Ari Sitas
Encyclopedia
Ari Sitas is a South African sociologist, writer, dramatist and civic activist.
at the University of the Witwatersrand
in Johannesburg
and was one of the founder members of the celebrated Junction Avenue Theatre Company. In 1978 he received the Olive Schreiner
Award for his play Randlords and Rotgut, and in 1981 won an award for his video Howl at the Moon. He completed his PhD
on the emergence of a social movement of trade union workers on the East Rand under the supervision of Eddie Webster and David Webster
(who was assassinated by the Apartheid regime). After a number of years of part-time jobs and creative and political activism he was employed in 1982 by the University of Natal
, Durban
. Since then, Durban, despite his travels, has remained his spiritual and material home. Based at the Industrial Organizational and Labour Studies (IOLS) department, he became a pivotal intellectual in the anti-apartheid struggle and worked actively with trade unions and community organizations. He was key to the explosion of cultural movements and organizations in the late Apartheid period and was one of the most important leaders in negotiations leading to a transitional cultural dispensation, and has been recognized as both one of the most defining poets of his own generation and a creative though quite unorthodox sociologist.
In May 2009 he joined the University of Cape Town as a Professor in the Department of Sociology.
and pointed exposition. Most of his early essays are all about the emergence of an anti-apartheid
labour movement and its creativity. His experimental text “Theoretical Parables” (2004) is both a critique of post-modernism and a celebration of language and narrative. His main argument is that to construct a sociology of “civic virtue” one has to theorize “with” rather than “about” people and therefore the use of parables that are embedded in popular cultures is presented as a way into co-theorizing. It has its devoted supporters and detractors. What has received attention is his notion that there is always an asymmetry between institutions and their subjects and an ever-present recoiling and refracting agency
in people: a source of creativity, dissonance and resistance. As a president-elect of the South African Sociological Association and a past executive of the International Sociological Association
he has penned a number of innovative essays on the tasks and role of sociology in South Africa and the South.
and its jazz-like crescendos to his latest The RDP Poems (2004) with its stripped-to-the bone lines. The most demanding is his Slave Trades (2000) which is a panoramic reconstruction of Arthur Rimbaud
’s Ethiopian years. His creativity like his sociology is marked by collaborations with some of the most important contemporary artists of the avant-garde and of the popular arts: William Kentridge
, Ramolao Makhene, Ingoapele Mondingoane, Alfred Qabula, Jurgen Bräuninger
, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Omar Badsha
and many, many others.
He is of the left
and has been described as a democratic socialist, a neo-Gandhian and a non-reductionist Marxist – both a dreamer and a doer.
Background
Sitas studied sociology and political philosophyPolitical philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
at the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
and was one of the founder members of the celebrated Junction Avenue Theatre Company. In 1978 he received the Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883 for the bold manner in which it dealt with some of the burning issues...
Award for his play Randlords and Rotgut, and in 1981 won an award for his video Howl at the Moon. He completed his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
on the emergence of a social movement of trade union workers on the East Rand under the supervision of Eddie Webster and David Webster
David Webster (anthropologist)
David Webster was a social anthropologist in South Africa who was murdered by covert forces of the Apartheid state.-Life:...
(who was assassinated by the Apartheid regime). After a number of years of part-time jobs and creative and political activism he was employed in 1982 by the University of Natal
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
, Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
. Since then, Durban, despite his travels, has remained his spiritual and material home. Based at the Industrial Organizational and Labour Studies (IOLS) department, he became a pivotal intellectual in the anti-apartheid struggle and worked actively with trade unions and community organizations. He was key to the explosion of cultural movements and organizations in the late Apartheid period and was one of the most important leaders in negotiations leading to a transitional cultural dispensation, and has been recognized as both one of the most defining poets of his own generation and a creative though quite unorthodox sociologist.
In May 2009 he joined the University of Cape Town as a Professor in the Department of Sociology.
