Rebecca Davis has been described as one of the funniest writers in South Africa today. Her razor-sharp wit combines with her acute powers of observation to produce social and political commentary that will have you in stitches even as it informs and provokes you to think seriously about the topics she discusses.

In Best White And Other Anxious Delusions, Davis offers advice on life's tricky issues; discusses the perils of being a 'Best white'; laments the fact that society does not have a universally adopted form of greeting, such as the high-five; explores the intricacies of social media and internet dating; considers the future of reading and tackles a range of controversial topics in between.

"I forgive you."

Three simple words behind which sits an intriguing and complex concept. These words can be used to absolve a meaningless squabble, or said to someone who has caused you great harm. They can liberate you from guilt, or consciously place blame on your shoulders.

Forgiveness can often be perceived as saccharine and overtly religious, something just for the spiritually superior or mentally strong. But really it is a gritty, risky concept that is so often relevant to our ordinary everyday lives. Forgiveness explores the subject from every angle, coming from a place of enquiry rather than persuasion, presenting it as an offering, never a prescription.

Marina Cantacuzino seeks to investigate, unpick and debate the limits and possibilities of forgiveness – in our relationships, for our physical and mental wellbeing, how it plays out in international politics and within the criminal justice system, and where it intersects with religious faith. Cantacuzino speaks to people across the globe who have considered forgiveness in different forms and circumstances. She talks to a survivor of Auschwitz; to someone who accidentally killed a friend; to people who have lost loved ones in acts of violence; to a former combatant in The Troubles as well as to the daughter of someone he murdered.

Through these real stories, expert opinion and the author’s experience from two decades working in this field, the reader gets to better understand what forgiveness is and what it most definitely isn’t, how it can be an important element in breaking the cycle of suffering, and ultimately how it might help transform fractured relationships and mend broken hearts.

Worrier State looks at the pervasive culture of fear in South Africa. It reveals how narratives of fear manifest in contemporary media forms and the people they serve, and how these are impacted by race, class, gender, space and identity.

Through an interdisciplinary body of work, and using a case-based study approach, media analyst Nicky Falkof investigates how risk, anxiety and moral panic show up in media portrayals in modern South Africa. Her main intervention in this approach is through ‘affect’: how do South Africans feel about living under conditions of extreme fear, which is related to gross inequality, and how does the media make us feel? Together, these essays about ‘white genocide’, ‘Satanist’ murders, township urban legends and suburban community groups present an always-partial and necessarily contingent picture of some of the ways in which cultures of fear structure life and meaning for various people in various communities.

They show how narratives of fear underpin everyday life, informing both self-making and meaning-making in contemporary South Africa.

This is a memoir about the life of an extraordinary South African poet, educator, and activist that tells a lesser-known social history of people, families, communities and places.

Poli Poli is intentional in grounding Masekela’s experiences in a social history of the country over generations. Masekela uses her life story to illustrate the features and characteristics that typified life in particular places, like Kwa-Guqa in the 1940s, Johannesburg, Alexandra Township, and Inanda Seminary School (for Coloured girls) in Mpumalanga.

This memoir is filled with intimate details about the growing pains of a childhood inhibited by strict beliefs and systems, first-hand experiences of struggle and sacrifice, violence and other forms of inhumanity and the deep scars they etch, while also telling the story of the author’s life-giving relationship with her siblings. Poli Poli is a remarkable history that speaks to issues of then and now – belonging, African identity, women’s rights, and femininity, and is written in the lyricism and transporting detail of one of the country’s greatest wordsmiths.

This riveting study shows how the intersection of technology and politics has shaped South African history since the 1960s.

It is impossible to understand South Africa’s energy crisis without knowing this history. Faeeza Ballim’s deeply researched book challenges many prevailing assumptions and beliefs made regarding the crisis.

The book highlights the importance of technology to our understanding of South African history and challenges the idea that the technological state corporations were proxies for the apartheid government. While a part of the broader national modernization project under apartheid, these corporations also set the stage for worker solidarity and trade union organization in the Waterberg and elsewhere in the country.

Faeeza Ballim argues that the state corporations, their technology, and their engineers enjoyed ambivalent relationships with the governments of their time. And in the democratic era, while Eskom has been caught up in the scourge of government corruption, it has retained a degree of organizational autonomy and offered a degree of resistance to those who were attempting further corrupt practices.

South Africa is facing an extraordinary ‘polycrisis’. The dimensions of this crisis include an energy collapse; a failing rail network; weak education outcomes; an interrupted water supply; and the effects of decades of endemic corruption that have brought much of government to a halt.

