Discussions around the increase in number and improved quality of artisans have been widely supported. There is, however, a need for the notion of artisan is to be interrogated. This compelling study does this by exploring two focus trades in the manufacturing sector in South Africa and evaluating the changes to artisan identity and status. By extending a methodological framework for studying professions, the study adds to the academic engagement on understanding artisan identity and status. In addition, it contributes to the international literature on artisans, which seldom focuses on the level of trade and is often highly compartmentalised. Changing artisanal identity and status: The unfolding South African story is therefore a vital resource for those interested and invested in the future of artisans and understanding how this profession unfolds in the manufacturing, engineering and related services sector.

Nurses are often said to be the backbone of health services, but in South Africa their profession itself is in need of care. This monograph considers the profile, image and status of nursing today and the nature and role of nursing education. A major concern is that, although nursing still attracts many more students than there are places available, the gap between the large numbers who complete their training and the relatively small growth in the professional registers, indicates high attrition rates. The decline in the role of the public sector in the training of nurses is another worrying trend. Through interviews and focus groups, the study explores issues that are contributing to the state of the nursing profession and airs the concerns of nursing students, academics and qualified nurses who are leaders in the field. These are concerns which managers and policy-makers in the health sector must address if the nursing profession is to regain the respect it once enjoyed, and if South Africa's public health sector is to address the serious challenges it faces. This study forms part of a broader project on professions and professional education within the HSRC Research Programme on Education, Science and Skills Development (ESSD). The research focus of ESSD is wide, spanning three major social domains: the education system, the national system of innovation and the world of work. The programme is distinctive in that it is able to harness research work at the interface of these three key social domains, to produce comprehensive, integrated and holistic analyses of the pathways of learners through schooling, further and higher education into the labour market and the national system of innovation.