About the book

In Another Country: Everyday Social Restitution,author SharleneSwartz introduces the concept of 'social restitution' - understood as the actions and attitudes that everyday people can undertake in dialogue with each other to 'make things good' since 'making things right' is impossible.

In setting out an understanding of and an agenda for social restitution, she offers four ideas based on engaged reflection with sixty ordinary South Africans of all ages, colours and classes. First, injustice damages all our humanity and continues over time, and must be understood before we can simply move forward. Second, that a broad understanding of restitution is a helpful tool to bring about change, and that we need new language beyond the labels of victim and perpetrator to talk about our role in the past (such as beneficiary, resister, ostrich, architect or implementer).  Third, that restitution should aim at restoring dignity, opportunity, belonging and memory, and so should include not only symbolic but also practical and financial acts. Fourth, that there is something for everyone to do – individuals and communities, alongside government and institutional efforts, and the best way to decide on what action should be taken is to decide together, in dialogue, across previous divides. This book offers stories, ideas and strong theories for how South Africa can be Another Country in our lifetime.

About the authors

Sharlene Swartz (South Africa), PhD, is a sociologist and research director in the Human and Social Development research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town. She is also a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Commonwealth Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She has undergraduate degrees in science (University of the Witwatersrand) and theology (University of Zululand), both in South Africa, and holds an MA from Harvard University and a PhD in the Sociology of Education from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests focus on youth and poverty, social inequality, the sociology of morality and masculine moralities. She is the author of Teenage tata (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2009 with A Bhana), The Moral Ecology of South Africa's Township Youth (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; Johannesburg, Wits Press, 2010) and Moral Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Culture, Economics, Conflict and AIDS (London, Routledge, 2011, co-edited with M Taylor).

Contents

Introduction

PART I A TIME TO SEE

Chapter 1 Restitution and a shared vision for South Africa's future
Chapter 2 Ways of seeing: Why we are divided about what is needed

PART II THE PAST IN THE PRESENT

Chapter 3 Black pain and the outrage of racism
Chapter 4 Apartheid's costs: education, opportunities, assets and well-being
Chapter 5 White privilege and responses to South Africa's past

PART III TURNING TOWARD TOMORROW

Chapter 6 Restitution: A new conversation
Chapter 7 Locating yourself in the conversation
Chapter 8 Restoring our humanity

PART IV A TIME TO ACT

Chapter 9 Everyday action for individuals and groups
Chapter 10 Critical active social restitution