership of the current Chairperson of the African Union, H.E. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic...
Published 08/12/21
The South African government is committed to fighting xenophobia and providing a welcoming environment for documented migrants living in the country, despite the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on countries’ fiscal resources throughout the world. Among other things, the pandemic has forced countries to close their borders to manage rates of infection and redirect scarce national resources to meeting the needs of citizens who have already been affected by the lockdown...
Published 07/30/21
The South African manufacturing and services sectors remain squarely in the crosshairs of economic and industrial policy makers and, equally, business leaders and sector analysts. Whether to stimulate much-needed growth, as in the case of the manufacturing sector, or to adapt to widespread technological change, as in the case of services firms, the argument for a reimagined industrial strategy could not be more compelling or urgent. In this context, innovation is centrally positioned as both...
Published 07/21/21
Migrants, Thinkers, Storytellers develops an argument about how individual migrants, coming from four continents and diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, are in many ways affected by a violent categorisation that is often nihilistic, insistently racial, and continuously significant in the organisation of South African society. The book also examines how relative privilege and storytelling function as instruments for migrants to negotiate meanings and shape their lives. It employs narrative...
Published 07/06/21
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is having a major impact on all aspects of life, both in South Africa and globally. The chief technological developments associated with the 4IR offer much promise for human development and improvements in quality of life. Yet, as this book explores, these technologies are a double-edged sword, bringing both benefits and drawbacks, particularly in relation to the realisation and enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. 

This book constitutes...
Published 07/06/21
The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (University of Cambridge) and the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, are delighted to announce a series of three virtual workshops entitled ‘Global AI Narratives: Sub-Saharan Africa’.  Different cultures see Artificial Intelligence through very different lenses: diverse religious, linguistic, philosophical, literary, and cinematic traditions have led to diverging conceptions of what intelligent machines can and should be. The...
Published 06/23/21
International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry Part 1: Speaking, Wednesday, 26th May Intersectionality helps us to recognise that people experience the world differently based on social identities— such as gender, sexuality, age, race, class, and disability, among others. For many marginalised people, these mutually reinforcing identities create unique experiences of oppression and discrimination. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on these inequalities. Poetry provides a vehicle for...
Published 06/18/21
Professor Pearl Sithole, Vice-Principal of the University of the Free State, delivers this year’s lecture under the theme, Lessons from Mafeje’s theories and positionality of Africans on Science and Innovation. Objectives of the lecture are: •To explore Africanity as a means to respond to Africa’s diverse challenges through decolonising and promoting science and innovation.  •To reflect on Africa’s response to pandemics and interpretations thereof; •To provide recommendations on how...
Published 06/11/21
Making Institutions Work in South Africa recognises that institutions are the pillars of a constitutional democracy they evolve through the actions of persons and as organisations they form structures of dynamic, shared social patterns of behaviour. The book offers interdisciplinary critical commentary by scholars, analysts and experts regarding strategic thinking, structural and functional impediments and facilitators to institutions. 
HOST Danelle Plaatjies, LLB (UCT) LLM Candidate...
Published 05/31/21
Online seminar 15 April 2021 The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching effects on urban lives and livelihoods. Some of these are likely to prove temporary as the vaccine is rolled out and the recovery gathers momentum. However, there are bound to be more profound changes too, depending on the shape and speed of the recovery. In the future, will dense economic nodes and large cities struggle to compete against outlying centres and more dispersed urban regions? Will digital technologies...
Published 05/26/21
24 March 2021 

Online seminar In order to manage the spread of COVID-19 and protect the healthcare sector, South Africa has been in various levels of lockdown for a whole year. This has impacted on many aspects of life in the country including, amongst others, human rights, economy, education and lifestyle.  While the real impact of the lockdown will become evident in time, the Human Sciences Research Council and the University of Johannesburg have conducted various surveys over the past...
Published 05/19/21
5 March 2021

 Online seminar Join us in this inaugural seminar series on the AfCTA, jointly organised by the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) in the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Tshwane University of Technology’s Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI). In this seminar, the panelists, discussants and audience will interrogate four issues, namely: The prospects for viable economic integration in Africa: Prof Mario Scerri, Senior Research Fellow,...
Published 05/10/21
17 February 2021 

