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South African Review of Sociology: putting the pandemic in perspective: special issue
No full textIt has now been over five years since the COVID-19 pandemic substantially altered the world. In March 2020, as South Africa, alongside many other countries, went into lockdown, society was profoundly disrupted. At the time, we did not know how this disruption might shape and reshape society. Although at the beginning many governments framed the pandemic as primarily a medical issue, sociologists and the wider social science community understood that the responses to the pandemic were inherently social. Social science teams across South Africa mobilized their expertise in response to the unfolding dynamics of the pandemic. This special
issue profiles one such initiative.
Move. Eat. Thrive: a school-based mobile app for adolescent obesity prevention in South Africa
No full textPaper presented at the U.S. Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium, Dakar, Senegal, 2-4 FebruaryAdolescent obesity is rising in South Africa, driven by poor diet and inactivity. Mobile health (mHealth) offers a promising way to reach youth with messages on nutrition and physical activity, yet context-specific, evidence-based interventions remain limited across Africa. This study aimed to explore the local context, engage school
stakeholders, and co-develop culturally relevant digital content to support adolescent obesity prevention.N/
The effects of identity-based discrimination on young people in the Global South
No full textIdentity-based discrimination – unfair treatment by systems and individuals based on social status – is a recognized determinant of health and wellbeing, yet evidence centered on young people living in Global South contexts of exclusion, inequality and oppression remain limited. This article draws on a rapid review of 53 studies examining discrimination related to gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, (dis)ability, geography, and religion. Outcomes were assessed using the Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) framework spanning six domains: psychosocial wellbeing, bodily integrity, education, physical health, economic empowerment, and voice and agency. Most studies reported adverse psychosocial outcomes, with fewer documenting effects on bodily integrity, education, or physical health. Very few addressed economic disempowerment or barriers to voice and agency. The review highlights important gaps and identifies five priorities: expanding evidence on economic impacts; examining protective factors and interventions through intersectional approaches; comparative analyses between Global North and South youth; extending geographical, age and setting coverage; and advancing longitudinal and intersectional research that capture the cumulative effect of discrimination on Global South youth.
Agricultural land potential and spatial pressure in South Africa. Spatial Insights: Edition 19
No full textN/
Student affairs and services leadership role toward social justice in higher education
No full textThis handbook identifies some of the causes and effects of social injustices on international education/schools globally, and how leaders might address them. With over half of the chapter authors from outside the USA, the topics and methods vary greatly. The work offers new understandings that look critically at the theoretical and methodological ways of knowing diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. It emphasizes on critical perspectives, troubling the taken-for-grant ideas and norms that often act as barriers to realizing socially just practices within schools. Since the publication of the first edition in 2014, our world has seen a dramatic rise in populist authoritarian governments whose educational policies have exacerbated social injustices, such as criminalizing immigration and migration, banning books, and excluding LGBTQ teachers or failing to educate equitably LGBTQ students among many other social injustices. What will clearly distinguish this second edition of Educational Leadership and Social (In)justice is how we bring together fourth-generation research knowledge of educational leadership for social justice
Piloting the feasibility of a population-based joint TB-HIV survey in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, 2019
No full textSouth Africa bears a high burden of infectious diseases, including intersecting epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB). Among people living with HIV, TB is the predominant cause of death. Since 2002, South Africa has conducted six national population-based HIV surveys, and its first national TB prevalence survey between 2017 and 2019. Given the epidemiologic overlap of these conditions and dwindling resources, a joint national TB and HIV survey could be advantageous. We piloted a joint survey design in August–September 2019 to assess the feasibility of simultaneously collecting HIV and TB data. The pilot survey utilized the same sampling frame as the 2017–2019 national TB prevalence survey, based on small area layers as building blocks for clusters. Two clusters in KwaZulu-Natal (one urban and one rural) were selected. People of all ages were eligible to participate. Household questionnaires were administered to consenting household heads, followed by invitations to the cluster survey hub, where age-appropriate individual questionnaires were administered. Whole blood samples were tested for HIV, viral load, HIV drug resistance and HIV recent infection status. TB metrics included symptom and chest x-ray screening with sputum testing for those screening positive. Those ≥18 years received other health measurements (weight, height) and screening tests (random blood glucose, cholesterol). The survey successfully combined the collection of both HIV and TB relevant data. Overall, Household-level uptake was 78.6% (363/462), while individual-level uptake at the hub was 48.1% (616/1,280), with lower participation in the urban cluster. Uptake of additional health measurements exceeded 87%. The pilot study demonstrated that combining TB and HIV surveys is possible, but fewer people participated compared to the individual national HIV and TB surveys. Further operational research could explore how to optimize survey design, accommodate differing data requirements, and improve participation in future joint surveys.
