Nation Formation and Social Cohesion

Nation Formation and Social Cohesion
is the publication of a MISTRA research project that set out to examine
different interpretations and meanings that diverse social actors attach
to the calls and prospects for nation formation and social cohesion.
The publication links theories of nation formation and social cohesion
to actual practices, both focused on the attainment of a just society
founded on the irreducible equality of all its members on the one hand,
and the factors militating against achieving this, on the other.
Ethnographic research in four provinces provides the substance or
practice to the theoretical framing of the discourse. The study proceeds
by interrogating the theoretical suppositions of nation formation and
social cohesion and this serves as a starting point for a thorough
reflection on these two processes. Thus a synthesis, and not a
conceptual position is arrived at, where the interdependence of nation
formation and social cohesion, specifically for postcolonial societies,
(and South Africa in particular) can be interrogated effectively and
critically.

This publication, with contributors Andries Oliphant,
Yacoob Abba Omar, Joel Netshitenzhe, Leslie Dikeni, Shepi Mati, Vincent
Williams, Robert Gallagher and Feizel Mamdoo, is intended to add to the
debate and stimulate new thinking around the diffcult processes that are
being sought to build a nation in the 21st century.