[State at Wits] Introduction

Wed Mar 1 11:22:10 SAST 2017

Dear all,

Thanks for the opportunity to be on this list -- and apologies for the very
late response, Keith. I'm a researcher at the Public Affairs Research
Institute (PARI), affiliated to Wits University. For the past two years, I
have been working in a team studying local government in the Waterberg
district of Limpopo, specifically looking at how the context of burgeoning
mineral extraction has impacted local administrations from the inside.

Having seen how documents have played a central role in many of the
deepening political disputes between different rungs of party and state -
forensic audits, letters, petitions, legal opinions, minutes and agendas -
I am pursuing more sustained research on these 'documentary wars' of the
state - the dynamics of outsourced document production, confidentiality and
secrecy, questions of authenticity and evidentiary power, the leaking of
documents, relations to the legal adjudication of disputes etc.

PARI, along with the NRF Local Histories and Present Realities, and the
Center for Urbanism and Built Environment (CUBES), has also begun what we
are calling the Research Collaboration on the State, which aims to provide
a platform for academics, researchers, officials, and civil society actors
to speak to each other about various aspects of the state. The first of the
public seminars began last week, and I will keep you informed of upcoming
events.

I am keen to learn a great deal more through the discussions on this list.

All the best,

Joel Pearson
joelp at pari.org.za

-- 
Joel Pearson
*Researcher*

*T* +27 (0) 11 482 1739 | *M *+27 (0) 84 563 6836
<%2B27%20%280%29%2083%20603%200964> | *F* +27 (0) 86 759 6858
26 Rhodes Avenue, Parktown West, Johannesburg, 2193
*http://www.pari.org.za <http://www.pari.org.za/>*

On 8 February 2017 at 11:01, Lawrence Hamilton <Lawrence.Hamilton at wits.ac.za
> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I am a political theorist based in political studies at Wits and politics
> and international studies, Cambridge (see below). I work on the state,
> amongst other topics in contemporary political theory, as informed by the
> perspective of the global South and the history of political thought. Some
> say I'm too focused on the state, but anyway.
>
> A heads-up on two forthcoming events associated with my Chair:
>
> 1) On the 15-17 March, I (or my Chair) will be hosting Ian Shapiro (Yale).
> He'll be giving a public lecture at midday on 16 March on democracy and
> political competition in the wake of the 2016 referenda and elections (full
> details and final title to follow);
>
> 2) From 30 Aug-1 Sept, David Boucher (Cardiff) and Ayesha Omar (UJ) are
> hosting a conference entitled ‘The Prelude to Decolonisation: the turning
> of the tide'. I'm giving a paper there on 'Amilcar Cabral, Resistance and
> Freedom'. It is an interdisciplinary conference and they already have a lot
> of good and varied interest. Please see attached the first version of their
> call for papers and please circulate widely.
>
> Thanks, and thank again to Keith for creating this list, etc.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Lawrence
> --
> Lawrence Hamilton BA (MA), MPhil, PhD (Cantab) MASSAf
> NRF/British Academy Bilateral Research Chair in Poltical Theory,
> University of the Witwatersrand and University of Cambridge
> Editor-in-Chief, Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory
>
> Single-authored books:-
> The Political Philosophy of Needs (Cambridge University Press 2003)
>
> Are South Africans Free? (Bloomsbury 2014)
>
> Freedom is Power: Liberty Through Political Representation (Cambridge
> University Press 2014)
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