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12 November 2024 | Story Dr Nombulelo Shange | Photo André Damons
Dr Nombulelo Shange
Dr Nombulelo Shange, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State

Opinion article by Dr Nombulelo Shange, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State

Women For Change has created a very important petition, calling for the cancellation of the upcoming Chris Brown concert. Chris Brown has a long history of abusing women, with the 2009 abuse of Rihanna being the most notable example. The Women for Change petitionhas been polarising, with some celebrating the activism and support for women, even when it seems “unpopular” to do so. Others have rushed to social media to defend the American singer, sharing their excitement about attending the concert.

The sad reality is the Women For Change campaign is unlikely to succeed given that the tickets sold out in a matter of hours. South Africa prioritises profit over everything, over social well-being, over protecting vulnerable groups, its own state agenda or other important social factors. But this is an important campaign because it drums up awareness and holds a mirror to our society, reflecting the lengths we will go through to defend patriarchy.

Understanding structures of patriarchy through a radical feminist perspective

The overwhelming support for Chris Brown in a country that has been labelled the rape capital of the world, shows we are unwilling or unable to understand how we gained this jarring reputation. Patriarchy is at the centre of it all, radical feminist scholar, Sylvia Walby offers deeper discussion on patriarchy. Broadly, patriarchy is a social system that prioritises men and sees them as superior to women and is rooted in the oppression and marginalisation of women.

Walby identifies six social structures and practices that create or reinforce patriarchy, namely;

  • Household production, which includes everything from the hierarchy of importance within the family, women’s roles often being seen as inferior and unpaid domestic work.
  • Labour, where women are either excluded, discriminated against and/or paid less.
  • Culture, which entails ideologies and praxis that portray women as inherently inferior, a view often reinforced by religion, media and even language.
  • Sexuality ensures that women’s sexuality or sexual expression is more controlled, while men have more freedoms. Women have less bodily autonomy and agency.
  • Violence, gender-based violence and sexual abuse give men power over women, leaving women subdued and fearful.
  • Finally, the state and related structures like legal systems, policies and so on have a long history of perpetuating systematic and direct violences against women.

Intersectional politics and patriarchy

These six structures of patriarchy seldom ever exist in isolation from each other, in fact, it can be challenging to tell them apart because they are so interwoven. A single event could see one or more of these structures at play, which is why in part it becomes difficult to ensure justice in individual cases or to even dismantle patriarchy as a whole to protect everyone (including men) from the harm patriarchy causes. Intersectional scholars and activists such as Audre Lorde, Kimberlé Crenshaw, bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins further help us understand the complex cocktail of oppression when patriarchy is met by other social identities perceived as negative, including; race, class, religion and so on.

These two theoretical approaches provide a lens for society to understand gender and different forms of oppression, so that we might be better able to address them. So, if a black woman in South Africa experiences oppression at a predominantly white-male-led highly respected place of work, and the abuse and bullying eventually leads to the black woman being pushed out with some reputational harm – in this singular case it becomes clear that there are different structures of patriarchy involved, and intersectional politics at play. The intersectional politics help us understand the racial and other social nuances like age and others that were used as a basis for marginalising this black woman. Multiple structures of patriarchy are at play in this illustration, labour, because the oppression is taking place in the workplace. Sexuality might also be at play depending on the kind of abuse the black woman is experiencing and because this structure of patriarchy includes bodily autonomy and the risk of being sexualised at work, based on rigid ideas around how one should behave or dress. Culture is also at play and informs the view that the workplace has towards the black women being seen as incompetent, incapable and not belonging in that space. And even the state and related structures are also interlocked into this oppression because stronger legal and policy protections that should prevent this kind of workplace abuse are missing. Many of these listed patriarchal violences are usually not viewed as illegal and are at worst, welcomed and celebrated or at best, seen as unfair or bordering on unethical

