South Africa's abortion values clarification workshops — an opportunity to deepen democratic communication missed

A rich literature exists on local democracy and participation in South Africa. While the importance of participation is routinely built into the rhetoric of government, debate has increasingly focused on the dysfunctionality of participatory mechanisms and institutions in post-apartheid South Africa. Processes aimed ostensibly at empowering citizens, act in practice as instruments of social control, disempowerment and cooptation. The present article contributes to these debates by way of a critique of the approach used by the South African state, in partnership with the non-governmental sector, in what are called abortion "values clarification" (VC) workshops. This article examines the workshop materials, methodology and pedagogical tools employed in South African abortion VC workshops which emanate from the organization Ipas — a global body working to enhance women's sexual and reproductive rights and to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries. VC workshops represent an instance of a more general trend in which participation is seen as a tool for generating legitimacy and "buy-in" for central state directives rather than as a means for genuinely deepening democratic communication. The manipulation of participation by elites may serve as a means to achieve socially desirable goals in the short term but the long-term outlook for a vibrant democracy invigorated by a knowledgeable, active and engaged citizenry that is accustomed to being required to exercise careful reflection and to its views being respected, is undermined. Alternative models of democratic communication, because they are based on the important democratic principles of inclusivity and equality, have the potential both to be more legitimate and more effective in overcoming difficult social challenges in ways that promote justice.     

Australian Federalism and Domestic Violence Policy-Making

The influence of state architecture on gender policy and politics is an emergent strand of feminist research. This paper contributes to this research by undertaking a detailed case study of one specific gender policy area – domestic violence policy – in old federation Australia. Drawing on the experiences of the past decade, it confirms earlier research findings that demonstrate that under certain conditions, federal structures can influence the development of gender policy in positive ways, such as providing opportunities for ‘venue shopping’ and policy innovation. The paper engages, too, with recent research on Australian federalism and challenges the consensus about the centralised nature of the Australian federal system by demonstrating that in the area of gender policy, states and territories are more than just the implementation arms of the Commonwealth government. Sub-national governments continue to play an important and autonomous role in policy relating to women and therefore remain central sites for advancing gender equality.     

Giants in Pageants

After early employment with the archaeologist, General Pitt Rivers, Herbert Samuel Toms (1874–1940) was a curator in the Brighton Museum. Amassing a significant folklore archive, including specimens, photographs, and records of interviews from Sussex and adjoining counties, his particular interest was naturally perforated flints (witch stones or hagstones), used to protect households against witches, domestic animals from the ravages of the nightmare, and to cure a range of diseases. By the 1920s, they were regarded as little more than “lucky stones”, as were necklaces made up of the Cretaceous fossil sponge, Porosphaera.     

Affidavit of state farmers P. Osl. inv. no. 1468

The text is a declaration on oath by state farmers. During the Roman administration of Egypt, sworn declarations were used in a variety of contexts. However, although the text clearly concerns the administration of public land, the extant part of it does not reveal the precise nature of the undertaking documented here. In this article, possible contexts relating to the affidavit are discussed.     

A man and a book

A. Irving Hallowell. Culture and Experience. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974. (First published in 1955.) xiv + 434 pp. Figures, tables and bibliography. $6.95 (paper).     

St. Leon and the culture of the heart

This essay reads Godwin's second novel, St. Leon (1799), as an attempt to counter the asperity he expresses towards the domestic affections in his political philosophy of the 1790s. In St. Leon, Godwin seeks to square his newfound interest in the affections as a topic for fiction with his commitment to an anti-establishment political agenda. Though it is presented as a ‘eulogium’ to ‘the affections and charities of private life’, the narrative persistently undercuts the potential for the affections to stimulate readerly curiosity. The focus of the novel constantly shies away from the domestic scene, and instead propels the momentum forwards to the alchemical adventures that precipitate the disintegration of the very affections the novel purports to eulogise. The novel thus plays out Godwin's complicated desire to embrace, and yet simultaneously to deny, the importance of private emotions in the pursuit of political justice.     

THE TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF GENDER HISTORY

W omen's H istory in G lobal P erspective , Volume 1. Edited by Bonnie G. Smith.
B odies in C ontact: R ethinking C olonial E ncounters in W orld H istory. Edited by Antoinette Burton and Tony Ballantyne.