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Naomi Klein says "CCS proves that academia can still be relevant and vibrant; indeed it can be positively dangerous" "Hands off the CCS!" says COSATU Professor Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University: "CCS is the jewel in your crown. Why would anyone want to close it down?"
Naomi Klein says CCS proves that academia can still be relevant and vibrant; indeed it can be positively dangerous Congress of South Africa Trade Unions: Hands off the CCS! says COSATU Thursday, 7 August, 2008 7:15 AM From:Patrick Craven Hands off the CCS! COSATU is dismayed to hear that the University of KwaZulu-Natal is considering closing its world-renowned Centre for Civil Society (CCS) on 31 December 2008 for what sound like paltry and quite possibly spurious reasons – that staff do not have "permanent" funding. The CCS’s objective is “to advance socio-economic and environmental justice by developing critical knowledge about, for and in dialogue with, civil society through teaching, research and publishing” It was established at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in July 2001, with the mission of “promoting the study of South African civil society as a legitimate, flourishing area of scholarly activity”. A related goal was “to develop partnerships within civil society aimed at capacity-building, knowledge sharing, and generating reflection and debate”. All such research institutions as the CCS are precious to COSATU, especially those like the CCS that are products of the 1994 democratic breakthrough, and not relics of the apartheid past. The working class, which is the largest, most technically, socially and politically advanced component of civil society in our country, is acutely aware of the value of intellectual labour. COSATU sincerely hopes that the university administrators who want to close the CCS will quickly realise their mistake and instead of muttering threats, will now support this valuable institution. If there is a genuine problem of finding funds for the unit, the government must step in to fund this important institution.
Professor Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University: TO: Dasarath Chetty, Deputy Vice Chancellor Dear Dasarath, I am appalled to learn that Dean McCracken has informed Patrick Bond of the imminent closure of the Centre for Civil Society. As you surely know, the single most prestigious activity of the UKZN, at least as seen from a United States vantage-point, is the CCS. Those of us who try to follow what is going on in South Africa have come to rely upon the CCS as the best single source of wide information. Closing it down would not only damage severely UKZN's reputation but would set back research worldwide on contemporary South Africa. The CCS is the jewel in your crown. Why would anyone want to close it down?
Professor Jocelyn Alexander, Queen Elizabeth House, Department of International Development, University of Oxford: I was astounded to hear that UKZN plans to shut down the Centre for Civil Society by the end of this year. The Centre provides an invaluable and quite unique space in which the promotion of rigorous research is combined with links to community groups and social movements, public events, and the publication and dissemination of books, articles and web site-based materials. This is a real intellectual centre, known around the world, offering genuine insights into matters of concern to us all, and always willing to engage fellow researchers and activists with a generous and open spirit. We need more such centres, not less.
Dr Timothy Quinlan, Research Director, UKZN Health Economics and AIDS Research Division: Have just read the news on CCS as confusing as the UKZN management position seems to be! The argument for closure -that CCS does not have 'permanent' funding or funding 'in perpetuity' - is clearly not the reason. To support your contention, HEARD does not have such funding nor does CAPRISA - the med. schools flagship HIV/AIDS 'project' nor do a host of other units ; it is simply not the nature of contemporary research funding -soft funding is the norm and a function of entrapreneurialism at universities and the university has standard financial and HR means to enable them (e.g. 2 year contracts; no overdraft rules, setting up NU Health, etc, etc.). This is all very obvious and well known -so there is need for clarity from UKZN management as to why this threat was made and the manner of it -because it is clearly absurd. UKZN's PR documents for public marketing in 2007 made extensive use of such funded units to highlight the University's 'research capacity and 'community outreach' agenda.
Professor Francie Lund, UKZN School of Development Studies: I am appalled at the decision to close the CCS; the process by which CCS and the School were informed; and the complete lack of fit between the findings of the evaluation, which was taken so seriously by those who participated, and the decision that was conveyed to you. I wish you strength in contesting this decision.
