The book addresses influences and affinities in the context of the history of ideas, literary theory and criticism. It brings together American Transcendentalism, Negritude, African religions and philosophy.

This article investigates using social entrepreneurship as a way of developing sustainable township economies, so that poverty can be eradicated from the townships of South Africa and township dwellers can begin to play a role in the economic development of the country. The author also thinks it is God's purpose for people to enjoy life, free from economic hardship. A reduction in poverty would also bring down the crime rate and other social ills. It starts by defining and clarifying the (...) concepts of 'entrepreneur' and 'social entrepreneurship'. It continues by looking in more depth into township life and its challenges. This is done through reviewing the literature and observations obtained through participant observation research. Post-foundationalist practical theology believes in interdisciplinary dialogue as a means of allowing the concept of social entrepreneurship to bring about a sustainable township economy. From the author's observations, it became apparent that to see the attainment of a sustainable township economy, training and development should start with a strong emphasis on personal identity and interpersonal and business skills. The author, therefore, proposes a holistic approach to social entrepreneurship. (shrink)

A right to family privacy is considered a cornerstone of American life, and yet access to it is apportioned by race. Our notion of the “racialization of privacy” refers to the phenomenon that family privacy, including the freedom to create a family uninhibited by law, pressure, and custom, is delimited by race. Building upon racial formation theory, this article examines three examples: the Native American boarding school system (1870s to 1970s), eugenic laws and practices (early/mid 1900s), and contemporary deportation. Analysis (...) reveals that state-sponsored limitations on family privacy is a racial project that shapes the racial state. Performing an ideological genealogy with our cases, this article makes three contributions: it illustrates how the state leverages policies affecting families to define national belonging; it reveals how access to family privacy is patterned by race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and national origin; and it distills how Whiteness and a national racial hierarchy are socially constructed and maintained over time. With the racialization of privacy, we identify how the state seeks to reproduce institutionalized White supremacy and the effects this has on families. We argue that families are the linchpin in state-sponsored racial projects that construct the nation and that the racialization of privacy, as a form of inequality, is a defining characteristic of the color-line. (shrink)

In this article, I investigate the concept, social entrepreneurship, as a potential lever in economic and social transformation of the poorest-of-the-poor community of Nellmapius township, east of Pretoria, South Africa. I identify definitions of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social entrepreneurship’, and delve into the historical development of the concept ‘entrepreneur’. South Africa is in an era where it needs more new venture creation. Hence, I have studied new venture formation, especially from the perspective of Schumpeter’s theory of ways of forming a new (...) firm. South Africa lags behind in new venture development compared toother developing countries; I investigated the causes behind this and suggest remedies to address this. Postfoundationalist practical theology is seen as a way of doing theology in the midst of those who suffer poverty and lack. The methods of this approach are dealt with in this article, which also asks what theology can bring to the table of interdisciplinary engagement? (shrink)

Henrich et al.'s nice cross-cultural experiments would benefit from models that specify the decision rules that humans use and the specific developmental pathways that allow cooperative norms to be internalized. Such models could help researchers to design further experiments to examine human social adaptations. We must also test whether the “same” experiments measure similar constructs in each culture, using additional methods and measures.

In this article, we are exploring a methodological approach to research on faith and religious expressions in urban Africa. We are committed to trans-disciplinary work that pursues research methods mutually liberating for researchers, co-researchers and community participants and that results in long-term benefits and strengthened agency on the part of the host communities. Our reflections in this article are based on a collaborative research project1 in two regions of Pretoria, Tshwane2 – Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East – in which we (...) explore how religious innovation and competition in and amongst churches contribute to the healing or perpetuation of urban fractures. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze Diotima’s definition of eros as a desire to beget and give birth in beauty. The main problem lies in the use of the notions of kuêsis, tokos, genesis and gennêsis. We will distinguish the meanings of each term and show that the erotic relationship is focused on the preservation of that which the lover already carries within himself. On this basis, and by using some passages from the Phaedrus, we seek, finally, to explain why science (...) belongs to the realm of generation. (shrink)

Diotima’s speech in the Symposium, which defines the erotic function as an act of procreation in the beautiful, is generally regarded as the most faithful account of the philosopher’s views on the nature of love. While this definition has received much attention from commentators, few studies pay attention to the literal aspect that is veiled behind the rhetorical effect Plato seeks to install. This neglect is even more striking given that the theory of reproduction that underlies the metaphor contains several (...) ambiguities that are unfamiliar to contemporary biology. In the present paper I propose to read Diotima’s argumentation by focusing on the biological conception of procreation that gives structure to the metaphor. I will focus my analysis on the statement that “the sexual union (synousía) between man and woman is a childbirth (tókos).” I will argue that this sentence not only condenses the general sense of the metaphor of intellectual procreation, but also hints at the embryological conception that underlies the metaphor, and that explains to some extent the ambiguity of the Platonic lexicon considering what the philosopher states in Timaeus 91c. I will also argue that the Symposium’s discourse on conception and childbirth, by effacing the female experience, contributes to the tradition of obliteration of the political transcendence of motherhood that prevails in the civic discourses of the time, and therefore to the reinforcement of the exclusion of women from citizenship and from the political sphere in general. (shrink)