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SUMMARY:Coal\, custom\, and constitution: worldly politics in contemporary
  KwaZulu-Natal\, South Africa - Thomas Cousins\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20191105T130000Z
DTEND:20191105T140000Z
UID:TALK127699@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peadar Brehony
DESCRIPTION:The HIV and demographic surveillance system of the Africa Heal
 th Research Initiative in northern KwaZulu-Natal\, South Africa\, is one o
 f the most comprehensive demographic surveillance sites in Africa. Within 
 its geographical boundaries lies the Tendele Coal Mine\, which since 2008 
 has been mining energy-dense anthracite for use in steel production around
  the world. The health surveillance site and mining operation are located 
 on communal land under customary authority which overlaps with municipal b
 oundaries\, and is surrounded by conservation parks and timber plantations
 . Efforts to secure mass access to treatment are adjacent to environmental
  activists’ efforts to stop the mining\; both are preceded by long-stand
 ing popular claims to restitution of land now under conservation. \n\nIn t
 his presentation\, I offer a description of a ‘social situation in moder
 n Zululand’\, a scene unfolding not far from Max Gluckman’s (1940) fam
 ous bridge scene\, in order reflect on a set of debates on the nature of p
 olitical authority\, ritual efficacy\, the place of the ancestors in conte
 mporary life\, as well as employment and ecology. These form the material 
 for bringing together two concepts\, worlds/worlding\, on the one hand\, a
 nd doubt or skepticism on the other. My hope is that these materials might
  provide a way to consider ordinary struggles to secure livelihoods and 
 ‘life itself’ in the minor spaces of rural northern eastern South Afri
 ca\, alongside structural transformations in political economy\, from clim
 ate skepticism and coal-based job creation to an emerging politics of auth
 oritarian populism and the re-enchantments of such figures as nature\, tri
 be\, and nation. 
LOCATION:Hardy Building 101 (first floor)\, Downing Site\, Cambridge
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