Professor Elizabeth Oehrle, UKZN To close the CCS, a highly respected and necessary center at our tertiary institution, is an act arising out of ignorance and/or short sightedness on the part of the administration. Staff and students should not be allow this to happen. Such a misguided decision must be turned around immediately.
Professor Fatima Meer: My experience with it (the CCS) is largely the involvement in the community with civil society, and I think it is playing a very significant role. The University can become a place on the hill and it looks down on the city…the CCS, which understand(s) what is going on in the community… plays a good role there. It is also a teacher to the people who are far removed from academia. So, I think it is a very commendable department of good will.
Desmond D’Sa, Chairperson of South Durban Community Environmental Alliance: The CCS has opened its doors to the poor, vulnerable and marginalized who would otherwise not be able to access education so desperately needed in our communities. The CCS over the years has been able to host several workshops on housing, basic services such as water, electricity, climate change, globalization etc. We, as the South Durban communities, have been very fortunate to work with the CCS and are able to bring our people on a regular basis to these workshops. The CCS provides a platform where real struggles of ordinary people are spoken. The Director Patrick Bond and his staff have all worked hard to ensure that the CCS embodies the spirit of the Centre’s founders (and) that it be people centred and a place for all. We hope that this practice continues.
Stefan Andreasson, Queen's University Belfast: Recent news regarding the planned closure of the UKZN's CCS is most disappointing and of great concern for all of us in the wider academic community who have over the years appreciated the centre's great diversity of scholarship and its consistently impressive quality output. It is very difficult to understand the logic behind this apparent decision; why, indeed, the UKZN would contemplate shutting down the activity of such an obviously successful research unit. Having never had the opportunity to visit or be affiliated with the Centre myself I have nevertheless found many of its publications informative and useful in my own research and the Centre's staff most helpful in responding to inquiries regarding my own work. My undergraduate students taking "Politics of Southern Africa", the majority of which have not yet had the opportunity to visit the region, have found the Centre's website an outstanding resource in terms of "getting to know" a bit more about contemporary social and political issues, and also to find inspiration for their own research topics.
Trevor Ngwane, Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee organiser: Dear University of KwaZulu Natal authorities On behalf of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Forum, I would like to put on record our shock and feeling of outrage at the news that you are planning to close down the Centre for Civil Society. From what we have gathered on this matter and our own experience of working with this institute we strongly believe that this is a politically motivated attack on progressive and relevant scholarship. What a shame! What is happening to our country? At a time when South African society finds itself in a crisis of legitimacy, leadership, socio-economic security and political stability, we need clear-headed, relevant and committed scholarship that will shed light on the issues and suggest viable and just solutions. Instead the UKZN management is deciding to unilaterally close down one of the few remaining centres of committed and progressive scholarship in the country. CCS has over the years given grassroots organisations such as ours support and hope that the academic establishment can and sometimes does contribute to the struggle to stop the rich richer and the poor poorer; and taht it can and sometimes does conduct research aimed at improving the lives of the poorest of the poor. CCS's work indicated to us that academic institutions are not mere ivory towers conducting work that benefits the ruling class and the rich. For example, the CCS's Prof Patrick Bond made expert submissions in the recent court case to assure water for all. The community of Phiri, organised by our organisation, and getting support from the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, won the court case against pre-paid water meters. Judge Moroa Tsoka ruled that pre-paid water meters are unlawful and unconstitutional and are a violation of human rights. CCS has also given crucial support to communities around Durban under attack from oil-producing companies which are intent on making profits at great cost to the environment and threatening people's lives. CCS has also organised ground breaking research into social movements such as ours, the Treatment Action Campaign and others, research that helped our organisations to understand themselves and the context in which we operate thus helping us in strengthening our struggles. We urge you to reconsider your decision of closing down the CCS. We see this as nothing else but an attack on the struggle to better the lives of the working class and the poor through research. We also see it as an attempt to divorce academic scholarship from the problems faced by millions and millions of ordinary people ground by the pro-big business neoliberal policies of the government. We say: Hands off the CCS! Thank you.
