The difference in cultural studies between a brand and a commodity is substantial. The commodity is a utilitarian object based on dialectic between use value and exchange value. Thus a pair of shoes and their value is based on their purpose, such as running, and the related market forces and systems required to deliver them […]
Michael Francis
I have returned to South Africa.
I now teach Economic History and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I am happy to be back after a couple years away. I had been teaching anthropology at a Canadian University, but Africa called and I returned.
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The African Global Village
Marshall McLuhan predicted a Global Village of interdependence based on new communication technology in the 1960s. Since then the concept has taken on new connotations with the advent of the internet and its assumed ubiquitous. However, the negative connotations of McLuhan’s Global Village have largely been forgotten. Moreover, from an African geographic perspective the Village […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Africa Addio: images of Africa are a contested terrain
Africa Addio was an Italian documentary shot in the 1960s that showed Africa as a land filled with savagery and ruination as colonial powers withdrew (by Jacopetti and Prosperi, 1966). The book that accompanied the film was somewhat sympathetic to the plight of Africans with an appraisal of the burdens and damage wrought by unchecked […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Democracy deferred, again.
I have been challenged by Michael Trapido to write my take on the ANC. I have lots to say and lots I feel about the ANC. While we can laud the party for playing a huge role in the struggle against apartheid and certain members have been instrumental in nation building as well as peace […]
Posted inGeneral
Deference, amnesty and democracy in the new South Africa: The Zuma test case
This is my first official blog on Thought Leader and there is so much going on in the country that I don’t know where to begin. All the hullabaloo and angst that has been generated over Zuma’s pending trial brings three major issues to mind about a deferential political culture, the absurdity of offering amnesty, […]