1st Edition

(Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa

Edited By Amanda Gouws Copyright 2005
    296 Pages
    by Routledge

    296 Pages
    by Routledge

    The study of citizenship in the context of South Africa implicitly challenges the rights-based democracy in South Africa, while literature regarding women and citizenship has greatly contributed to a new understanding of citizenship. Locally, many global processes are reproduced in the discourse of rights-claiming, issues of institutional representation, bodily integrity in the face of violence, and care in the face of a lack of care. This volume takes the debate of citizenship in South Africa in a more theoretical and empirical direction while engaging with knowledge produced elsewhere in the world. As part of the Gender in a Local/Global World series, it investigates the making of gendered citizenship, institutionalization of gender politics, the state of gendered policy making, local citizenship, rights, the women's movement, gendered violence, as well as citizenship and the body.

    Contents: Introduction, Amanda Gouws. From In/Exclusion To The Constitution Of The Subject: Constituting 'women' as citizens: ambiguities in the making of gendered political subjects in post-apartheid South Africa, Linzi Manicom. Deconstructing The Discourse Of Citizenship: Nationalism displaced: citizenship discourses in the transition, Shireen Hassim; Shaping women's citizenship: contesting the boundaries of state and discourse, Amanda Gouws; Masculinity, citizenship and political objection to military service in apartheid South Africa, Daniel Conway. Extending The Boundaries Of The Law: Citizenship and the right to child care, Beth Goldblatt; Towards enhanced citizenship and poverty eradication: a critique of Grootboom from a gender perspective, Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa and Sibonile Khoza; The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on women's citizenship in South Africa, Anneke Meerkotter. Citizenship As Agency: Gendered citizenship in South Africa: rights and beyond, Cheryl McEwan; Merely mothers perpetuating patriarchy? women's grassroots organizations in the Western Cape 1980 to 1990, Gertrude Fester. Sexualizing Citizenship: Escaping heteronormative bondage: sexuality in citizenship, Mikki van Zyl; A phenomenology of rape: forging a new vocabulary for action, Louise du Toit; Index.

    Biography

    Amanda Gouws

    'This new text boasts a cast of some of South Africa's strongest feminist academics across a spectrum of disciplines. Based on rigorous scholarship and informed by cutting edge theories and debates on gender and citizenship, this impressive collection is warmly welcomed in the still marginalised arena of feminist knowledge production and the continued under-representation of women's voices in academic publishing. A critically reflective text of this nature is certainly timely as we near the end of the first decade of democracy.' Tammy Shefer, University of the Western Cape, South Africa 'This book is a most valuable addition to the literature on citizenship. Written from the perspective of the complex newly emerging South African democracy, the authors are able to nuance and enrich the global discussion on this topic, and also to widen the issues that should be addressed under the rubric of citizenship. A must-read for anybody interested in citizenship and in gender politics.' Selma Sevenhuijsen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 'Unthinking Citizenship is a timely collection in which leading feminist thinkers interrogate the limits of liberal democratic notions of citizenship. The post-apartheid South African context provides an ideal case study...This is a valuable and provocative resource for all those concerned with social justice and quality agendas, and essential reading for those who would still relegate gender to the margins of contemporary social and political theory.' Amina Mama, University of Cape Town, South Africa 'This is a tremendously exciting collection of essays: diverse, vigorous, wonderfully accessible, but at the same time provocative, challenging and well-documented...this collection ought to be required reading for every thinking lawyer. It is simply sensational, both an important contribution to debates over the meaning of citizenship, and a pleasure to read.' Law Society Journal '...the collection will undoubtedly be an invaluabl