Strategic competence and agency: individuals overcoming barriers to change in South African higher education

Social relations, institutional arrangements and cultures bequeathed by South Africa’s system of apartheid continue be felt in the present despite the country’s formal transition to democracy 25 years ago. Race, class and gender inequities continue to structure South African society in ways that have proven intransigent to change, leading to growing frustration and widespread public dissatisfaction expressed in multiple arenas including worker strikes, service delivery and university student protests. While it is clear that social structures inherited from the past are difficult to change, it is also the case that change does happen. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study with 10 academics at one historically White university in South Africa, who have been agents of change within their particular context. We show how participants engaged in struggles to counter resistance to their efforts. In doing so they demonstrate what we call ‘strategic competence’ – the ability to act in ways that not only draw on personal resources but recognise the resources, contradictions and opportunities offered within the existing limitations of the social structure. Strategic competence thus emerges as a central feature of agency, enabling individuals to stretch the boundaries of what is possible.     

The Impact of Knowledge Sharing on Work Performance: An Empirical Analysis of the Public Employees' Perceptions in South Korea

This article examines the impact of knowledge sharing on individual work performance by analyzing perceptions of 323 public employees in South Korea. An analytical model is drawn from an extensive review of literature on knowledge management and sharing from which nine exogenous variables are identified as antecedents of knowledge sharing that affect individual work performance. The results indicate that four exogenous variables—employee training, reward systems, support from the top management, and openness in communication—are perceived to have a positive influence on employees' knowledge sharing, which, in turn, improved individual work performance. Perceived trustworthiness between individuals involved in knowledge sharing has also positively influenced both knowledge sharing and individual work performance. These results imply that individual work performance may be dependent on the effective use of knowledge sharing.     

Exploring a Model of HIV Prevention Using a Cognitive-Behavioral Skills-Building Framework with Black Immigrants

Abstract

This paper addresses the burgeoning Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) crisis in the black community in the United States, particularly black women. A cognitive-behavioral skills-building HIV prevention intervention tailored to the realities of blacks in South Africa is presented as a model that may be modified and adapted for HIV prevention among blacks in the United States. This model of HIV prevention must view blacks as a heterogeneous group that includes African immigrants, and cognitive-behavioral skills-building HIV prevention interventions tailored to the realities of black women are needed for the prevention of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection. The implementation of HIV interventions within accessible sexually transmitted diseases (STD) testing and treatment programs will provide the combined clinical-behavioral approach that is missing in HIV prevention interventions among blacks in the United States.     

战略预期与小国挑战周边大国的策略选择——以菲、越两国南海制华政策(2009~2019)为例

文章提出了后冷战时期战略预期导向下小国(主动)挑战周边大国策略选择的分析框架。战略预期有助于小国明确其挑战周边大国“源动力”的强弱,以及预判具备哪些必要条件才能相对成功地挑战周边大国。小国享有大国竞争赋予的重要战略空间,其面对的冲突性议题不是周边大国的战略重点,采取迫使和诱使周边大国保持战略克制的策略,这些对小国则至关重要。在多个小国挑战同一周边大国时,“源动力”相对强烈的小国,不同的战略预期将催生其差异明显的策略模式。根据大国竞争的强度与周边大国“求稳”偏好的水平,此类小国的战略预期可以依次分解为审慎战略预期、进取性战略预期和修正后战略预期;相应的策略选择为侧重温和软制衡或侧重强硬软制衡的对冲、侧重准硬制衡的对冲或硬制衡以及四种潜在的策略修正。菲律宾和越南2009~2019年南海制华政策的演变验证了这一逻辑。掌控南海敏感争议海域新的油气开发格局、积极应对司法化趋势并探索更加包容的争端解决方案,是中国深度塑造菲、越两国南海战略预期的重要着力点。     

Governing Under Pressure: German Policy Making During the Coronavirus Crisis

The global threat of the coronavirus pandemic has forced policy makers to react quickly with totally new policy-making approaches under conditions of uncertainty. This article focuses on such crisis-driven policy learning, examining how the experiences of China and South Korea as early responder states influenced the subsequent coronavirus crisis management in Germany. The first reaction of the German core executive was the quick concentration of decision-making power at the top of the political hierarchy. Asserting the prerogatives of the executive included the radical simplification of the relationship between politics, law and science. State actors took emergency measures by recourse to a single piece of legislation—the ‘infection protection law’ (Infektionsschutzgesetz)—overriding other elements of the legal order. They also limited the government’s use of scientific expertise to a small number of advisors, thereby cutting short debates about the appropriateness or otherwise of the government’s crisis measures. Finally, German actors failed to understand that some of the earlier Chinese and Korean responses required a precondition—namely public willingness to sacrifice privacy for public health—that is absent in the German case.     

