Routledge Contemporary South Africa
About the Book Series
The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars on all aspects of South Africa.
To submit a proposal please contact Routledge African Studies editor Helena Hurd, [email protected]
Afterimages of Apartheid: Photography and Resistance
1st Edition
By Kylie Thomas
October 29, 2025
Afterimages of Apartheid shows how photographs of the past can be mobilised as a critical tool for understanding the ongoing effects of apartheid in contemporary South Africa. Through close readings of significant images made during and after apartheid, the book shows how photography works as a ...
The State and Development in South Africa: Impasse, Prospects, and Challenges
1st Edition
Edited
By Isaac Khambule
September 19, 2025
This book interrogates the nexus between the state and development in post-apartheid South Africa. It highlights current problems, and suggests ways of consolidating state capabilities, improving public institutions and enhancing governance and development outcomes. Framed around developmental ...
Rethinking Higher Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Transformative Trajectories within a Decolonial Paradigm
1st Edition
Edited
By Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis, Logan Govender, Dennis Zami Atibuni
June 03, 2025
This book explores the opportunities and epistemological and structural challenges facing higher education in postcolonial South Africa and argues for a fundamental transformation to meet the needs of the 21st century. Taking the concept of transformation as a unifying thread, this book discusses ...
Conflictual Democracy and the South African Constitution: Dignity, Equality, and Freedom
1st Edition
By Henk Botha
April 02, 2025
Human dignity, equality, and freedom are central to the South African Constitution. This book examines these values through a conflictual democratic lens, which views conflict, power, and disagreement as constitutive of democracy. The book explores the capacity of value-based constitutional ...
Spectres of Reparation in South Africa: Re-encountering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
1st Edition
By Jaco Barnard-Naude
December 18, 2024
This book argues that South Africa is haunted by the spectre of reparation. The failure of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to secure adequate reparation for the victims of colonisation and apartheid continues to drastically undermine the commission’s processes and legacy. ...
Radio, Public Life and Citizen Deliberation in South Africa
1st Edition
Edited
By Sarah Chiumbu, Gilbert Motsaathebe
August 26, 2024
This book critically analyses the important role of radio in public life in post-apartheid South Africa. As the most widespread and popular form of communication in the country, radio occupies an essential space in the deliberation and the construction of public opinion in South Africa. From just ...
Youth in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Sociological Perspective
1st Edition
By Acheampong Yaw Amoateng, Elizabeth Biney
June 10, 2024
This book investigates the life experiences of youth in South Africa, considering whether contemporary youth have benefitted from the socioeconomic reconstruction of post-apartheid society. Student protests against apartheid drove transformative change in South Africa, and the subsequent new ...
Generation, Gender and Negotiating Custom in South Africa
1st Edition
Edited
By Elena Moore
May 27, 2024
This book investigates how customary practices in South Africa have led to negotiation and contestation over human rights, gender and generational power. Drawing on a range of original empirical studies, this book provides important new insights into the realities of regulating personal ...
Youth Unemployment Scenarios: South Africa in 2040
1st Edition
By Maximilian Matschke
May 27, 2024
This book examines the factors driving youth unemployment in South Africa, exploring potential future outcomes of its mass unemployment, and offering a variety of strategies to avoid an impending crisis in the country. Utilizing scenario analysis rooted in complex systems theory while building on ...
The Short Story in South Africa: Contemporary Trends and Perspectives
1st Edition
Edited
By Rebecca Fasselt, Corinne Sandwith
September 25, 2023
This book considers the key critical interventions on short story writing in South Africa written in English since the year 2000. The short story genre, whilst often marginalised in national literary canons, has been central to the trajectory of literary history in South Africa. In recent years, ...
Afrikaners and the Boundaries of Faith in Post-Apartheid South Africa
1st Edition
By Annika Björnsdotter Teppo
May 31, 2023
This book examines the shifting moral and spiritual lives of white Afrikaners in South Africa after apartheid. The end of South Africa’s apartheid system of racial and spatial segregation sparked wide-reaching social change as social, cultural, spatial and racial boundaries were transgressed and ...
Social Media and Everyday Life in South Africa
1st Edition
By Tanja E Bosch
May 31, 2023
This book explores how social media is used in South Africa, through a range of case studies exploring various social networking sites and applications. This volume explores how, over the past decade, social media platforms have deeply penetrated the fabric of everyday life. The author considers ...