Musings on social cohesion in South Africa

[BOOK REVIEW]Ballantine, Christopher, Chapman, Michael, Erwin, Kira & Maré, Gerhard (eds) (2017) (2015) Living together, living apart: Social cohesion in a future South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press. ISBN 978-1-86914-332-9 pbk. Pages vii + 197 This slim volume offers a set of short essays on a range of topics, loosely bound together by the subtitle of the book – the question of social cohesion in South Africa. What does the phrase “social cohesion” mean, though? The editors ask this question at the outset, and conclude that it seems like a social goal that cannot be argued against (who would argue that “social cohesion” is a bad thing for a society to have?). For that reason, and because it appears to mean so much in governmental and intellectual circles in South Africa, the editors offer us the reflections of a diverse array of scholars and authors. Philosophy, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Legal Studies, Sociology, Developmental Studies, Genetics, Urban Geography, and Physics, are some of the home disciplines of the authors who apply themselves to the question(s) at hand

Utilisation and usefulness of face composites in the South African Police Service - an evaluation study

The current study investigates the degree to which face composites are utilised as an investigative tool in the South African Police Service. The article provides an overview of the conditions under which composites are produced by eyewitnesses to a crime, and points out constraints in terms of their usefulness and applicability. Composites were found to be produced after a longer delay than is recommended, and predominantly in violent and menacing crimes. Conviction rates for composite-related crimes were very low. However, more insight into actual use and case characteristics is needed before concluding on the usefulness of composites as an investigative tool or evidence. Directions for further research in this area are explored

On the micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation

This article provides a general background to this special focus section of the journal on ‘racial interaction and isolation in everyday life’. It reviews both the geographic literature on segregation and the psychological literature on the contact hypothesis, and calls for more research on how, when and why racial isolation manifests at a microecological level; that is, the level at which individuals actually encounter one another in situations of bodily co-presence. Some conceptual and methodological implications of this extension of the segregation literature are described. The social psychological signifi cance of the racial organisation of such ordinary activities as eating in cafeterias, relaxing on beaches and occupying public seating are also explored. The focus of the argument is that everyday boundary processes may maintain the salience of racial categories, embody racial attitudes and regulate the possibility of intimate contact

Mobile phones and reading for enjoyment: evidence of use and behaviour change

A South African non-profit organisation, FunDza, launched a programme that delivers reading material via mobile phones. Computer log files of user activity over an eight-month period were analysed (N = 9,212,716), which showed that relatively large numbers of readers made use of the material (N = 65,533), and read a substantial amount of the material. We found evidence of positive shifts in reading behaviour. Further analysis showed that greater levels of participation in the programme were associated with greater enjoyment of reading. Furthermore, the longer participants read, the more confident they felt about their self-rated reading proficienc

Eyewitness identification of multiple perpetrators

To date, research and South African case law has largely ignored the memory burden experienced by witnesses to multiple-perpetrator crimes and failed to address the challenges that arise when administering identification parades for such crimes. Empirical research suggests that eyewitnesses to multiple-perpetrator crimes achieve low identification accuracy, which worsens with the addition of each perpetrator to be identified. Witnesses to multiple-perpetrator crimes also experience a unique memory task of matching criminal actions to perpetrators. Preliminary empirical evidence suggests witnesses perform poorly at this task. Although some international research documents the difficulties that officers experience when conducting identification parades, there is little evidence of how South African officers administer parades in the field. This article presents empirical evidence from a sample of detectives in the Western Cape showing that in-field administration of parades for multiple-perpetrator crimes are not uniform, and officers risk conducting parades that would not be considered ‘fair’. The article concludes that the current South African guidelines may profitably be revised, so that difficulties associated with administering parades for multiple-perpetrator crimes are alleviated

Tracing the consequences of child poverty

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Using life course analysis from the Young Lives study of 12,000 children growing up in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam over the past 15 years, this book draws on evidence on two cohorts of children, aged from 1 to 15 and from 8 to 22. It examines how poverty affects children’s development in low and middle income countries, and how policy has been used to improve their lives, then goes on to show when key developmental differences occur. It uses new evidence to develop a framework of what matters most and when and outlines effective policy approaches to inform the no-one left behind Sustainable Development Goal agenda