By Prof Johan Zaaiman

“74,6% of sociology is bunk” is a metaphor for the question of the relevance of sociology. Sociology is internally divided and externally questioned. Aristotle introduced the concept of “phronesis” for the value-rationality of a society. Redefined for today, it can be used to explain how sociology can be orientated to context, practice, standpoint, intuition and practical wisdom. World society is experiencing a population boom nearing the point of stagnation, technological leaps and fears, political closures, and looming climate and environmental catastrophes. The lecture demonstrates how a phronesis sociology can be appropriate in such a daunting setting.

By Prof Marita Heyns

This address highlights five themes that each offers a unique perspective on the relevance of trust for South African work environments. It proposes a functional two-dimensional conceptualisation of trust, accompanied by a validated measurement instrument for the local context. The trust phenomenon is then examined in terms of selected proximal – and distal predictors and outcomes on different organisational levels. It also addresses the underlying facilitative processes and hidden trust profiles within study populations and demonstrate how they influence employee attitudes and work-related performance in diverging ways. Findings consistently confirm the relevance of trust for South African workplace settings.

By Prof Chantelle Gray

The amazing feats of large-scale AI models – such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion – tend to obscure the ways in which AI and machine learning amplify extant inequalities and discriminations. And while AI ethics is a serious attempt to ameliorate some of the worst effects of digitisation, it fails to address the effects that the underlying logics of extraction and optimisation through statistical monitoring are having on subjectivation processes. Although Gilles Deleuze died before digitisation had matured into what we are seeing today, he nevertheless – somewhat prophetically – described the transformation of persons into banks of information for marketing and data mining, which is to say the transformation of individuals into dividuals. Bernard Stiegler argues in his work that this transformation has disrupted our ways of knowing how to live, dream and be affected by the world. Drawing on the work of Gilbert Simondon, Stiegler grapples with how we can create different kinds of knowledge that produce reasons for living by making reasonable that which has become poisonous – and it is here that we find a curious link to ubuntu, a Nguni term translating as “personhood” or “humanness”, but that evokes the idea of the preservation and perseverance of be-ing as wholeness. Together, these theories can help us address the problem of care: how to take care of the digital situation we find ourselves in, how to take care of ourselves and of each other, and, in this final hour, how to take care of the world.

By Prof Liesl van der Merwe

Joyful experiences in music education are vital since joy motivates us to learn and reach out to others. A theory generated from qualitative Dalcroze research explains the antecedents, nature, transformative consequences and inhibiting conditions for joyful experiences in Dalcroze sessions. Dalcroze activities promote joy, since they require active engagement and social interaction and, in this way, facilitate progress. The nature of joy in the Dalcroze class is characterised by high energy and intense joy. These experiences promote open minds, other-embracing behaviour and improved musicianship, and they support individual and communal well-being.

By Prof Muhiya Lukumba

This lecture examines the theoretical foundation of public-private partnerships (PPP) and what such partnerships mean for infrastructure development in Africa, while simultaneously offering a broad understanding of the theories that underlie public-private partnerships. The debate on the theories can assist one in deciding which theory may be best applied to a particular PPP project. For any such project to be successful, its aim should therefore ideally be linked to the theories presented in this lecture. In addition, all the theories presented are linked to several PPP models. The ultimate success of a PPP relies on the different models the host government and the potential investor can use to implement a project.