Professor Bill Freund, UKZN Department of Economic History: If the reports that I have read are accurate moreover, the Centre 's basic approach is quite strongly endorsed in the review committee assessment; the university has in effect chosen not to accept the considered judgement of the most appropriate panel which sounds very similar to what my own judgement would have been had I been included in the committee. As the committee points out, the Centre gives UKZN the reputation of being a place where social activists and critics of injustice in this society are welcomed and able to get an effective hearing. It has very substantial outreach activities which make it possible for people to see this university as a place where those who are not bureaucrats or businessmen may get a hearing and a voice. This may not always lead to a polished academic project but it has an importance of its own and the Voices of Protest volume and other outcomes do in fact represent a substantial academic contribution as well. It can be argued strongly that incorporating centre activities within more diffuse operations, dissolving it as an entity, will take away from this and only makes sense to me if there is a strong mismanagement problem. Keeping this reputation of independence and support for local activism is extremely important to the modest, understaffed little world of the social sciences in our university and represents in its way a contemporary voice that follows in the wake of a long tradition of harbouring South African critical voices that certainly has nurtured both of the foundational institutions that came together to make UKZN. You don't have to endorse every speaker or every initiative of the Centre to perceive that this kind of tradition has not become irrelevant because there is now a democratically elected government. A good university anywhere and anytime is not simply a factory for turning out enskilled graduates or following government precepts uncritically.
Carl Death, Department of International Politics, University of Aberystwyth: I have been shocked and saddened to hear of the threats to CCS existence - although the strength of your responses and those from around the world are a silver lining to an otherwise depressing cloud. My time spent as a visiting scholar at CCS in 2006-2007 was one of the most productive, stimulating and challenging periods of my PhD research, and their support, research environment and contacts have been invaluable to the completion of my thesis. Since being hosted by CCS I have been appointed as a full-time lecturer in African Politics at Dublin City University, and intend to highlight the online resources CCS provides as a important facility for my students. Without CCS' support my PhD, research and academic career would be impoverished, and I had been looking forward to visiting them again in the future. Closing CSS would an immeasurable loss and would demonstrate a worrying lack of appreciation of the energy, comradeship, openess and intellect of its staff and members.
Tafadzwa Muropa, Zimbabwe social justice activist: Over the past week, I have learned that CCS might be closed! How can it be at a time like this? I just hope that SA academic leadership will not turn out to be like the Zimbabwean state leadership. I am among those supporting you in ensuring that CCS remains where it should be! I have become who I am partly because of my exposure at CCS, so don't give up, not now!
Gavin Capps, London School of Economics: I am absolutely staggered that the university authorities could be so short-sighted to close what is without doubt not only the pre-eminent centre of its type in South Africa, but the region as a whole. The research the CCS produces is consistently original, engaged and focussed toward the goals of the deepest possible democratic transformation of post-apartheid South Africa. It is consequently an invaluable resource not only for local civil society, but also for researchers such as myself working on these issues from abroad. I am sure that if such a move were being made in neighbouring Zimbabwe, we would be hearing all about the stifling of academic freedom by the single-party state. The university authorities should think very carefully about the signal that they will be sending the outside world if they press ahead with the threatened closure of a Centre that has not only gained an international reputation for the quality of its output, but also for the critical independence of its voice.
Maarten de Wit, University of Cape Town AEON- Africa Earth Observatory Network and Department of Geological Sciences: Its hard to believe (newsmedia) that you are facing onslaught from within an institution that should nurture discourse and knowledge building, not abolish it. Your research into environmental justice through social dialogue has set new standards and is a role model for others to follow.
