South African universities and other institutions of higher education currently give preference to student applicants from designated "races". This paper argues that such a policy is morally indefensible. Although the imperative to redress injustice is endorsed, this, it is argued, does not entail that applicants may be favoured on the basis of…

This article examines the necessary shift to a sociality of meaning-making for university entrants if the goals of affirmative action within higher education, and the possible effects of its continued application, are to be fulfilled. Given that the practice of education in universities is meant to be the organisation of knowledge in ways that…

This is an initial and exploratory comment on the pilot phase of a study into adolescent female white identity and socio-sexual desire in post-apartheid South Africa. In the course of this pilot it became apparent that historical issues of race and racism are openly discussed in these girls' classrooms. Yet, despite these everyday interactions the…

South Africa's government requires information on apartheid race classification to implement and monitor racial redress. This has sparked resistance to race classification as a criterion for redress in higher education admissions. I argue that (1) jettisoning apartheid race categories now in favour of either class or "merit" would set…

Soudien (2009) states that affirmative action is not just about "inhabiting the university with people of colour; it is about appropriating the transcendence it makes possible as a consummately human and open-ended gift to humankind, and not, critically, a "white" gift". This engagement with Soudien's (2009) invitation to take…

In this article I draw on the Sarte's notion of "seriality" as theorized in his book "Dialectic of Reason" and as interpreted by Iris Marion Young. I argue that seriality can be used to escape the false essentialism and identity politics of race as a category for admissions to universities. A series is a social collective whose members are unified…

At the heart of the discussion in this special issue on race and affirmative action is the issue of whether race should be used as a category in admissions policies of South African universities. In my contribution I shall argue that there are no races. By race I mean the idea that skin colour (or other phenotypical features) associated with…

This paper is not a direct response to any particular contribution in the debate on the race-based affirmative action policy at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Rather, while I try to understand the essential line of argumentation of each of the UCT authors, my article points to the importance of equity and access as crucial factors in higher…

The compelling essays in this issue of the journal take on the often contentious and complex issue of racial affirmative action. I do not wish to repeat the arguments authors offer either in defence or against student admissions to a university on the grounds of race, (dis)advantage, class, gender, and so on. Rather, I wish to respond to a…

The purpose of this article is to attempt a surfacing of the assumptions and discourses surrounding the affirmative action debate in higher education in South Africa. The article draws attention to two dominant discourses--the first being that of the patriotic university, and the second being that of the global university. In terms of the first…

The article outlines how UCT's commitment to redress and diversity has officially guided the university's approach to admissions planning. In 2009 the Senate requested the Vice Chancellor to conduct a review of the admissions policy particularly to determine whether race continued to be an adequate proxy for disadvantage. This article analyses…

In the light of transformational discourses in higher education in South Africa, it has become necessary to pose the question--what is a university? Such a question requires that the idea of the university, as well as its role in society be reflected upon critically. This author contends that much of present day transformational discourse in…

In this article I contend that we cannot divorce affirmative action from issues about race and racism. Further, debates on affirmative action have to acknowledge the power of words/concepts/definitions and how they can be constructed and used for the purposes of domination or liberation. I argue that, in debating affirmative action, we have to…

A study of academic staff at a South African university of technology used questionnaires and interviews to understand perceptions and experiences related to inclusion and exclusion. Taking critical race theory as the theoretical framework, the study revealed high levels of anger amongst staff of different racial identities. Expressions of…

Our analysis of the phrase "social space" first of all concentrates on the modal or functional nature of the different aspects of reality, including the social and spatial aspects. Subsequently this leads to an analysis of the problem of modal analogies--one way in which an answer is given to the perennial philosophical problem…