Transformative Leadership in African Contexts edited by Sharlene Swartz, Tarryn De Kock and Catherine A. Odora Hoppers
Transformative leadership takes as its unit of influence the wider social, political, and material forces in a society that impede people’s access to livelihoods, dignity, rights and wellbeing. This does not diminish the importance of institutional or organisational change that affects individuals and communities. As the late Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, once said, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river and find out why they are falling in.”
Through a series of nuanced case studies, the authors set out how leaders in Africa navigate complexity, chaos, struggle, controversy, and change in a context still emerging from colonial exploitation and facing new challenges. The contributors incorporate past practices, considering the cultural heritages that inspire action, the political figures, and historical thinkers who have encouraged current leadership practices and warned against others. They also highlight the many ways in which leadership challenges in Africa are anticipated, including rapid social, technological, and cultural shifts, as well as issues related to gender, mobility, and commercial practices. Transformative Leadership in African Contexts: Strategies for Social Change marks the way ahead for a new generation who must lead and find their own path to the future.
“The important, exciting, coherent, and comprehensive chapters in this book draw on Transformative Leadership Theory as a means to shape the future. Each chapter is imbued with African cultures and traditions, incorporating indigenous knowledge and languages to reinterpret transformative leadership in thoughtful, insightful and spiritual ways. This book is a treasure trove of insights built on integrity, transparency, values, and ethics. The chapters clearly distinguish between transformational and transformative leadership, focusing on community empowerment, collective agency, voice and decolonisation, and challenging historical and current norms. Covering a wide range of scholarship and African countries and contexts, this is a must-read for anyone interested in creating a better future.” –Dr Carolyn M. Shields, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Wayne State University, USA“Transformative leadership – which aims to achieve socially just systemic outcomes – is an urgent necessity of our time. As humanity faces the threat of planetary destruction, a new inclusive and socially just pact is essential for creating the social conditions for fundamental change. This book investigates, extrapolates, and critically reflects on multiple stories of transforming leadership in Africa. A must-read for anyone interested in experimenting with how to effect social change.” –Prof. Adam Habib, Director, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Full title: Transformative Leadership in African Contexts
Subtitle: Strategies for Social Change
Editors: Sharlene Swartz, Tarryn De Kock and Catherine A. Odora Hoppers
Publication: HSRC Press
ISBN: 978-0-7969-2661-6
Format: 240 x 168mm
Extent: 472 pp
Price: R295
Contact: skhan@hsrc.ac.za
Poetic Inquiry for the Human and Social Sciences, edited by Heidi van Rooyen and Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan
Poetic Inquiry for the Human and Social Sciences: Voices from the South and North introduces new voices, insights, and approaches to making research poetic in the human and social sciences. This volume builds on scholarly texts produced in the Global North over the past decade, bringing them into dialogue with knowledge and ways of knowing from the Global South. These conversations explore the connections between poetry, real-life experiences, and critical personal, professional, social, and cultural questions from various angles. The contributors include new and well-known poetic inquiry scholars from various fields of knowledge and parts of the world. The range of contributions demonstrates the continuum on which poetry and qualitative research can coexist.
Each peer-reviewed chapter presents original research that contributes to scholarly debates about the dynamic relationship between poetry and the human and social sciences. The book also includes captivating poetry sequences that preface each section, enhancing its literary value. Poetic Inquiry for the Human and Social Sciences is for academics, poets, teachers, researchers, and students who wish to think critically and creatively about making research poetic to encourage new studies and action to positively influence human and social experience.
Importantly, the book demonstrates how thinking and acting poetically can transform the nature, aspirations, findings and impact of research aimed at addressing pressing social issues and concerns, such as decolonisation and inclusion.
Contact details: skhan@hsrc.ac.za
Full title: Poetic Inquiry for the Human and Social Sciences
Subtitle: Voices from the South and North
Editors: Heidi van Rooyen and Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan
Publication: HSRC Press
ISBN: 978-0-7969-2656-2
Format: 168 x 235mm
Extent: 296pp
Price: R320
Contact: skhan@hsrc.ac.za
View the HSRC Publishing’s 2023/2024 catalogue here.