Shannon Walsh, Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Montreal: It is with shock and sadness that news CCS is under attack and threatened with closure has come to me here in Canada. With the Centre's stellar international reputation and ongoing local grassroots praxis, this news can only be seen as a politically motivated attempt to quell intellectual freedom and dissent. I join my voice with the many others who have already come forward in expressing my deep commitment, appreciation and gratitude towards the Centre. It would be a terrible loss to the intellectual and activist community in South Africa and beyond, as I myself know so well, having been a visiting scholar at CCS on occasion. The role of practice, intellectual scholarship, social movement support, politically relevant research, and grassroots activism at CCS is really equal to none. The CCS is a space of intellectual nourishment and praxis that is rare to find anywhere, and must be preserved at all costs. There are a great many of us who will continue to do whatever it is in our power to ensure the continued existence, in all its vibrancy, of the CCS! Viva CCS, Viva!
Professor Brian Raftopoulos, Zimbabwean political analyst: I want to join the many voices that have condemned the threat to the future of the CCS. Your own work and that of the Centre have made an enormous contribution to strengthening the progressive voices in the region. Let us hope that the management of UKZN retreats from this disastrous position. Best wishes to all at CCS.
Leo Zeilig, Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand Department of Sociology and research fellow at the University of Johannesburg Centre for Sociological Research I am astonished at the short-sighted stupidity of the University of KwaZulu Natal for wanting to close the Centre for Civil Society. The Centre has an impressive international reputation for academic brilliance and socially engaged research in the humanities. It has been a beacon of critical and ground breaking scholarship for years, inviting and funding scholars from across the continent – and often providing a life line for the continued academic research of academics in other African countries. I have made use of the Centre on a number of occasions, writing for the website, working on a project on social movements in Southern Africa and, crucially, using material and expertise that is uniquely housed at the CCS. There is much talk of the development of higher education in South Africa, and for many inside and outside the country, the CCS makes the most exciting and important contributions to social science research. Closure of the Centre for Civil Society would be an act of extraordinary vandalism, and augurs ill for the further growth of South Africa’s reputation in university education and research. clk.atdmt.com
Teivo Teivainen, Head of Department and Professor of World Politics, University of Helsinki Department of Political Science: It is with great sadness that I hear of the plans to close down your university's world-famous Centre for Civil Society. Over the past years I have witnessed how the Centre has played an important role in academic articulations around the world. Producing high-quality publications and seminars, it is a source of inspiration for many researchers. For the University of Helsinki, in which I am Head of the Political Science Department, the Centre is an important partner. Closing it down would certainly make our collaboration with the UKZN more complicated. I have graduate students writing their PhD who hope to have the Centre as their key academic host in South Africa. I have professor colleagues who plan to visit the Centre because they have heard so many good things about it. I participate in international networks whose members from India to the Netherlands and Peru consider the Centre a key part of the networks. In short, it is difficult to comprehend how any university could even consider closing down a centre with such a world-wide reputation of academic excellence. Instead, one would imagine that a university that values high-quality research and international recognition would eagerly increase its support to such a centre. I look forward to many years of fruitful collaboration with the Centre for Civil Society.
Michele Pickover, Chairperson Animal Rights Africa and Curator of Manuscripts, Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand: I am writing to you on behalf of Animal Rights Africa as well as in my personal capacity to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposed closure of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). We are horrified that UKZN can come to such a decision given the unique and critical role that CCS plays in relation to developing public policy, advancing critical knowledge, encouraging debate and improving socio-economic and environmental justice. We cannot allow this to happen. I am deeply saddened and concerned about this. Please let me know if there is anything I/we can do to help
Professor Suleman Dangor, UKZN School of Religion and Theology: Hats off to you guys for standing up for your rights. There are too many arbitrary decisions by sectors of the management which impinge on the rights of staff and students - in this casecontrary to the recommendations of reviewers. This has to be challenged - if the academic enterprise is to survive at UKZN.
