welcome


UFS strip research


Welcome to the Flourishing Life Research Theme

 

The theme's intellectual signature is flourishing, understood relationally through ubuntu jurisprudence and feminist care ethics. Flourishing is treated not as a private possession but as something achieved with and through others, and too often denied by structural injustice. This framing connects the theme's scholarly outputs, its commitment to capacity development, and its public and policy engagement.

What it adds to the existing literature on ubuntu, care ethics, the capabilities approach, and human flourishing is a justice-centred, decolonial, and relational account that treats flourishing denied as an actionable wrong, anchored in South African transformative constitutionalism. 
 


Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller

Prof Narnia

I have spent my career exploring how law, democracy, and social justice shape the way we live together. My work brings together constitutional law, governance, human rights, gender equality, and the idea of human flourishing – a concept I believe can guide us towards more just and inclusive societies.

At the University of the Free State, I lead the Flourishing Life Research Theme. Previously, I headed the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State Research Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). I have also taught law at Vista University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and served as research director at the Africa Institute of South Africa.

I enjoy sharing my research widely – through publications, books, and conference presentations around the world. As an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, I have also had the privilege of representing our country in international forums such as BRICS, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), and Women20 (W20), where advancing gender equality and inclusive governance has been central to my role.

Currently, my research focuses on democratic renewal, constitutionalism, and how human flourishing can serve as a foundation for social justice and public policy. I also contribute to national conversations as a member of the Sustainable Development Goals Initiative (SDGI) Panel of Experts in the Presidency.

Thank you for visiting my page – I hope it gives you a sense of the work I am passionate about and the questions I continue to explore.

Also join the Flourishing Life Research Network by emailing Flourishing@ufs.ac.za 

 


The seven interconnected lines of enquiry for the Flourishing Life Research Theme


 

Flourishing Life in the media

Without health, we deny a flourishing life
27 August 2026 l By Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller

Homelessness is flourishing denied
12 August 2026 I By Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller and Dr Jean-Paul Pophaim

Food insecurity exposes gaps in SA’s social safety net
5 August 2026 l By Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller
Sowetan

From research to national impact: Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller joins Presidency policy expert panel
29 July 2026 l By Tshepo Tsotetsi

Hunger is flourishing denied
22 July 2026 l By Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller

Foreclosing flourishing: Xenophobia and South Africa's constitutional future
26 June 2026 l By Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller

New UFS research theme reimagines flourishing through interdisciplinary impact
2 June 2026 l By Leonie Bolleurs

Flourishing life in the media


 
 

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