But the country also has incredible assets: a wealth of sought-after minerals; an enviable Constitution that protects rights and advocates social inclusion; an advanced financial and services sector; thriving agricultural and auto industries that compete with the best in the world; a prosecution service that is rapidly rebuilding; and, most of all, strong-willed people determined to make life better through hard work, entrepreneurship and hustling.

The choice is stark: we either build on the positives and take the country forward or we will be overwhelmed by the negatives and end up as another Zimbabwe or Venezuela. We have the people, the policies and the resources. What is missing is the political will to make the difficult choices that will save South Africa from disaster.

This book takes you on a journey that ends with one of three possible future scenarios: the Good, the Bad or the Ugly. Compiled by The Brenthurst Foundation and In Transformation Initiative, and workshopped with high-powered leaders in business and politics, the scenarios have stimulated intense public interest as the country grapples with its mounting problems.

The good news is that there is a clear road towards a positive future. It will take courageous leadership and smart thinking to get there, but the ‘Good’ scenario is tantalisingly within grasp.

An accessible overview of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the impact it is set to have on various sectors in South Africa and Africa. It explores the previous industrial revolutions that have led up to this point and outlines what South Africa’s position has been through each one.

With a focus on artificial intelligence as a core concept in understanding the 4IR, this book uses familiar concepts to explain artificial intelligence, how it works and how it can be used in banking, mining, medicine and many other fields.

Written from an African perspective, Closing the Gap addresses the challenges and fears around the 4IR by pointing to the opportunities presented by new technologies and outlining some of the challenges and successes to date.

Die tweede deel van die reeks Imperiale Somer beskryf die einde van die Anglo-Boereoorlog, en die beleid van rekonstruksie en verengelsing wat hierna onder lord Milner in die twee ‘nuwe kolonies’, Transvaal en die Oranjerivierkolonie (Oranje-Vrystaat), aangepak is.

Dié tydperk word deur Karel Schoeman beskou as die “hoogtepunt van die hele Imperiale gedagte” wat uiteindelik met die uitbreek van die Eerste Wêreldoorlog sou eindig. Die klem val egter nie op die politieke besluite en ontwikkelinge nie, maar op persoonlikhede.

Talle anekdotes en klein kameebeskrywings maak van Rekonstruksie ’n besonder interessante leeservaring.

Now part of the Juta’s Property Law Library series, the third edition provides a comprehensive discussion of the core aspects of South African planning law.

The second edition, Planning Law (2012), reflected more of the new constitutional dispensation that brought with it not only a focus on values and equity, but also the development of an entirely new vision and structure for planning in the three spheres of government. It introduced some basic principles, addressed the apartheid roots of planning law in South Africa and gave detailed attention to the core of planning law.

Since the publication of the second edition, planning law has received increasing attention and the constitutional, legislative and jurisprudential framework has undergone significant contextual development. Evolving constitutional insights are providing a better perspective on the content of planning law and the impact of planning frameworks and decisions on government, in its three spheres, as well as owners and neighbours.

The Constitutional Court has, to a large extent, clarified the different planning competences and how these are allocated to each of the spheres of government. The enactment of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA) has paved the way for the discipline to develop considerably and to be more integrated. The resultant effect on planning law has been immense and has necessitated this new edition that has been reworked and updated in its entirety. Since planning law is multi-faceted, the book also deals with related administrative, environmental, local government and informal settlement issues. All the relevant legal principles and legislative provisions are amplified by discussions of applicable court decisions.

Corruption has played a pivotal role in sustaining appallingly high levels of poverty in many developing countries, particularly in relation to the deficient provision of basic services such as education and healthcare. Corruption drives the over exploitation of natural resources, capturing their value for the elite who benefit. In the developed world, corrupt funding undermines political systems and lays policy open to heavy financial lobbying. Global corruption attempts to identify the main drivers of corruption worldwide and analyses the current efforts to control them. This compelling book suggests ways in which the problems caused by corruption can be addressed and ultimately prevented. The author draws on years of experience and knowledge and makes this book an accessible, informative and thought-provoking guide to corruption operating at all levels of society. "You can save a lot of money and time by reading this book in which Laurence Cockcroft provides a candid narrative, distilling his experience in countries all over the world on corruption and its possible solutions. This makes for fascinating reading; Cockcroft allows you to understand that there is no chaos but only complexity." Luis Moreno-Ocampo, former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