Westcliff Flat Dwellers Association: It is with great sadness that we recently heard about the University’s recommendation to close down the Centre for Civil Society. We the Westcliff Flat Residents Association have been affiliated to CCS since it’s inception. In some way, we feel that the Centre is a direct product of the communities in Chatsworth struggle against social injustices. The Centre has created a platform for not just Chatsworth but many other community based organisations to come together. The Wolpe lectures, seminars, workshops, film series etc. has contributed educationally and socially. The Centre has empowered many community leaders with the understanding and the knowledge derived from research as a weapon to engage with government. The research produced by the Centre has given many of us broad knowledge and understanding not just of local issues but of national and global issues. We are sad because this door will now be closed to many communities like ours. The relationship with the Centre has been one that communities like ours have never experienced before. The Centre has created an opportunity too many grassroot people to be aligned to the Centre & University even thou we are finally depressed. This has been the only opportunity for many of us to really understand, know and experience what life at at University is. We would sadly miss this opportunity if the Centre closes down. We are not use to been evicted as a community of Chatsworth ie. We have challenged government and have succeeded; we will challenge every other oppressor. Forward with the good work CCS! Away with marginalisation!
Leonard Gentle, director of the International Labour Research and Information Group (University of Cape Town Department of Sociology): The Centre for Civil Society has been a major source for information, analysis and critical debate amongst progressive academics and social justice activists. This in a period when there is a dearth of left wing scholarship at the universities and yet such an obvious demand for information and ideas from a growing pool of activists and intellectuals interested inn understanding the neo-liberal world order and the possibility of alternatives. As such it makes no sense to contemplate any idea of, effectively, shutting CCS down and instead we urge the university authorities to make necessary resources available to expand its scope and function.
Ashraf Patel, social justice activist, Gauteng: It is with a heavy heart that we hear of the sudden and imminent closure of the CCS @ UKZN. The CCS has been a mainstay in supporting key development research for civil society in South Africa. It has given voice to many unheard voices in the complex policy debates and on the key issues that affect peoples lives. CCS has been a vibrant centre of local and social mobilisation and in my view one of the best examples of the expression of university transformations in the country. The work you have done has empowered African researchers, particularly in the SADC region. We really hope that the UKZN administration can reconsider this ill timed decision. Good luck with the ongoing negotiations we look forward to a positive outcome that saves CCS
John Heinrich, Chief Executive Officer of the SA National Tuberculosis Association: We at the South African National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA) view the proposed closure of the CCS with dismay. Agree or disagree with viewpoints expressed by CCS the simple fact remains that the Centre has been andremains an important voice of Civil Society. There seems to be a reluctance to accept Civil Society as an important, if not critical, element of a democracy and this move appears to be yet another attempt to marginalise this force for transparency and fairness in the country. Let us hope that sense will prevail and this decision by UKZN will be reviewed.
Femi Aborisade, Director, Centre for Labour Studies, Nigeria: On behalf of the Centre for Labour Studies (CLS), a Nigerian labour based research centre, I write formally to vehemently protest the proposed closure of CCS. It is a bizzare decision. The CCS has produced publications which are considered useful not only from the point of view of understanding social processes in South Africa but also in interpreting developments on a continental basis. The CCS has positively projected the image of UKZN in several respects, particularly from the standpoint of its numerous research reports,Fellowships to South African and African researchers, all of which correspond to the declared mission of UKZN. So, why would such an excellent Centre be closed? It would be a monumental disservice to Africa for the CCS to be closed. Nigerian academics who have directly and indirectly benefitted from the intellectual contributions of the CCS call on the UKZN authorities to hands off CCS.
Dr Chandra Kumar, Research Associate, Departments of Philosophy and Political and International Studies, Rhodes University: I was at UKZN as a senior lecturer in the politics department in 2005. I can say that it was the CCS that made the university more than just the usual dreary place it typically is. It was because of the events, talks and generally critical, politically conscious atmosphere fostered by the people at CCS that UKZN was a fun, exciting place to be. The university is obviously going in a corporate-friendly direction - even more than it already was when I was there and the merger with Durban Westville was beginning to take place. I hope you and your colleagues can successfully appeal this ridiculous decision. I hope lots of people protest. UKZN should not give up the one thing that made it different from almost every other university in the country. The CCS gave the university a kind of character that made it better, to my mind, than all the other major universities.
