Education, Economy and Society

Unisa Press

Author:	Salim Vally and Enver Motala
ISBN:	978-1-86888-758-3
Number of pages:	292
Contact:	Business Section 012 4293515/ 3448
How to buy:	Business Section 012 429 3515/ 3448

This book is not available in electronic format

About the book

Education, Economy and Society is a compelling and comprehensive antidote to the misconstrued nature of the relationship between education and society. It provides a constructive critique of conventional discourses but also alternative approaches to understand the connections between education and the triple scourge of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

Against a tendency to reduce the skills discourse to narrow economic ends, the contributors passionately argue that education finds its value and purpose in a focus on social justice, transformation and democratic citizenship. The joy of education is to capture human imaginations and unleash their creativity towards a more humane and compassionate society.

Here is a rich resource for educators, policy developers, trade unionists, and trainers to explore possibilities for a new pedagogy in post-school education and training through empirical research on skills, technology and issues of employment on the shop floor, critical analysis of the youth wage subsidy and workers’ education. The book will appeal to a wide audience including students and academics in the fields of industrial sociology; economics; adult education; further education and training; and those in youth development.

Education, Economy and Society “makes an impressive critique of conventional wisdom – that the promise of job creation, addressed through the greater supply of skills, can resolve the most intractable of social problems. The book argues persuasively that what is needed is a radical conceptualisation of the relationship between education, training and society in the interests of the marginalised, the poor and the working class.” – Prof Linda Cooper.

Table of content

Foreword Preface About the contributors Abreviations and acronyms

Chapter 1 ‘NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES’: Rethinking the Relationship between Education, Skills and Employment Enver Motala and Salim Vally
Chapter 2 EDUCATION AND ECONOMY: Demystifying the Skills Siscourse Salim Vally and Enver Motala
Chapter 3 UNIVERSITIES AND THE ‘KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY’ Neville Alexander
Chapter 4 GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES: Employability, Responsiveness, and the Reform of the College Sector Volker Wedekind
Chapter 5 BUILDING A TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY in Vocational Education Ivor Baatjes, Uthando Baduza and Anthony Tolika Sibiya
Chapter 6 SKILLS? WHAT SKILLS? JOBS? WHAT JOBS? An Overview of Research into Education/Labour Market Relationships Stephanie Allais and Oliver Nathan
Chapter 7 DEBATING THE NEXUS of Education, Skills and Technology in the Age of Lean Production: A Case Study of the ArcelorMittal Vanderbijlpark Plant Mondli Hlatshwayo
Chapter 8 SKILLS, JOBS AND DECEPTION: Examples from the South African Workplace Britt Baatjes
Chapter 9 ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF EDUCATION: Reflections on Unemployment, the ‘Skills Gap’ and ‘Zombie Economics’ John Treat
Chapter 10 THE YOUTH WAGE SUBSIDY in South Africa: Employment, Skills and ‘Churning’ Niall Reddy
Chapter 11 EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE and the Struggle for Recognition: Human Dignity and the Recognition of Prior Learning Elana Michelson
Chapter 12 (RE)CLAIMING WORKERS’ EDUCATION Sheri Hamilton
Chapter 13 SKILLS DEVELOPMENT in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Issues, Arguments and Contestations

Siphelo Ngcwangu Index