Early work
His PhD work and a number of defining essays show a sense for qualitative researchQualitative research
Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...
and pointed exposition. Most of his early essays are all about the emergence of an anti-apartheid
Anti-Apartheid Movement
Anti-Apartheid Movement , originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organization that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's Blacks....
labour movement and its creativity. His experimental text “Theoretical Parables” (2004) is both a critique of post-modernism and a celebration of language and narrative. His main argument is that to construct a sociology of “civic virtue” one has to theorize “with” rather than “about” people and therefore the use of parables that are embedded in popular cultures is presented as a way into co-theorizing. It has its devoted supporters and detractors. What has received attention is his notion that there is always an asymmetry between institutions and their subjects and an ever-present recoiling and refracting agency
Action theory (philosophy)
Action theory is an area in philosophy concerned with theories about the processes causing willful human bodily movements of more or less complex kind. This area of thought has attracted the strong interest of philosophers ever since Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics...
in people: a source of creativity, dissonance and resistance. As a president-elect of the South African Sociological Association and a past executive of the International Sociological Association
International Sociological Association
International Sociological Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences...
he has penned a number of innovative essays on the tasks and role of sociology in South Africa and the South.
Work on the ethics of reconciliation
Recently he has begun to work on the question of the ethics of reconciliation: drawing on the South African experience he has carried out a pioneering work in the context of Cyprus. The study focused on the experiences, historical and contemporary, of two generations – fifty-year-olds who were in the prime of their youth in the early 1970s and their “children” who were born after 1974. The study he conducted, as well as his interventions, marked a paradigm shift on Cypriot sociological thinking, as well as peace thinking in general: whilst recognising that “ethnicity matters”, it contextualises it but most importantly it relativises this particular “hard variable” as one in six. This allows for a shift forward the debate on the institutional, structural and process-related factors across and beyond an essentialised and reductionist notion of ethnic community. Based on observations the only ‘hard variables’ that were found to be significant were class/stratification; ethnicity; gender; age; religion and refugee status. In terms of the ‘softer’ and ‘experiential variables’ – what seemed very significant were consumption of cultural, media-linked and symbolic goods; educational experiences; civic involvement; contact with and exposure to cultural ‘others’ and traumatic experiences of war and violence. The study argues that the distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ variables is important in sociological work. The ‘hard’ variables denote those situations that people can do very little about, i.e. they are born in or are defined by them. The ‘soft’ variables are experiential and involve degrees of choice, personality and social character. The full potential of this sort of thinking is yet to be realised: we can begin to deconstruct ‘essentialised’ and ‘ethnicised’ categories on social thinking about the division of Cyprus that offers a better understanding on the potential for both resolution of the problem and societal reconciliation. Sitas went on to produce a groundbreaking theoretical piece on the ethics of reconciliation that was recently published in South Africa.Poetry
Apart from his plays and dramatic collaborations Sitas has been celebrated as a poet. His first collection of poetry met with critical acclaim, and was followed with a collection experimenting with musical form which was included in the anthology, Essential Things. His poetry is demanding- from the exuberant collection of poems in Tropical Scars (1989) with its surreal (and political) vision of DurbanDurban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
and its jazz-like crescendos to his latest The RDP Poems (2004) with its stripped-to-the bone lines. The most demanding is his Slave Trades (2000) which is a panoramic reconstruction of Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
’s Ethiopian years. His creativity like his sociology is marked by collaborations with some of the most important contemporary artists of the avant-garde and of the popular arts: William Kentridge
William Kentridge
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two...
, Ramolao Makhene, Ingoapele Mondingoane, Alfred Qabula, Jurgen Bräuninger
Jürgen Bräuninger
Professor Jürgen Bräuninger is a South African composer.Jürgen Bräuninger studied at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart with Ulrich Süsse and Erhard Karkoschka and at San Jose State University, California, with Allen Strange and Dan Wyman. He has contributed to films such...
, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Omar Badsha
Omar Badsha
Omar Badsha is one of South Africa's foremost documentary photographers, artists, political and trade union activists and an historian. He is an award winning artist and photographer and has exhibited extensively in South Africa and internationally....
and many, many others.
He is of the left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
and has been described as a democratic socialist, a neo-Gandhian and a non-reductionist Marxist – both a dreamer and a doer.
Select bibliography
- Voices that reason, by Ari Sitas ISBN 1868882780
- Black Mamba Rising: South African Worker Poets in Struggle, by Alfred Temba Qabula, Mi S'dumo Hlatshwayo, Nise Malange, Ari Sitas ISBN 0869805304
- William Zungu: A Xmas Story, by Ari Sitas ISBN 0874863023
- Slave Trades, by Ari Sitas ISBN 0620250526