Connecting to the Chris Brown boycott

I am making this example because it is a relatable one that most women have gone through, even those who have come out fiercely defending Chris Brown. Whether you are a domestic worker or hold one of the most “important” roles one can hold within your industry, and it is followed by national and global recognition, we have all experienced some kind of gendered oppression in the workplace, relationships, and society as a whole. The structures of patriarchy active in our seemingly more relatable systemic oppression and lives as South African women are exactly the same, even though the events and experiences of abuse might appear to be different. It is the same structures of patriarchy that oppress us on a daily basis, that enable and empower artists like Chris Brown, P Diddy, R Kelly or Harvey Weinstein to rise to such prominence despite being known abusers for decades. To protect and celebrate these people and systems the way we have done, is to preserve and defend the very same oppression we go through in our own daily lives.

We have seen some very influential celebrities and leaders we love and look up to support Chris Brown or criticise Women For Change’s boycott and in doing so have attempted to compartmentalise abuse as separate from Chris Brown’s artistry and work. This is not true, many of these men mentioned above, use their places of work to enact their terror. Their connection to media and ability to shape and inform culture sees them normalising their violence or discrediting victims. We believe them because we are moved by their work and do not want to believe that such talented people can be so vile.

South Africa has its own fair share of these kinds of demonic perpetrators who hunt women for sport. The problem with our division as a country (and especially as women) over issues like this Chris Brown boycott, is that we believe we are different and have therefore transcended some of the patriarchal oppressions. You could be a young, poor woman, wearing next to nothing, twerking in a hip-hop music video for a living, or a church woman and highly respected member of your community, married with children and a thriving career in what is perceived as an important industry, patriarchy does not care. It treats us all with the same brutality, we must understand that these intersectional politics interact with patriarchal structures to create shared oppression and violences. We must see ourselves in the experiences of the women who come forward against artists like Chris Brown because it could easily be one of us. In the rape capital of the world, this threat of violence follows us everywhere, in churches, our homes, work, school and even mundane places like the post office.

16 Days of Activism 2024

The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Campaign (16 Days Campaign) is a United Nations campaign which takes place annually from 25 November (International Day of No Violence against Women) to 10 December (International Human Rights Day).  https://www.gov.za/16DaysOfActivism2024

 

Other articles by Dr Shange

→ Violent events will continue to take place if poverty is not eradicated as a matter of urgency

→ Black women’s hair: A political battlefield

→ Opinion: Disrupting the harmful ‘strong black woman’ narrative

→ Xenophobic South Africa goes against the Pan-Africanist agenda that liberated us from Apartheid

→ Black men take a page out of their own oppression to marginalise black women in higher education

→ Opinion: Love as Revolutionary Rebellion

→ African Knowledge: Not yet uhuru

→ South Africa has betrayed the dreams of the youth of 1976

→ Charges against Frederick Mhangazo for Cape Town fire criminalise poverty

→ Opinion: Overcoming COVID-19 with the strength and resilience of Sharpeville

→ Can we use African Indigenous Knowledge to tackle COVID-19?

→ Tokenised celebrations of black womanist leaders negate their success

→ What are we really celebrating this Women’s Day?

 

 

News Archive

Institutional research culture a precondition for research capacity building and excellence
2004-11-16

A lecture presented by Dr. Andrew M. Kaniki at the University of the Free State Recognition Function for research excellence

16 November 2004
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Frederick Fourie
Deputy Vice Chancellors, Deans
Awardees
Colleagues and ladies and gentlemen

It is a great pleasure to be here at the University of the Free State. I am particularly honoured to have been invited to present this lecture at the First Annual Recognition Function for Research Excellence to honour researchers who have excelled in their respective fields of expertise. I would like to sincerely thank the office of the Director of Research and Development (Professor Swanepol), and in particular Mr. Aldo Stroebel for facilitating the invitation to this celebration.

I would like to congratulate you (the UFS) for institutionalizing “celebration of research excellence”, which as I will argue in this lecture is one of the key characteristics of institutional research culture that supports research capacity building and sustains research excellence.

