Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2016): Journal of Higher Education in Africa

2 - Revisiting the Postmodern Condition of a Higher Education Landscape: South Africa’s Higher Education Epochal Archive, 1999–2002

https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v14i1.1506
Mashudu Churchill Mashige
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1820-4573
Chaka Chaka
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3558-4141

Corresponding Author(s) : Mashudu Churchill Mashige

MashigeMC@tut.ac.za

Journal of Higher Education in Africa, Vol. 14 No. 1 (2016): Journal of Higher Education in Africa

Abstract

This article problematizes and critiques the change scenario which unfolded in the South African higher education (HE) landscape over the period 1999–2002. It locates its discussion and analysis within an ideo-critical discourse-interpretive analytics framework. It also employs the following conceptual tools: chaos theory; liminality; negative knowledge; manageri- alism and corporatism; marketization and technologization of discourses; and postmodernity and globalization. Against this backdrop, the article first argues that the change scenario, which occurred in some of South Africa’s higher education institutions (HEIs) during this period, was predicated on the aforesaid conceptual devices. Second, it contends that most of South Africa’s HEIs during that historical juncture were being inveigled into a postmodern condition, even though they were still epicentres of academic modernity. In the light of all this, the article counter-argues that the post- modern intervention in the HE system as driven by the state only served to worsen the difficulties faced by many of the then historically disadvantaged institutions (HDIs) which were part of this system. Finally, the article ends by offering some of the prospects that were in the offing for South Africa’s HEIs at that time.