Reflective masculinities: black boys contesting hegemony in peri-urban South Africa
No full textThis article introduces the concept of reflective masculinities to explore how Black adolescent boys in a peri-urban South African community make meaning of masculinity in ways that defy dominant, deficit-based representations. Drawing on a critical African masculinities framework and participatory visual methodologies, the study engaged 15 teenage boys through photo-elicitation and focus group discussions to examine how they navigate gender in relation to aesthetics, spirituality, friendship, and future aspirations. Rather than framing
masculinity as inherently hegemonic or violent, the paper foregrounds the everyday, agentive strategies boys use to rework gendered expectations within contexts shaped by racialized inequality, poverty, and post-apartheid transitions. The findings reveal complex, often contradictory performances of care, ethical self-fashioning, and relational identity, which challenge monolithic constructions of Black boyhood. By centering boys as co-constructors of knowledge, the article contributes to gender transformative youth scholarship in the Global South and calls for more nuanced, youth-led approaches to studying masculinities.
Feasibility of self‑testing for acute malaria using rapid diagnostic in three peri‑urban sub‑Saharan African community settings
No full textMalaria is a significant cause of under-five child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The World Health
Organization (WHO)-approved rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for malaria offer a resource-efficient alternative to gold standard diagnostic methods and may improve timely access to care through self-testing. The feasibility of use of RDT for self-testing was evaluated in 100 households each in Migori County, Kenya; KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa; and Copperbelt Province, Zambia. Surveys assessed perceived usability, acceptability, and preferences for RDTs among consenting participants. Among 225 participants in Kenya, 80 in South Africa, and 163 in Zambia, 25 (11.5%), 0 (0.0%), and 3 (1.8%) tested positive for malaria, respectively. In Kenya and Zambia, 89% of participants reported previous malaria diagnoses. Participants across all three sites interpreted the RDT with 100% sensitivity and 99.7% specificity compared to RDT interpretation performed by a trained study team member, with only one individual interpreting their test incorrectly. Over 96% of participants across all three sites felt the RDT would be easy to use for specimen collection, test operation, and result interpretation, and 160 (100%) Kenyan participants, 74 (96.1%) South African participants, and 157 (99.4%) Zambian participants felt confident that they had interpreted their own test correctly. Participants’ perceived comfort for future self-testing with an RDT was high in Kenya (92%) and Zambia (86%), and moderate in South Africa (66%). These findings indicate that RDT self-testing is highly acceptable and feasible in SSA settings
with a high malaria burden.
How is business innovation shaping skills demand in South Africa?: an evidence review
No full textCommissioned by the Department of Science, Technology and InnovationDigitalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the Just Energy Transition (JET) are among the main policy drivers shaping innovation in the South African business sector. Scholars have long characterised the relationship between innovation and skills demand in terms of skills-biased technological change, as part of which the introduction of new technologies requires and, indeed, favours workers with more advanced skills. However, the impacts of digitalisation, the 4IR and JET have also given rise to some technological alarmism, as labour and civil society role-players express legitimate concerns about the displacement of skilled and unskilled labour by firms adopting advanced and emerging technologies. In the South African labour market, which is characterised by high unemployment and large inequalities in skills levels and attainment despite a number of interventions, there is both a skills mismatch and a significant risk of polarisation undermining the achievement of national goals. In this context, reliable evidence is vital. This review of the available evidence, spanning a 30-year period from 1994 to 2024, finds that, for high skilled labour, there is rising demand for digital, green and soft skills. By contrast, for unskilled labour, there is evidence of displacement risks. Upskilling and reskilling initiatives, the evidence suggests, are critical to navigating these shifts in the labour market, while hiring new employees plays a more limited role in redressing labour imbalances due to talent shortages. The research also points to the need for closer alignment between the education and industrial sectors in establishing and implementing upskilling and reskilling investments in response to innovation – an alignment which may be promoted by government as an intermediary. The findings also indicate a need for further research covering a greater variety of sectors and professions, and for a greater focus on artificial intelligence (AI), the JET and gender in analysing the relationship between innovation and skills demand.N/
Starting from school: a new approach to wash: pilot project on improving WASH messages in situation of HIV-AIDS pandemic
No full textPoster presented at the AfricaSan Conference +5, 19 Februar