Those featured in The Texture of Dissent were shaped and preoccupied by the issues facing South Africans after the Nationalist Party election victory in 1948 and most of the academics included in this volume only became prominent from the late 1990s. This volume draws on the ways in which public intellectuals are involved in the ‘political work of social change’ through defiant thought and action. Those assembled in this volume are, in the view of the writers, people who ultimately leave deep imprints on what it means to be human in a very complex and divided society.