Keywords

South African higher education negative knowledge managerialism marketization corporatism
Mashige, M. C., & Chaka, C. (2022). 2 - Revisiting the Postmodern Condition of a Higher Education Landscape: South Africa’s Higher Education Epochal Archive, 1999–2002. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v14i1.1506
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX
References
  1. Aldridge, A., 1998, ‘Habitus and cultural capital in the field of personal finance’,Sociological Review 46 (1): 1–23.
  2. Atkin, T. and Hassard, J., 1996, ‘Liberation from Within? Organizational Implica- tions of Irigaray’s Concept of ‘Residue’, in D.M. Boje, R.P.
  3. Gephart and T.J. Thatchenkery, eds, Postmodern Management and Organization Theory, London: Sage Publications.
  4. Badat, S., 2001, ‘Higher Education Transformation and the “Public Good”’, a sym- posium paper presented at the Globalisation and Higher Education: Views from the South conference, 27–29 May, Cape Town.
  5. Bain, W., 1995, ‘The Loss of Innocence: Lyotard, Foucault, and the Challenge of Postmodern Education’, in M. Peters, ed., Education and the Postmodern Condition, London: Bergin & Garvey.
  6. Bible and Culture Collective, 1995, The Postmodern Bible, London: Yale University Press.
  7. Blaxter, I., Hughes, C. and Tight, M., 1998, ‘Writing on academic careers’, Studies in Higher Education 23 (3): 281–95.
  8. Boudourides, M.A., 1995, ‘Chaos and critical theory’. Available at http://www.math. upatras.gr./~mboudour/articles/cct.html, accessed 24 April 2011.
  9. Cetina, K.K., 1996, ‘The Care of the Self and Blind Variation: The Disunity of Two Leading Sciences’, in P. Galison and D.J. Stump, eds, The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  10. Cherryholmes, C.H., 1988, Power and Criticism: Poststructural Investigations in Education, New York: Teachers College Press.
  11. City Press, 1999a, 3 October, p.15.
  12. City Press, 1999b, 17 October, p.17, 26. City Press, 1999c, 10 October, p.18.
  13. City Press, 1999d, 31 October, p.2, 19.
  14. Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, 1987, London: Harper Collins Publishers.
  15. Crook, S., Pakulski, J. and Waters, M., 1992, Postmodernization: Change in Advanced Society, London: Sage Publications.
  16. Chouliaraki, L and Fairclough, N., 1999, Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  17. Daily Dispatch, 1999a, 11 June, p.12. Daily Dispatch, 1999b, 15 May, p.2.
  18. Daily Dispatch, 1999c, 20 September, p.5, 20. Daily Dispatch, 1999d, 14 October, p.15.
  19. Davidson, A. I., 1986, ‘Archaeology, Genealogy, Ethics’, in D.C. Hoy, ed., Foucault: A Critical Reader, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  20. Dreyfus, H.L. and Rabinow, P., 1986, ‘What is Maturity? Habermas and Foucualt on “What is Enlightenment?”’, in D.C. Hoy, ed., Foucault: A Critical Reader, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  21. Education White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education, 1997, Department of Education, Pretoria.
  22. Fairclough, N., 1989, Language and Power, London: Longman. Fairclough, N., 1992, Discourse and Social Change, London: Longman.
  23. Fairclough, N., 1995, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language,London: Longman.
  24. Fairclough, N., 1996, ‘Technologisation of Discourse’, in C.R. Caldas-Coulthard and M. Coulthard, eds, Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Routledge.
  25. Fairclough, N., 2000, Language and Power (2ⁿᵈ edition), New York: Longman.
  26. Flood, R.L., 1991, ‘Redefining Management and Systems Sciences’, in R.L. Flood and M.C.
  27. Jackson, eds, Critical Systems Thinking: Directed Readings, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  28. Foucault, M., 1983, ‘The Subject and Power’, in H.L. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, eds,Michel
  29. Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  30. Giroux, H.A., 1983, Theory & Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition, New York: Bergin & Garvey.
  31. Hart, W.A., 1997, ‘The quality mongers’, Journal of Philosophy of Education 31 (2): 295–308.
  32. Hayles, N.K., 1990, Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  33. Herwitz, D., 1999, ‘Postmodernists of the South: an essay in philosophical journalism’,South African Journal of Philosophy 18 (1): 18 –41.
  34. Higher Education Act No 101, 1997, Republic of South Africa Government Gazette, No. 18515, Vol. 390.
  35. Jay, G.S., 1994, ‘Knowledge, power, and the struggle for representation’, College English 56 (1): 9–29.
  36. Kiziltan, M.U., Bain, W.J. and Cañizares, M.A., 1990, ‘Postmodern condition: rethin- king public education’, Educational Theory 40 (3): 351–69.
  37. Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English, 1981, London: Longman.
  38. Lyotard, J.-F., 1984, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (translated by G. Bennington and B. Massumi), Minnneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  39. Lyotard, J-F. and Thebaud, J.-L., 1989, Just Gaming, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  40. Mail & Guardian, 1998, 23–29 October, p.40. Mail & Guardian, 1999a, 17–22 September, p.22.
  41. Mail & Guardian, 1999b, ‘A Supplement to Mail & Guardian’, 17–22 September. Mills, S., 1995, Feminist Stylistics, London: Routledge.
  42. Muller, J., Cloete, N. and Badat, S., eds, 2001, Challenges of Globalisation: South African Debates with Manuel Castells, Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman and The Centre for Higher Education.
  43. Nuye , A.T., 1995, ‘Lyotard and Rorty on the Role of the Professor’, in M. Peters, ed.,Education and the Postmodern Condition, London: Bergin & Garvey.
  44. Olssen, M. and Peters, M.A., 2005, ‘Neo-liberalism, higher education and the know- ledge economy: from the free market to knowledge capitalism’, Journal of Education Policy 20 (3): 313–45.
  45. Peters, M., 1992, ‘Performance and accountability in “post-industrial society”: the crisis of British universities’, Studies in Higher Education 17 (2): 123–39.
  46. Peters, M., 1995, ‘Legitimation Problems: Knowledge and Education in the Postmo- dern Condition’, in M. Peters, ed., Education and the Postmodern Condition, London: Bergin & Garvey.
  47. Peters, M., Marshall, J. and Parr, B., 1993, ‘The marketization of tertiary education in New Zealand’, Australian Universities’ Review 36: 34–39.
  48. Peters, T., 1987, Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for Management Revolution, New York: Knopf.
  49. Phillipson, R., 1998, ‘Globalising English: are linguistic human rights an alternative to linguistic imperialism?’, Language Sciences 20 (1): 101–12.
  50. Planting, S., 1999, ‘Connected and making choices whenever you are: convergence of industries is leading to new world order’, Financial Mail 155 (7): 114.
  51. Preece, J., 1998, ‘Foucault’s institutional power modes: an analysis of the interde- pendent relations between power and language in Continuing Education Depart- ment documents’, South African Journal of Higher Education 12 (2): 79–89.
  52. Progogine, I. and Stengers, I., 1984, Order out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature, New York: Bantam Books.
  53. Purkis, J. and Bowen, J., 1997, ‘Introduction: The Masks of Anarchy’, in J. Purkis and J. Bowen, eds, Twenty-First Century Anarchism: Unorthodox Ideas for a New Millennium, London: Cassell.
  54. Rassool, N., 1998, ‘Postmodernity, cultural pluralism and the nation-state: problems of language rights, human rights, identity and power’, Language Sciences 20 (1): 89–99.
  55. Roberts, P., 1998, ‘Education and the postmodern condition’, Journal of Further and Higher Education 22 (2): 231–34.
  56. Sarangi, S. and Slembrouck, S., 1996, Language, Bureaucracy and Social Control, London: Longman.
  57. Sawicki, J., 1991, Disciplining Foucault: Feminism, Power and the Body, New York: Routledge.
  58. Shrivastava, M., 1999, ‘Globalization and Democracy: Reconciling Economic and Political Consolidating Democracy in South Africa’, paper presented at the Inter- national Conference on Consolidating Democracy in South Africa, 18–20 August.
  59. Smart, B., 1985, Michel Foucault, Sussex: Ellis Horwood.
  60. Smart, B., 1992, Modern Conditions, Postmodern Controversies, London: Routledge. Sowetan, 1999a, 12 October, p.10.
  61. Sowetan, 1999b, 3[?] July, p.23.
  62. Sowetan, 1999c, 13 October, p.66.
  63. Sunday Times, 1999, 26 September, p.1.
  64. Ströh, U., 1998, ‘Communication management in a millennium of chaos and change’,Communicare 17 (2): 16–41.
  65. The Star,1999a, 16 August.
  66. The Star, 1999b, 30 November, p.11.
  67. Tjeldvoll, A., 1998–99, ‘The service university in the global marketplace’, European Education 30 (4): 5–19.
  68. Tyler, W., 1999, ‘Pedagogic Identities and Educational Teform in the 1990s: The Cultural Dynamics of National Curricula’, in F. Christie, ed., Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes, London: Cassell.
  69. Usher, R. and Edwards, R., 1994, Postmodernism and Education, London: Routledge. Van Dijk, T.A., 1993, ‘Principles of critical discourse analysis’, Discourse & Society 4 (2): 249–83.
  70. Van Dijk, T.A., 1996, ‘Discourse, Power and Access’, in C.R. Caldas-Coulthard and M. Coulthard, eds, Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Routledge.
  71. Verwey, S., 1998, ‘The age of communication: a new organisational paradigm for the new millennium’, Communicare 17 (2): 1–15.
  72. Wodak, R., 1996, Disorders of Discourse, London: Longman.
Read More

Author Biographies

Mashudu Churchill Mashige

Department of Applied Languages, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.

Chaka Chaka

Associate Professor, Department of English Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria.

Download
PDF
Statistic
Read Counter : 409 Download : 73

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.