More and more of global economic wealth and decision-making power rests with fewer and fewer people, while acute socio-economic inequities continue to afflict large rural communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Land inequalities remain a burning question for rural communities.

Worldwide, countries have to respond to local and global socio-technological shifts and needs, specifically the transformations wrought by a rapidly shifting understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

What does it take for entrepreneurs to be effective competitors? What are the factors affecting entry and participation in sectors where there are historically strong incumbent firms? Opening the South African Economy brings to light the challenges of concentration, inequality and exclusion in different sectors of the South African economy.

How do actors in the educational field respond to the changing skills demands of the future? Research teams from the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership (LMIP) undertook a set of experimental and innovative case studies to improve our understanding of how current research intersects with a rapidly changing future.

Critics of privatisation are often told they present no alternatives. This book takes up that challenge, proposing conceptual models for what constitutes an alternative to privatisation and analyses what makes them successful (or not), backed up by empirical data on creative public service initiatives in over 40 countries in the Global South. This groundbreaking study provides a robust platform for comparisons across regions and sectors, with a focus on health, water and electricity. Alternatives to Privatisation is a compelling study and has been written by leading academics, practitioners and activists in the field.

This publication examines best practices in public sector service delivery through a comparative analysis of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. The book, which will be of interest to scholars, decision makers and informed members of the public, concludes with a general model of strategic governance.

This paper presents findings from a module in the HSRC's 2006 South African Social Attitudes Survey that was designed by the Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy at the University of Oxford. Respondents were asked for their views on issues relating to the importance of work and the relationship between social grants and employment. The findings demonstrate a strong attachment to the labour market among the unemployed, support for more financial assistance for poor people including those who are unable to find work, and no evidence that social grants in South Africa foster a 'dependency culture'.

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) nations have become a strong engine of South-South Cooperation. The most significant outcome of the emergence of BRICS is the shift they have brought to the balance of power in global affairs.

City of Broken Dreams brings the global debate about the urban university to bear on the realities of South African rust-belt cities through a detailed case study of the Eastern Cape motor city of East London, a site of significant industrial job losses over the past two decades.

This profile provides an understanding of the main developmental and institutional challenges that confront southern Africa. The authors highlight the political, economic and social conditions in the region and identify common trends. The paper also reviews the progress made in the promotion of greater regional integration.

Images of striking COSATU workers, singing, marching and toyi-toying are a familiar sight for most South Africans and external observers of the country's politics. Similarly, COSATU's feisty general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi has become a household name, commanding respect and admiration among millions and loathing and fear among his enemies and those who are on the receiving end of his fiery political oratory. But how much do we know about what COSATU workers think about their workplaces, their unions, politics and the economy? What influences COSATU members' decisions to vote for a particular political party? Why has COSATU women members' support for the ANC declined? Why do some union members think there may be good reasons to assault non-strikers and scabs during strikes? What do unionised workers think of service delivery and what role did they play in the recent spate of service delivery protests? These and many other questions are examined in this volume which is based on the fourth run of the COSATU Workers' Survey conducted a few months before the 2009 elections. Contrary to stereotypes reproduced in the media and other public platforms which portray trade union members as a herd led by all-powerful 'union bosses', A Contested Legacy deftly presents a picture of a multifaceted organisation whose members are steeped in the traditions of internal democracy, leadership accountability and mandated decision-making. But these traditions are not static. They are fiercely contested among different groups and categories of union members women and men; migrant and urban workers; skilled and unskilled workers; blue collar and white collar and professional workers; permanent and part-time and casual workers.

The contemporary notion of the ‘creative city’, connected to present-day regimes of digital urban creative (or smart) cities in neoliberal, city branding, place marketing, digital marketing nomads, is a dominant trope of international progress and development, and there has been a surprisingly positive, yet often uncritical uptake of the discourses of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Buzz words abound in city studies such as resilience, sustainability, innovation, and inequality, yet these are all too often framed within scientific, technical and political economy debates. As editors, we are interested in how these issues seldom appear as carefully considered questions integrated with scholarship around the social and especially the aesthetic.