Heterozygosity reduction in children whose parents are closely related

In this study, the impact of consanguineous marriage and inbreeding on heterozygosity was evaluated by comparing levels of heterozygosity in children of closely related parents with those of unrelated parents. Compared to the average expected heterozygosity, the average observed heterozygosity was lower in the children with first-cousin parents. This was not the case in the children with unrelated parents, where an increase in the average observed heterozygosity was noted. Differences in the average heterozygosity between parents-children also observed between related and unrelated parents. First-cousin parents had higher average heterozygosity than the children compared to the unrelated parents where the average heterozygosity was lower than the children. Further investigation with bigger sample size and different populations will provide better understanding, however this study showed that a careful approach should be taken when dealing with parentage testing involving closely related parents.     

Sample collection strategies when building mitochondrial DNA forensic databases

For establishing databases that capture the existing diversity in populations, the sample collection strategy is a determining factor and caution must be taken when choosing the suitable approach. Many researchers choose to restrict the sampling to individuals with inheritance for three generations in a specific geographic location. However, the appropriate database in a forensic context is the one representing the current population. We analyzed mtDNA composition across generations in populations from Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. An overall genetic homogeneity was detected, with statistically significant differences on macrohaplogroup frequencies for few department/regions.     

改革开放30年的中南地区国际法教学

改革开放30年以来，中南地区国际法的教学取得了长足的发展，先后形成了先进的教育理念、不断创新的人才培养模式、灵活多样的教学方法、多层次的精品课程、影响广泛的国际法教材、求实拓新的教改项目、高水平的师资队伍、教学成果日渐凸显的社会效益。但仍然存在很多不足，主要体现为：国际法学科实力分布不均；人才单向流动迅速；一些高校对国际法教学不够重视。未来，中南地区国际法教学应以社会需求为本位，提倡培养具有国际竞争力的法律人才，同时，应加强区域内高校之间的合作与交流。     

南非反艾滋歧视的立法及司法实践

南非是世界上艾滋病疫情最为严重的国家之一。从1992年开始南非对艾滋病采取一系列包括反艾滋病歧视在内的积极的防治措施。反艾滋歧视的典型判例是南非宪法法院在2000年就豪夫曼诉南非航空公司案所做的判决。该判决认定南非航空公司拒绝雇佣艾滋感染者豪夫曼的行为构成对艾滋感染者的不合理歧视．侵犯了其宪法赋予的平等权。     

Democracy,social capital and school governing bodies in South Africa

Critics of school governing bodies (SGBs) – both on the left and on the right – tend to rely upon arguments that ignore significant portions of the act that created SGBs – the South African Schools Act (SASA) – the exact nature of the changes to SGBs wrought by amendments to the act and the manner in which the courts, in interpreting the act, have both reinforced the autonomy of SGBs at the same time as they have set limits on those powers. The authors’ reading takes seriously all of the provisions of SASA, its amendments and various court constructions of SASA's provisions. This close reading of the South African Constitution, SASA, SASA's amendments and the case law reveals the lineaments of a fourth level of democratic government. Even with their uneven success as a fourth tier of democratic government, SGBs reflect, in many respects, the most important interactions that citizens have with the state. The authors contend that SGBs provide a vehicle for popular political participation that is quite real, and that participation is made no less real by the strictures imposed upon them by South Africa's constitutional and regulatory order. Despite concerns about their lack of capacity, SGBs enjoy popular acceptance and participation across class and language divides. The legal status of SGBs does not merely enhance various forms of local democracy, SGBs also maintain and create effective social networks that generate new stores of social capital. The ability to provide new forms of democratic participation and to create new stores of social capital suggests that SGBs have the makings of a great, new and rather unique ‘South African’ political institution.