Allow me to also take this opportunity to congratulate the University of the Free State for clocking 100 years of existence.

Ahmed Bawa and Johan Mouton (2000) in their chapter entitled Research, in the book: Transformation in higher education: global pressures and local realities in South Africa (ed. N. Cloete et. al Pretoria: CHET. 296-333) have argued that “…the sources of productivity and competitiveness [in the knowledge society and global economy] are increasingly dependent on [quality] knowledge and information being applied to productivity”. The quality knowledge they refer to here is research output or research products and the research process, which (research) as defined by the [OECD] Frascati Manual (2002: 30) is:

“…creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications”

The South African Government has set itself the objective of transforming South Africa into a knowledge society that competes effectively in the global system. A knowledge society requires appropriate numbers of educated and skilled people to create quality new knowledge and to translate the knowledge in innovative ways. To this end a number of policies and strategies like the Human Resource Development [HRD] Strategy for South Africa, the National Plan for Higher Education (NPHE) and the South Africa’s Research and Development [R&D] Strategy, have highlighted human resource development and the concomitant scarce skills development as critical for wealth creation in the context of globalization. The key mission of the HRD Strategy for instance is:

To maximize the potential of the people of South Africa, through the acquisition of knowledge and skills, to work productively and competitively in order to achieve a rising quality of life for all, and to set in place an operational plan, together with the necessary institutional arrangements, to achieve this.

The R&D Strategy emphasizes that maximum effort must be exerted to train the necessary numbers of our people in all fields required for development, running and management of modern economies. Higher education institutions like the University of the Free State have a key role to play in this process, because whatever form or shape a university takes, it is expected to conduct research (quality research); teach (quality teaching – and good graduates); and contribute to the development of its community! Thus the NPHE states that the role of higher education in a knowledge-driven world is threefold:

Human resource development;

High-level skills training and

Production, acquisition and application of knowledge.

Quality research output or knowledge which as argued is critical in determining the degree of competitiveness of a country in the knowledge economy is dependent upon quality research (process). Both the process of producing quality research and its utilization cannot and does not happen in a vacuum. It requires an environment that facilitates the production of new knowledge, its utilization and renewal. It requires skilled persons that can produce new knowledge and facilitate the production of new skills for quality knowledge production. Such an environment or in essence a university must have the culture that supports research activity. Institution research culture (that is a conducive and enabling institutional research culture) is a precondition to research capacity building. Without an institutional research culture that facilitates the development and nurturing of new young researchers it is difficult, if not impossible for a university to effectively and efficiently generate new and more quality researchers. Institutional research culture is also necessary to sustain quality research and quality research output or research excellence. It facilitates the development and sustenance of the institutional and people capacities required to do research produce quality research and generally attain research excellence!

We do recognize that the patterns of information and knowledge seeking, and knowledge generation vary among field or disciplines. For example, we know that in the humanities knowledge workers often work individually, and not as collaboratively as do those of the sciences, they all however, require supportive environments – institutional research culture to achieve and sustain research excellence. An institution does not simply attain a supportive research culture, but as Patricia Clements (English Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton) in her presentation Growing a research culture argues, research culture has to be grown [and maintained]. It unifies all natural and engineering scientists; medical researchers, humanists, and social scientists.

I therefore am of the view that Institutional Research Culture is critical to research capacity building and research excellence. I therefore want to spend a few minutes looking at the characteristics of research culture. To be effective, institutional research culture has grown and sustained not only at the institutional level, but also at the faculty, school and departmental levels of any university.

What is Research Culture?

In the process of researching on institutional research culture I identified several characteristics. Many of these overlap in some way. I want to deal with some of these characteristics; some in a little more detail while others simply cursorily. In the process what we should be asking ourselves is the extent to which an institution, like the University of the Free State, and its faculties, individually and severally, is growing and or sustaining this culture.