Dr Lorenzo Fioramonti, Post Doctoral Fellow in International Relations and EU foreign policy, University of Bologna Department of Politics, Institutions, History: The reasons put forward by the UKZN management to shut down the CCS are profoundly misleading, if not hypocritical. All autonomous research centres around the world struggle to acquire financial sustainability, especially when they dedicate their time and passion to cutting edge research, rather than sell out their souls to philanthro-capitalists and invasive donor agencies. A truly independent research centre is, by definition, in constant financial turmoil. This is the only way to retain one's autonomy in today's world. In 2004, when I was still a young academic criss-crossing South Africa for a three-year fieldwork, I visited the CCS for a couple of months. I was amazed at the vibrancy of the commitment and the passion with which they carried out their work. The CCS has become a symbol of research and activism all over the world.
Kathleen Diga, Canadian International Development Research Centre, Midrand, South Africa: As an alumna of the School of Development Studies, I am in support of your appeal to the university to keep the Centre for Civil Society at UKZN open. During my time at the university, the CCS encouraged the use of new methodologies and participatory action research to best understand civil society; such new and innovative ideas should be encouraged in the name of the advancement of social research. The Centre has brought a diverse wave of academia to speak on civil society issues and the CCS tries innovative Web 2.0 and collaborative forums to open the discussion beyond the physical space of the centre. In Information & Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), your attempts to use such creative methods of civil society participation are beyond the steps taken or used by other research institutes in Africa.
David Sogge, TransNational Institute, Amsterdam (and author of Atlantic Philanthropies 5-year review of CCS, 2006): The Krumm Review Panel report of February 2008 clearly substantiates and reinforces the positive findings of my 2006 review of CCS. I am therefore puzzled and disheartened that a university leadership, instead of expressing enthusiasm for a Centre which available evidence and informed opinion endorse for its vibrant contributions to scholarship, learning and activism, would reach a wholly contrary conclusion.
Peter Rorvik, Director, UKZN Centre for Creative Arts: The Centre for Creative Arts has found the Centre for Civil Society to be one of its most proactive campus partners and we are disappointed and alarmed at the prospect of its closure. The CCA deeply appreciates CCS responsiveness to joint activities engaged in by the two centres, such as forum discussions, film screenings, and community engagements, both within and outside the CCA's programme of literary and film festivals, and as a source of relevant conscientising material. We remain optimistic that ways be found to secure the continuation of this most necessary voice.
Giuliano Martiniello, PhD student, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds: To the University of KwaZulu-Natal authorities, Many people in South Africa and in the world have already described and can better describe the role that CCS has played in the academic panorama of the social sciences on a global scale. As a PhD student and visiting scholar at CCS in the previous year I can say that without the support of the centre, in terms of human and material resources, my research and my field work could have not been completed. The scientific rigour, the opening of the centre to the communities and social struggles, the reputation and the active involvement of all its members make the centre one of the cores of the reseacrh in the social sciences in Africa. An eye on the continent which is at the same time a social monitor and a sign of hope. Its loss would be unforgivable.
Rebecca Himlin, Executive Director, Planact: I was appalled to learn of the possibility that the Centre for Civil Society would be closed by the U- KZN, when what our country needs most is critical debate on real issues that affect the poor, something that the CCS never shies away from. If academic institutions repress this, how much worse is it in the rest of society? I was encouraged by the recent news on the CCS website that a process of consultation with academic departments is now underway. I hope that the resolution is a strengthened, even more independent CCS.
Professor Rex Fyles, University of Ottawa Faculty of Social Sciences: I would like to add my name to the long list of local and international intellectuals and activists who are deeply concerned about the future of UKZN's Centre for Civil Society. I recently (May 2008) collaborated with the Centre in offering a three week course to a group of development studies stu
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