At the end of October and start of November 2007, UNRISD Director, Thandika Mkandawire, will be giving a lecture tour in South Africa.
He will give a speech entitled “Beyond the National Question: Towards the Social Question” at the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust on 29 October in Johannesburg and 30 October in Capetown. On 2 November, in Pretoria, he will be speaking to the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) on “Transformative Social Policy and the Developmental State: Lessons for South Africa.”
The Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust aims to promote critical intellectual thinking, writing, debate, and discussion on social, political, economic, and cultural conditions. In order to do so, the Trust creates intellectual space for policy makers, academics, non-governmental organizations, and civil society. The Trust also publishes and disseminates the outcome of the dialogues and support partner projects, such as the work done at UNRISD. Within the Trust, there is a commitment to the creation of an equitable, humane, and democratic society based on principles of basic human and social values and rights. The Trust operates within the context of the social transition in South Africa, working towards social reconstruction, development, and nation building despite the pressures of political and economic globalisation.
The HSRC of South Africa is a statutory body that was established in 1968. It supports development nationally, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and in Africa. The HSRC primarily conducts policy-relevant, social science projects for public-sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. The HSRC carries out its mission in partnership with 165 researchers, 63 technical staff, and 128 supporting staff globally. It has six multi-disciplinary research programmes and five cross-cutting research units, focused on user needs, that are spread across three centres in different parts of South Africa.
For more information on the lecture tour, contact;
Vanja Karth of the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust at
wolpetrust@mweb.co.za
Arlene Grossberg of the HSRC at
acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za.