Focusing on wellbeing and quality of life can move us towards addressing pervasive inequalities and poverty. If wellbeing refers to perceptions of living conditions,

then quality of life draws attention to life circumstances, living conditions and life satisfaction that have bearing on lived experiences.

This edition of the State of the Nation puts wellbeing and quality of life on the intellectual and political agenda. It does so in two ways, first, by bringing together the key interpretive frameworks we need for understanding what wellbeing is, and second, by taking stock of the major themes that tell a story of the state of the nation.

These themes include questions of the environment; mental and human health; happiness and how we might measure it), ageing and remittances. It also looks at challenges to an open economy; COVID-19 vaccines; resilience; the uses of art; the role of activism and the active processes through which the quality of life is addressed; gender and human security, as well as peacebuilding; wellbeing and the promise of human progress in Africa.

As South Africa enters a third decade of democracy, the desire for freedom and a better quality of life for all is even more pressing. While wicked problems such as socio-economic challenges remain a visible reality, this volume investigates whether an overemphasis on economic growth obscures the importance of subjective happiness and wellbeing.

The rich assembly of ideas by formidable scholars and thinkers’ challenges orthodoxies, and poses questions about whether we, as citizens, are living a good life collectively and individually. “Provocative, searing, controversial, and thought-provoking at once!” – Professor Laetitia Rispel, Public Health and South African Research Chair on the Health Workforce School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand.

The State of the Nation 2021 edition “Ethics, Politics, Inequality: New directions” builds on preceding volumes by showcasing cutting-edge thinking about social science research on poverty and inequalities by providing independent analyses of the national agenda in reducing poverty and inequality. The edition therefore speaks to the multi-layered inequalities and a sense of insecurity that has long been the hallmark of South African life. Recently, however, the uncertainties of Covid-19 have led to greater shared experiences of vulnerability among South Africans.

This volume of State of the Nation therefore offers perspectives that may help us navigate our way through the ‘new normal’ in which we find ourselves. Foremost among the unavoidable political and socioeconomic interventions that will be required are interventions based on an ethics of care. Care as an essential attribute must be inserted into all of the diverse contexts that structure needs, desires and relations of power. An ethics of care requires us to reconsider relations of domination, oppression, injustice, inequality, or paternalism within the state. In a democratic post-apartheid state that confirms human connectedness, bodies matter and this knowledge must be driven by active citizenship. We are all caught up in webs of power that require of us, as individuals and as communities, the will and understanding to combat and counter poverty and inequality and thus to improve the state of the nation. The effects of poverty and inequality are as insidious as Covid-19 and render the most vulnerable even more powerless in the face of this and similar ravages. Now, more than ever, we need to prioritise an ethics of care. The volume consist of nineteen chapters and the editorial team consists of Prof Narnia Bohler-Muller, Prof Crain Soudien and Prof Vasu Reddy.

The State of the Nation 2016 volume uses multiple research lenses to analyse the dynamic interface of power and authority structures that characterise the state and South African society as a dynamic constitutional democracy. The volume projects these dynamics in the context of heightening contestations around structural economic, social and political problems such as unemployment, inequality, poverty and land redistribution.

Is the state indeed in charge of the country’s economy and development and to what extent is the government able to effectively drive its publicly pronounced developmental state agenda? When does ‘leading’ become ‘controlling’? What are the roles of the private sector and civil society in development? To whom is the state accountable and how is it held accountable? What are the definitive signs that the South African state has been hollowed out in the interests of a market-led economy rather than functioning as a developmental or capable state? From the state’s point of view, which external role players, forces and powers are preventing the state administration and agencies from fully achieving its goals?

In the context of such constraints, a range of changing dynamics—financial, constitutional, political and economic—and with a focus on the lingering remnants of the apartheid state —State of the Nation 2016 analyses South Africa and how power impacts on mandates,

accountability and contestations in the South African state by asking: Who is in charge? ‘There is an intriguing similarity between the ‘big question’ of Who Runs this Place? The Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century by Anthony Sampson and the ‘big question’ of this State of the Nation 2016: ‘Who is in charge?’ And it seems to me that the State of the Nation series has done for South Africa what Sampson did for Britain: anatomising the body politic, measuring change, identifying progress, diagnosing weaknesses and issuing policy prescriptions.’

The Fabric of Dissent

The public intellectuals featured in The Texture of Dissent: Defiant Public Intellectuals in South Africa are distinguished by the differing contexts and issues that shaped their lives, and the period during which they began to play prominent roles and shape public discourse.

This volume intends to provoke rather than provide definitive answers to the topic, idea, and subject of public intellectuals in an African context. It provides a motivation of these thinkers and how their insights reimagine an inclusive society in the theatre of ideas. Those assembled in this volume are, in our view, people who ultimately leave deep imprints on what it means to be human in a very complex and divided society.

This book is a valuable contribution to bring to wider public knowledge intellectuals who have played critical roles throughout the modern history of South Africa – to challenge received wisdom that are outdated, to tackle the problems of the present, defend individual freedoms against the autocracy of conformity. To tackle development problems imaginatively, rather than ideologically and challenge traditions, cultures and customs which impinge on human rights, individual dignity and freedom of choice. This is a book to be prized.

Professor William Gumede, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand and Founder of Democracy Works Foundation

The Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) nations have become a strong engine of South- South Cooperation.

The most significant outcome of the emergence of the BRICS is the shift they have brought to the balance of power in global affairs. The past decade has steadily accelerated commercial and strategic engagements between BRICS and Africa. The BRICS countries constitute Africa’s largest trading partners and new investors. It has nourished Africa’s economic emergence and elevated the continent’s contemporary global positioning.

This book seeks to determine the impact of intra-BRICSAfrica cooperation and partnerships, mainly through the New Industrial Revolution, financial technologies, infrastructure, economic growth and development in health. It also critiques the relevance of the BRICS New Development Bank in the post- COVID era and examines the governance and accountability mechanisms required to entrench the BRICS governance cooperation with

the continent as well as strategies that address gender developmental disparities and inequalities in BRICS and Africa. This book is an essential reading for all scholars, researchers and policymakers who are interested in multilateralism, the BRICS, and the peaceful and constructive transformation of the global system. Humanity’s quest for perpetual peace and common prosperity are at the heart of the BRICS agenda and long-term vision. This important study makes a very significant intellectual contribution to the realisation of that vision. Readers will be inspired, motivated and challenged to contribute to the BRICS debate going forward.