Ivor Chipkin This essay is a contribution to the field of institutional studies in that it treats the State as a substantial phenomenon, composed of institutionsthat require analysis in their own right. VIEW ESSAYRead More

Attempts by the Eastern Services Council to create a regional metropolitan government for the ‘East Rand’ failed, perhaps because it did not take seriously enough the strength of local identities. VIEW ARTICLERead More

The High Court has just ruled that some regulations concerning level 4 and 3 are unconstitutional and many are irrational.Read More

In unprecedented times history is paradoxically a resource. It is in the past that we find examples of how exceptional events were handled.Read More

Eskom’s crisis is not simply one of criminality and corruption. Rather, the organisation is in a storm of storms, where disruptions in one place (the resignation of a power plant manager, or a shortage of coal, or a boiler bursting) produce complex and unpredictable events somewhere else.Read More

Statistical indicators are extremely important. They fundamentally shape what we know about the world and how we perceive and evaluate development.Read More

Kristen Ghodsee is an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania whose scholarly work focuses on Eastern Europe.Read More

A Universal Basic Income Grant would provide basic economic security to each individual, regardless of marital, family or household status. It should be paid with no means testing, at regular intervals, and without direction or restrictions on how to spend it.Read More

South Africa entered the Covid-19 crisis not simply with a fragile economy but with a weakened state. But we can avoid and/or manage our way successfully through crises when we invest in building institutions. The challenge is to set this capability free.Read More

The ‘state capacity and institutional development’ cluster has developed a report for cabinet that is unhelpful and full of just exhortationsRead More