The history of sexuality has progressed from its earlier marginal status to a central place in historiography. Not only are its foci of research intriguing, but the field has initiated important theoretical advances for the discipline as a whole, especially through the work of Michel Foucault. The editors of this new four-volume Routledge collection define sexuality in a broader sense than sexual identity, to include sexual emotions, desires, acts, representations, and relationships. And while the history of sexuality began in the American and European spheres, the volumes also integrate studies of Asian, African, and other sexual cultures. Similarly, the collection integrates studies from early periods (such as classical Greece and Rome and the medieval era) with modern histories of sexuality. The editors of this new four-volume Routledge collection define sexuality in a broader sense than sexual identity, to include sexual emotions, desires, acts, representations, and relationships. And while the history of sexuality began in the American and European spheres, the volumes also integrate studies of Asian, African, and other sexual cultures. Similarly, the collection integrates studies from early periods (such as classical Greece and Rome and the medieval era) with modern histories of sexuality.

James Scott is 'n kliniese sielkundige: Hy sien mense en word deur hulle gesien. Die woorde “Dan sien ons mekaar” is die eerste keer geuiter deur die spesialis wat sy kornea-oorplantings behartig het.

Dan sien ons mekaar is 'n versameling eg menslike stories oor die lief en leed op James se persoonlike lewensreis; en dié van sy kliënte van die afgelope dertig jaar.

Dit is 'n eerlike blik op hoe terapeut en kliënt mekaar se lewens raak.

Routledge Library Editions: Development will re-issue works which address economic, political and social aspects of development. Published over more than four decades these books trace the emergence of development as one of the most important contemporary issues and one of the key areas of study for modern social science. The books cover the most important themes within development and include studies of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Authors include Sir Alexander Cairncross, W. Arthur Lewis, Lord Peter Bauer and Cristobal Kay. An extensive collection of previously hard to access or out of print books, this set presents an unrivalled opportunity to build up a wealth of material in the field of development studies, with a particular focus upon economic and political concerns. The volumes in the collection offer both a global overview of the history of development in the twentieth century, and a huge variety of case studies on the development of individual nations. For institutional purchases for e-book sets please contact [email protected] (customers in the UK, Europe and Rest of World)

‘How can there be only one dedicated hospital in the country for our children?’

When Madiba asked this question, he sowed the seeds of a challenge that would grow into a legacy.

A seed may be small but its size is disproportionate to what it can become over time. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital was a project that seemed impossible when it was just an idea that started with ten people seated around a dinner table. As they discussed the state of healthcare in the country and shared their experiences, they realised that it was the children of Southern Africa who were the most disadvantaged by the lack of dedicated paediatric facilities. At the end of the evening a statement by the late Dr Nthato Motlana took hold and became the catalyst for a remarkable journey: ‘I will speak to Nelson,’ he said.

With South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela’s backing, the board of the Children’s Fund was inspired to take up the challenge to address this vital need. After years of global research and advice from experts in numerous different fields a Trust was formed to oversee the project and, critically, to set about raising the one billion rand it would take to build, equip and staff a state-of-the-art children’s hospital.

The stories behind the planning for, fundraising and building of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital are inspiring, personal, and sometimes heart-breaking. It was a long and arduous journey, beset with difficulties, but the dedicated team’s commitment and courage prevailed to create a living legacy that will truly impact the lives of children for generations to come.

Today, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg is a proud testimony to a uniquely African story which honours the memory of a great statesman and celebrates the children for whom he cared so deeply.

Opening novel avenues of knowledge in the study of African philanthropy and development, this incisive book provides a critical assessment of philanthropic responses during crisis and non-crisis periods. It explores how collaboration between multilateral institutions and philanthropic organisations during a crisis can be harnessed and replicated to address the continent's developmental challenges during non-crisis periods. Combining empirical insights with cutting edge theory, this forward-thinking book investigates the activities of high-net worth individuals, foundations, and corporate actors working with governments to create shared value. Through individual case studies and comparative analyses across diverse sectors and geographies, chapters demonstrate how shared value is crucial to building resilience in societies through philanthropy. The book ultimately makes a call for deeper and more meaningful forms of collaboration among the key actors in society: governments, the private sector, high-net worth individuals, and multilateral institutions. This highly innovative book will be an essential resource for researchers and academics interested in development studies, the sociology of organisations, and social policy in developing countries. Its empirical grounding will also inform policy responses in crisis and non-crisis periods.

Hair is potent. It can be an emotional and intense matter across gender - it will grow in places you don't like, it may desert you - suddenly, or gradually. It is a symbol of gender, sexuality, status, and more. Part memoir, part investigation across history, politics, religion, and culture, Hair/Power explores the power, control and ultimate liberation that hair can provide.