Revisits the work of Rick Turner, a South African political theorist, and addresses contemporary debates
Rick Turner was a South African academic and anti-apartheid activist who rebelled against the apartheid state at the height of its power. For this he was assassinated in 1978, at just 32 years of age, but his life and work are testimony to the power of philosophical thinking for humans everywhere. Turner chose to live freely in an unfree time and argued for a non-racial, socialist future in a context where this seemed unimaginable.
This book takes seriously Rick Turners challenge that political theorising requires thinking in a utopian way. Turners seminal book The Eye of the Need: Towards a Participatory Democracy laid out some of his most potent ideas on a radically different political and economic system. His demand was that we work to escape the limiting ideas of the present, carefully design a just future based on shared human values, and act to make it a reality, both politically and in our daily lives.
The contributors to this volume engage critically with Turners work on race relations, his relationship with Steve Biko, his views on religion, education and gender oppression, his participatory model of democracy, and his critique of enduring forms of poverty and economic inequality. They show how, in his life and work, Turner modeled how we can dare to be free and how hope can return, as the future always remains open to human construction. This book makes an important contribution to contemporary thinking and activism where the need for South Africans to define their understanding of their greater common good is of crucial importance.
Papildus informācija
This collection revisits the work of Rick Turner, a South African political theorist, and addresses contemporary debates.
Acknowledgments
Acronyms
Introduction Michael Onyebuchi Eze, Lawrence Hamilton, Laurence Piper and
Gideon van Riet
Part I Rick Turner and Contemporary Black Thinkers
Chapter 1 Decolonising Resistance: Political Freedom in Rick Turner and Steve
Biko Michael Onyebuchi Eze
Chapter 2 Race Political Change and Liberal Critiques: Richard Turner and Sam
Nolutshungu Ayesha Omar
Chapter 3 On Bikos Turn on Turner Tendayi Sithole
Part II Turners Theoretical Lacunae
Chapter 4 Women in the Frame: Reading Rick Turners Eye of the Needle through
Simone de Beauvoirs Second Sex Paula Ensor
Chapter 5 Poverty and Misplaced Prioritisation: Evaluating Human Models and
Value Systems - John S Sanni
Chapter 6 Should We Take Turners Democratic Model Seriously? Daryl Glaser
Part III Turner and Teaching Philosophy
Chapter 7 Rick Turner and Teaching Critical Theory Laurence Piper
Chapter 8 The Relevance of Rick Turners Utopian Thinking for a Critical
Pedagogy Crain Soudien
Part IV Rick Turner and the Left
Chapter 9 Rick Turner, an Aboveground Radical Billy Keniston
Chapter 10 Radical Contingency and Turners Enduring Message to Relative
Privilege Gideon van Riet
Part V On the Nature of Political Theory
Chapter 11 Rick Turner and the Vision of Engaged Political Philosophy
Christine Hobden
Chapter 12 What is the Point of Political Theory? Lawrence Hamilton
Contributors
Index
Michael Onyebuchi Eze (Editor) Michael Onyebuchi Eze is Research Associate and lectures in Philosophy at Leiden University.
Lawrence Hamilton (Editor) Lawrence Hamilton is the Chair at the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Laurence Piper (Editor) Laurence Piper is Professor of Political Science at the University of the Western Cape, and University West.
Gideon van Riet (Editor) Gideon van Riet is Associate Professor in Political Studies at North-West University.
