AOSIS scholarly books

Making a mark

2025-11-04T09:59:21+02:00

During the 2022 centenary celebrations of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), it became strikingly clear that the rich history and societal contributions of the Wits School of Construction Economics and Management (SCEM) had remained largely undocumented. This revelation sparked a comprehensive effort to uncover and preserve the School’s legacy – its origins, evolutions and impacts on the South African and global construction industry.

While a handful of historical accounts had surfaced over the years – from JS Lewis’s 1953 retrospective and Monte Bryer’s 1976 faculty history, to Calderwood’s departmental reflection and Graeme Jay’s 2011 curriculum study – no complete narrative had yet captured the SCEM’s pivotal role in shaping Quantity Surveying and Building Science education in South Africa.

In this landmark volume, three scholars at Wits set out to fill that void. Drawing on University archives, interviews with influential alumni and academics, and a deep analysis of the SCEM’s engagement with professional councils and industry stakeholders, they offer a detailed and compelling portrait of the School’s contributions to higher education and the built environment industry.

This book stands as both a tribute to the visionary educators and students who shaped the SCEM and a vital record of Wits’ enduring and inculcating legacy in advancing knowledge, practice and transformation in the construction industry.

Artist or Imposter!

2025-11-10T08:46:15+02:00

This scholarly book aims to provoke a conscience-inducing disruption in arts teaching and learning practices within South African higher education. It advocates for a critical, humanising and compassionate pedagogy that responds to the daunting domestic realities faced by students – realities that were further intensified by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Through emancipatory pedagogy and arts-based methodologies, this book empowers research participants as co-researchers, granting them the capacity to create and share knowledge in contexts where their voices are often marginalised.

Employing an autoethnographic methodology that utilises reflective–reflexive, arts-based approaches, Artist or Imposter! Breaking barriers and ‘dancing’ the data explores art forms with humanising impulses as pedagogical interventions, opening fertile pathways toward embodied and empowering learning. It makes theoretical and epistemological contributions to new understandings of social constructivism in higher education, reframing pedagogy as a form of crisis-driven activism. In doing so, the authors invite open engagement with non-traditional and transdisciplinary methodologies, while also offering practical insights to strengthen higher education practices to support student well-being and academic success.

Challenging the guardianship of ‘unadulterated’ scientific research and rigid notions of disciplinary integrity, this book traverses methodological confines, defying and transcending dictated boundaries. It highlights the stereotypical negativity surrounding preconceived notions of epistemological paradigms and their constraining effect on research communities. By exposing how an overemphasis on epistemology can stunt intellectual freedom, the authors argue for more transformative research practices, where embodied practice and collaborative knowledge production provide new ways of understanding and navigating students’ lived experiences.

This book will be especially relevant for scholars and researchers in higher education, critical pedagogy and the humanities. Its unique combination of theoretical depth, methodological innovation and practical insight makes it especially relevant for academics seeking to rethink established paradigms, expand their methodological repertoire, and engage in scholarship that responds directly to the challenges of student well-being, equity and transformation.

A compendium on international trade in Lesotho

2025-11-10T08:44:51+02:00

International trade is a topic that is important for all states, regardless of their level of development. Trade can directly increase foreign exchange earnings and allow consumers to access desired foreign goods and services. Indirectly, trade potentially increases employment and improves technology (via spillover effects). It ultimately improves economic growth and enhances living standards. Conversely, trade can have adverse effects, especially when imports are high. Examples are jobs being outsourced, increased economic dependence, de-industrialisation in importing countries, as well as exposure to negative external shocks. Therefore, it is crucial to critically examine the multifaceted ways that international trade manifests in any economy. On this premise, this compendium interrogates various aspects of international trade in the context of Lesotho.

Although Lesotho is a small country, it is strategically located relative to South Africa, which gives it several trade advantages. The country is willing to engage in international trade and investment deals, and it is a member of several significant trade agreements that facilitate its integration into regional and global markets. Examples of these are the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area, and the Tripartite Free Trade Area, which combines the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), SADC and the East African Community.

This compendium highlights the implications of international trade on Lesotho’s historical, legal, political, social, geographical, and economic realities. Understanding these dimensions is crucial for scholars, policymakers, investors and international business firms, yet published research and data on Lesotho’s international trade remain very scarce. This book fills that gap and will also resonate with audiences interested in comparable economies beyond Lesotho’s borders.