Browsing by Author "Jansen, Jonathan"
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- ItemA century of misery research on coloured people(African Sun Media, 2020) Jansen, Jonathan; Walters, CyrillWhen a group of Stellenbosch University (SU) researchers published an article on the “low cognitive functioning” and “unhealthy lifestyle behaviours” of coloured women,2 there was immediate outrage across the campus and the country. Yet this particular piece of published research was by no means exceptional. In fact, for the past hundred years Stellenbosch – and other South African universities – had been engaged in what is called race-essentialist research, that is, studies that insisted that there are four racial groups (whites, Indians, coloureds and Africans) and that certain aptitudes, behaviours and even diseases were directly related to these political classifications.
- ItemFreedom of speech and public interest, not allegiance, should underpin science advisement to government(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2020) Singh, Jerome Amir; Habib, Adam; Jansen, JonathanSouth Africa (SA) is Africa’s science heavyweight, leading the continent in scientific output, and ranks in the top 40 globally in research productivity.[1-3] Not surprisingly, SA’s scientific and academic communities have become deeply involved in the country’s response to COVID-19. Such involvement has included, among others, clinical trials for drug therapies and vaccines, data analysis tracking the evolution of the pandemic, provision of critical advisory support to government policymaking on COVID-19 and on the trade-offs between strategies to manage the pandemic and the economic consequences thereof. This inevitably has led to the participation of many of the country’s academics in ministerial advisory committees. The most significant of these committees has been Zweli Mkhize’s Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19, which involves leading biomedical scientists.[4] Such participation exemplifies the notion of science solidarity and participatory democracy.