WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME

Following the formal demise of political apartheid in SouthAfrica in 1994, critical and community-centred psychologistshave tended to obtain relevance through alignment with thetenets of social justice and the larger democratic project. Thisarticle draws on the experiences of the Crime, Violence andInjury Lead Programme (CVI) to illustrate how particularformulations of scientific and social relevance function tomarginalize criticality and critical scholarship. The authorsuggests that relevance without criticality produces forms ofintellectual activity that privilege empiricist traditions, perpetrate a binary between research and research translation, andreproduce the myth that intervention work is atheoretical.The review of the CVI serves as a reminder of the challengesinherent in enactments of critical psychology. Among themany issues that critical psychology oriented initiatives likeCVI have to contend with is the task of developing theoreticaland other resources to move between co-operation and critiquein the service of democratic development

Socio-demographic and spatio-temporal predictors of homicidal strangulation in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa

The literature on the predictors of disaggregated homicide rates exposes a distinct void with respect to strangulation fatality. The current study examines the effects of socio-demographic and spatio-temporal variables on the risk for homicidal strangulation relative to the other leading causes of homicide in the City of Johannesburg for the period 2001-2010. The data were derived from the National Injury  Mortality Surveillance System. A series of logistic regressions were performed to assess the independent associations between each of the predictor variables and fatal strangulation relative to the other leading causes of homicide. The analysis revealed that there are several unique socio-demographic and spatio-temporal factors that differentiate homicidal strangulation risk from the risk for other causes of  homicide. Sex was found to be the strongest predictor of homicidal strangulation, with the risk significantly higher for females. The elderly (60+ years), were found to be at marked risk of fatal strangulation, as were children between the ages of 0-14 years. The most noteworthy predictive effects for temporality were observed for time of day and day of the week, with daytime and weekdays representing the periods of higher risk. In the current analyses, scene of death did not emerge as a significant predictor of strangulation homicide. The study supports the contention that differentiated risk profiles for the different causes of homicide are important to recognise and delineate for the purposes of strangulation homicide prevention

When Relevance Decenters Criticality: The Case of the South African National Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme Cuando la relevancia desplaza a la crítica: el caso del Programa Nacional sobre Crimen, Violencia y Lesiones en Sudáfrica

Abstract Following the formal demise of political apartheid in South africa in 1994, critical and community-centred psychologists have tended to obtain relevance through alignment with the tenets of social justice and the larger democratic project. This article draws on the experiences of the Crime, Violence and injury lead Programme (cvi) to illustrate how particular formulations of scientific and social relevance function to marginalize criticality and critical scholarship. The author suggests that relevance without criticality produces forms of intellectual activity that privilege empiricist traditions, perpetrate a binary between research and research translation, and reproduce the myth that intervention work is atheoretical. The review of the cvi serves as a reminder of the challenges inherent in enactments of critical psychology. among the many issues that critical psychology oriented initiatives like cvi have to contend with is the task of developing theoretical and other resources to move between co-operation and critique in the service of democratic development. Keywords: community psychology, criticality, relevance. Resumen tras la desaparición formal las políticas de segregación (apartheid) en Sudáfrica, en 1994, los psicólogos críticos y comunitarios han tendido a ganar relevancia a través del alineamiento con principios democráticos y de justicia social. este artícu-lo recurre a las experiencias del Programa sobre Crimen, Violencia y lesiones (cvi) para ilustrar cómo determinadas formulaciones de relevancia científica y social marginan la criticidad y la erudición crítica. el autor sugiere que la relevancia sin crítica produce formas de actividad intelectual que privilegian tradiciones empiristas que incurren en la disociación entre investigación y práctica y, así mismo, reproducen el mito de que el trabajo de intervención es ateórico. la revisión del cvi sirve para recordar los retos inherentes a las proclamas de la psicología crítica. entre los muchos problemas a los que tienen que enfrentarse las iniciativas orientadas a la psicología crítica, como el cvi, se encuentra la tarea de desarrollar, entre otros, recursos teóricos para moverse entre la cooperación y la crítica en el servicio al desarrollo democrático

Psychology and humanism in the democratic South African imagination

Attentive to a psychology underlying South Africa’s democratic imaginations, I describe how Nelson Mandela’s intervention at a critical moment of conflict management, along with mechanisms such as at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Moral Regeneration Movement, invoked and enacted a humanising ethos. Centred on the ideas of restraint, empathy, emotional proximity, witnessing, and fluid generative subjectivities, the humanising ethos was awakened to support the process of reconciliation, social justice, and the making of inclusive and socially just communities. Inspired by a decolonial attitude, and in part successfully enacted in support of the country’s liberal democratic ideals, the elaboration of this psychology has been limited by ongoing socio-economic disparities and a ruling psychology that naturalises extractive relations.Institute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS

What Do Professors Do? Posthumous Letter of Love to Ma

Assuming an autoethnographic orientation and a shifting performative lettering style, I write posthumously to my mother in response to her question, what do professors do? The letter is a reflexive contribution to contemporary decolonial debates about unrelenting forms of colonizing knowledge, ways of overturning exclusionary credentialing systems, and liberatory modes of knowledge creation. Engaging with the epistemology of the heart, I write to Ma about the fecundity of silence and being a stranger; the (re)making of critical compassionate space in academia; the tenuous movements between different epistemologies; the slipperiness of language and the ambiguities inherent to connecting diverse socio-epistemic worlds; as well as her legacy of socio-epistemic agency. Perhaps communities of insurgent scholars and activists and those who hold humanizing imaginaries in their bosoms may read my letter as an invitation to embrace the heart as the catalytic organ of, and for discernment, comprehension, contemplation, radical agency, and epistemic love.Institute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS

Zero-tolerance drink-driving and road safety in South Africa: What are the options?