Online seminar Overview: How South Africa lifts itself out of the pandemic-induced macroeconomic crisis is a societal debate with knock-on effects that are likely to last for years if not decades to come. The depth and scale of the macroeconomic contraction (with SA 2020 growth rate expected to average at - 7,5%) will not only cut fiscal resources available for equitable socioeconomic priorities. Recent National Treasury statements also warn of a looming sovereign debt...
Published 04/20/21
26 January 2021

 Online seminar Overview: The COVID-19 crisis has forced us all to work remotely, from home or from anywhere. While many have been flirting with this concept for the past decade or two, the pandemic has accelerated our practice and thinking. This webinar asks: Is it time to cut the cords of attachment to physical offices? What do we gain from Working from Anywhere (WFA), and what do we lose? Who should work from anywhere and who should be office-based?  As organisations...
Published 03/29/21
18 November 2020 Online seminar  Overview: Backyard housing is booming across many South African townships. Enterprising households and small-scale developers are investing in solid single- and double-storey flats. This is boosting the supply of decent rental accommodation and offering opportunities to kick-start the recovery and create jobs from the bottom-up. Yet, the informal and unregulated character of these developments creates risks for public infrastructure, neighbourhood stability...
Published 03/04/21
24 November 2020  Online seminar  Overview: This webinar is hosted by the HSRC and its collaborators from the University of Cape Town’s AIDS and Society Research Unit in partnership with the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and UNFPA. As we approach the fourth decade of the HIV pandemic, there are still glaring gaps in the evidence-base regarding the mode of transmission, health, behaviours, sexual practices and lived experiences of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) in South...
Published 03/04/21
13 November 2020

  Online seminar  Overview: The presentation draws from a study undertaken with MerSETA called the Lived Livelihoods Study which aimed to understand the way(s) in which young people from two urban townships in Port Elizabeth are making their livelihoods in engineering related areas in the informal sector. The findings challenge our understandings of entrepreneurship, occupations, skills and what has become known as education to work pathways. It suggests that engaging with...
Published 02/23/21
10 November 2020

  Online seminar  Overview: The rapid and emergency purchases to address the global pandemic, has exposed vulnerabilities in procurement systems that were already prone to fraud and corruption. Significant amounts of money have been flowing through global financial systems in the form of debt relief, loans from multilateral institutions and government stimulus packages with a reduction of oversight in emergency and fast-tracked public procurement procedures. This webinar...
Published 02/04/21
HSRC & NMU Seminar: Remote Teaching and Learning at TVET colleges: A COVID-19 challenge Re-Imagining TVET: The Implications of COVID-19. Webinar series hosted by Nelson Mandela University. 2 October 2020

 Online seminar Overview: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in the declaration of the State of National Disaster by the President and an extended recess for TVET Colleges’ students, the use of online learning has since taken centre stage. The Minister of...
Published 12/09/20
HSRC Seminar: Dealing with Uncertainty - Systems Dynamics Approach for Modelling South Africa Response to COVID-19 20 August 2020

 Online seminar Overview: This seminar discusses a systems dynamic model developed for the COVID-19 infection in South Africa. The key purpose of developing the model was to assess the extent to which a systems dynamics model can forecast the COVID-19 infections in South Africa and be a useful tool in evaluating government interventions to manage the epidemics...
Published 11/11/20
HSRC Seminar: What’s Trust Got to Do With It? UJ-HSRC COVID-19 Democracy Survey Round 2 Public Launch 19 August 2020

 Online seminar Overview: This webinar addresses some of the main new findings of the online multilingual Covid-19 Democracy Survey conducted by researchers from the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Change (CSC) and the Human Sciences Research Council’s Developmental, Capable and Ethical State division (DCES). Round 1 of the survey covered the early hard...
Published 10/02/20
HSRC Seminar: Is COVID-19 threatening breastfeeding and early childhood development? 18 August 2020

 Online seminar Overview: Nutrition is vital for Early Childhood Development especially in the first 1000 days. Breastmilk has all nutrients and containts antibodies that enhance the infant's immune system. COVID-19 resulted in confusion and mixed messages on whether it could be transmitted to infants through breastmilk. A Global Virtual Collaborative Network of Milk Banks (GAMBA) have...
Published 09/22/20