Institutional Research Strategy: As a plan of action or guide for a course of action, the institutional research strategy must spell out research goals that a university wants to achieve. It must be a prescription of what the university needs to be done with respect to research. As a strategy it is neither an independent activity nor an end in itself, but a component part and operationalization of the university policy or mission. ( Related to this is the Establishment of Institutional research policies)

Includes and makes public the targets, e.g. achieve so many rated scientists and make sure that every year we have so many SAPSE publications. That way people keep an eye on research agendas of the university and nation.

The UFS is obviously on its way, having launched its own Research strategy (A Strategic framework for the development of research at the University of the Free Sate. August 2003). Note that this strategy refers specifically to the “Culture of research” Fig 1

A set of administrative practices to support and encourage research. Patricia Clements (English Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton) in her presentation Growing a research culture argues that that research activity and output within the her Faculty (Arts) were very low and, in spite of the numbers of staff, with no Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty as though they had accepted that research belonged to Medicine and Science and Engineering, and teaching, separated from inquiry, belonged to the Arts. With the change in the thinking about research and development of research culture, it became clear that there was a major role for research support in a faculty her size (now about 360 full time continuing academic staff). The faculty developed a support system for research and began to address the SSHRC issues.

Reduce the bureaucracy system and micromanagement of research! This however, also implies that there is capacity and policies and procedure to manage and guide research processes

Establishment of Intellectual Property regulations and assistance

Research ethics policy and safeguarding by research administration

Focused, applied and suitable nature of the delivery mode (an institution open to new methodologies for conducting research

Programmes suited both full and part-time study particularly at graduate level (Mainly at Faculty/school and department level, and depending on what’s manageable)

Hiring senior academics to engage in, teach on and supervise postgraduate students to facilitate exchange of and transfer ideas and most importantly mentorship especially in view of declining numbers of researchers in particular fields

Quality instruction and facilitation in learning about research processes

A high retention rate of students maintained by the supportive and challenging learning environment and the use of online facilities to support collaboration and in-class learning

Availability of research grants: and awareness of sourcing funds from external sources like the National Research Foundation; Water Research Commission; Medical Research Council, private philanthropies and others outside the country. For example an institution should be able to assess how much of the slice the available funds (NRF etc) its able acquire and possibly top slice from institutional budget.

Adequacy of the financial reward system to encourage university staff members to do research (General Celebration of achievement for research excellence and achievement. This ranges form Annual reports mention; celebratory dinner. At Alberta researchers were given lapels. I don’t know of any academic who do not feel a sense of achievement to get into print or recognised. Access to research facilities within and outside the institution

Provision of infrastructure to support university-based research (e.g. equipment, admin support, etc.) – but also awareness of publicly funded and available research facilities and equipment!

Internet connectivity and changes in the bandwidth of the internet to download articles

Subscription to related bodies by the library so that researcher can download articles

Facilities and resources to attend international conferences to keep one updated

Number of visiting professors/speakers targeting senior scholars and invite them to lunch to ask them to participate and to encourage their best graduate students to do so within the institution and across institutions

Research training seminars for research students including young academics

Participation of staff/students in delivering research papers to national and international conferences

Establishment of research groups to provide interaction frameworks to achieve critical mass of research-active staff

Facilitation for more research time: Targeting new scholars and giving them reduced teaching loads in their first year or two for the purpose of developing their research programs. For the purpose of helping new colleagues to see the shape of South African research support, personalizing it, and creating research community

Take research to the community and argue its necessity, and utility

And, finally celebrating excellence. We must recognize achievement - parties and public recognition for colleagues who achieve splendid things in their research.

In conclusion, I want to reemphasize that research culture has to be grown it does not simply exist in an institution. If it is grown it needs to be nourished, nurtured and sustained. An institution cannot simply leave on borrowed reputation and expect to remain research excellent. It is on this basis that instruments like the National Research Foundation rating system recognizes excellence within a given period of time and not necessarily for a life time! This it is believed encourages continued research excellence.

THANK YOU and best wishes

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