Alcohol is a major contributing factor to the burden of road traffic crashes and injuries in South Africa. There has been an increase in political interest and engagement on the issue of drink-driving in recent months following government restrictions on the sale and public consumption of alcohol during the COVID-19 lockdowns along with proposed zero-tolerance drink-driving legislation. In this paper, we critically examine global research and experiences with the adoption of zero-tolerance approaches to drink-driving along with key South African contextual considerations to provide evidence-based and contextually relevant recommendations for advancing zero-tolerance drink-driving legislation in the country. There is significant evidence to support the adoption of zero-tolerance legislation but at a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) threshold limit for the general driving population set at 0.02 g/100 mL (rather than the zero-BAC limit proposed through the Road Traffic Amendment Bill) to allow for variance in testing. Recommendations centre on the proposed legislation incorporating a gradualist approach and its location within a broader zero-tolerance approach that includes other complementary interventions to enable implementation. Significance: The recommended blood alcohol level of 0.02 g/100 mL is lower than the best practice limit recommended by the World Health Organization of 0.05 g/100 mL, following consideration of the road safety and general alcohol consumption challenges in South Africa and evidence of success from other similar country contexts. Broad principles and recommendations are presented to support the sustainable adoption of zero-tolerance drink-driving legislation in the country

Risk factors for female and male homicidal strangulation in Johannesburg, South Africa

Background. There is a paucity of research on homicidal strangulation by gender. Objectives. A sex-disaggregated and comparative research approach was used to investigate individual-level risk factors for female and male homicidal strangulation in Johannesburg, South Africa (2001 - 2010). Methods. Data were drawn from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. Logistic regressions were used to examine associations between each of the independent variables and homicidal strangulation in females and males relative to all other female and male homicides, respectively. Results. The risk of fatal strangulation was high for both females and males aged ≥60 years, but markedly high only for male children and adolescents. Temporal risk for females was undifferentiated for day of the week, and the risk for males was high during weekdays. Females were more likely to be strangled in public places, and males in private locations. Conclusions. The study underlines the importance of disaggregating homicide by external cause and gender.Institute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS

Protest injuries : A situational analysis of injurious protests in Gauteng

In this article, we investigate contextual and situational circumstances of protest events that record injurious outcomes for civilians and examine how these differ from protests which do not record such outcomes. Using the IRIS database, we examine how contextual factors, including protest period, protest location, reason for protest, and situational factors, such as type of protest, damage to property, arrests and police response contribute to civilian injury. Using logistic regression analysis, it was found that: 1) protest-related injuries were more frequent during the late-2000s than the 2010–15 period; 2) protest location was not a significant predictor of protest injury; 3) protests which recorded arrests and damage to property were more likely to report injurious outcomes; and 4) the addition of an aggressive police response was significant in determining protestor injury outcomes. Our findings have implications for public policing strategies, highlighting the role of different modalities of police response in the mitigation or escalation of injuries at protest events

Socio-demographic and spatio-temporal predictors of homicidal strangulation in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa

The literature on the predictors of disaggregated homicide rates exposes a distinct void with respect to strangulation fatality. The current study examines the effects of socio-demographic and spatio-temporal variables on the risk for homicidal strangulation relative to the other leading causes of homicide in the City of Johannesburg for the period 2001-2010. The data were derived from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. A series of logistic regressions were performed to assess the independent associations between each of the predictor variables and fatal strangulation relative to the other leading causes of homicide. The analysis revealed that there are several unique socio-demographic and spatio-temporal factors that differentiate homicidal strangulation risk from the risk for other causes of homicide. Sex was found to be the strongest predictor of homicidal strangulation, with the risk significantly higher for females. The elderly (60+ years), were found to be at marked risk of fatal strangulation, as were children between the ages of 0-14 years. The most noteworthy predictive effects for temporality were observed for time of day and day of the week, with daytime and weekdays representing the periods of higher risk. In the current analyses, scene of death did not emerge as a significant predictor of strangulation homicide. The study supports the contention that differentiated risk profiles for the different causes of homicide are important to recognise and delineate for the purposes of strangulation homicide prevention.Institute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS

Community psychology and its (dis)contents, archival legacies and decolonisation

This article serves as the introduction to the Special Issue on Liberatory and Critical Voices in Decolonising Community Psychologies. The Special Issue was inspired by the Sixth International Conference on Community Psychology, held in South Africa in May 2016, and resonates with the call for the conscious decolonisation of knowledge creation. We argue that the decolonial turn in psychology has re-centred critical projects within the discipline, particularly in the Global South, and offered possibilities for their (re)articulation, expansion, and insertion into dominant and mimetic knowledge production. In the case of Africa, we suggest that the work of decolonising community psychologies will benefit from engagement with the continent’s multiple knowledge archives. Recognising community psychologies’ (dis)contents and the possibilities for its reconstruction, and appealing to a liberatory knowledge archive, the Issue includes a distinctive collection of articles that are diverse in conceptualisation, content, and style, yet evenly and singularly focused on the construction of insurgent knowledges and praxes. As representations of both production and resistance, the contributions in this issue provide the intellectual and political platforms for social, gender, and epistemic justice. We conclude that there are unexplored and exciting prospects for scholarly work on the psychologies embedded in the overlooked knowledge archives of the Global South. Such work would push the disciplinary boundaries of community psychologies; help produce historicised and situated conceptions of community, knowledge, and liberation; and offer distinctive contributions to the global bodies of knowledge concerned with the well-being of all of humanity.Institute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS