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At the inception meeting in October in Swansea, UK (from left): Professor Thabisani Ndlovu (Walter Sisulu University), Prof Lori Beaman (Ottawa University), Prof Christi van der Westhuizen (Mandela University), Prof Paula Montero (São Paulo University), and Prof Bheki Mngomezulu (Mandela University).
Titled “Repairing sociality, safeguarding democracy: trans-Atlantic North-South narratives and practices of deep equality”, the project spans four different democracies: South Africa, Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom.
CANRAD Associate Professor Christi van der Westhuizen is the lead principal investigator and CANRAD Director Bheki Mngomezulu is a co-principal investigator on this North-South research project.
The Eastern Cape is well represented, as Walter Sisulu University Dean of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Professor Thabisani Ndlovu is also a co-principal investigator. The other co-principal investigators are from São Paulo University in Brazil, the University of Ottawa in Canada and Swansea University in the UK.
The project, which runs from September 2024 to August 2027, is an interdisciplinary, qualitative, mixed-method, on-and-offline study, which includes publications, conferences, seminars and master classes with the project partners.
In addressing the global challenge of increasing social polarisation, the project will respond to the TAP focus on Democracy, Governance and Trust by researching ways of “living together well”, in contrast to the prevalent research focus on social conflict. With due recognition of disadvantage and unequal power relations, the project will recover and map the ways that people cooperate and solve problems together, mend fractures and create greater sociality.
It will seek to answer questions such as:
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What are the social processes by which differences are overcome that may have historically prevented collaboration and cooperation?
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What are the obstacles encountered and how were these overcome? What remains unsettled or unsolved?
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What are potential points of vulnerability and fracture?
These enquiries will be extended to governance and democracy by investigating the interface with governance, and how democracy is expressed in everyday practice.
The project also will probe the key concept of trust, looking at initiatives that restore trust and build democratic governance.
A central goal is to enhance multi-directional flows of knowledge between the Global South and North. The project emphasises capacity building for emerging scholars and early career researchers. Through mentoring and training, it hopes to transfer professional skills through stage-appropriate integration into the research process.
Project activities and findings will be shared through multiple, overlapping platforms, such as scholarly and policy publications, blogs, vlogs and podcasts. The audience for the project includes academics, students, policy makers and community practitioners, as well as the broader public.