A Nation Divided?

The Prospects and Limitations of Social Cohesion Building in South Africa

“Call for Papers”

January 2019

Whilst the building of a democratic and socially cohesive society has long been the vision of post-apartheid social and economic policy in South Africa, the country is yet to emerge as a socially cohesive nation. As part of the project “A Nation Divided? Assessing and Analyzing Social Cohesion in South Africa”, jointly coordinated by the University of Cape Town (prof. Justine Burns) and KU Leuven (prof. Arnim Langer), we welcome paper abstracts concerning the prospects and limitations of social cohesion building in South Africa. We particularly aim to support and bring together original scholarship that helps to improve our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of social cohesion building at different levels (including the community, city and national level) in South Africa.

This call for papers is particularly aimed at junior South African researchers with less than 8 years of work experience since obtaining their PhDs. PhD researchers as well as researchers without a PhD are also welcome to apply. Further, we welcome both quantitative and qualitative papers, as well as papers which take different disciplinary approaches, including sociological, historical, political, anthropological or any other relevant disciplinary approach.

Researchers can apply to this call for papers by sending their CV and an original paper abstract of 800-1000 words to [email protected] & [email protected] no later than 31 March 2019. An applicant’s paper abstract should clearly explain the research question the paper aims to address as well as the methodology and data that will be used to address this question. Successful applicants will be invited to a writing workshop which will be held in October 2019 in Cape Town and will be given an honorarium of ZAR 25,000 upon the successful completion of their paper. We aim to publish a selection of the papers as an edited volume with an international publisher.

For more information regarding this call, please contact:

Prof. Arnim Langer
CRPD Director, KU Leuven
Email: [email protected]