AFAM News

In many countries managing and developing diversity is on the political and business agenda and has become an area of knowledge and practice in its own right. Yet all too often, diversity management and diversity research has been found to be US-centred, monoculturally infused and biased (e.g., Jonsen et al., 2011; Nishii & Ozbilgin, 2007). At the same time, we know that diversity and equality at work cannot be treated as a unifying concept, nor be interpreted uniformly across cultures and countries. This has also been highlighted, for example, by the former volumes on country perspectives on equal treatment and diversity, edited by Klarsfeld (2010) and Klarsfeld et al. (2014).

There is increasing interest in economic growth and sustainability in African countries (Africa Report, 2011). The escalation of social, political, and ecological problems on the continent since the end of the 20th century (Neff, 2007; Zoogah, 2013) has been accompanied by commensurate escalation in the continent’s potential to contribute demographically, politically, socially and economically to global prosperity (Africa Report, 2011). While environmental, social and economic performance of most African nations and companies are below the levels of other world regions, the continent has the youngest average age among all on the planet, and is a focus of global investment and development. As a result, the Agenda 2063 and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) seek not only to harness the large market size of Africa but also to establish mechanisms that enable African economies to create enabling environments that support vibrant businesses without harming people and the natural environment. African conceptualizations of prosperity itself can provide a template for innovative business and public policies that can shape new approaches to development for both the private and public sectors. Engagement of all sectors is critical to the achievement of economic goals, such as those expressed under AfCFTA (Ghadge et. al., 2019) and as the UN Sustainable Development Goals under the UN Global Compact. Private-sector organizations – including corporations and non-governmental agencies – working together with representatives from all levels of government -- highlight the important role of Africa in scaling sustainable solutions to the most pressing problems in the world today.

We are inviting doctoral students (and interested faculty) to a week-long, intensive social entrepreneurship doctoral seminar. Social entrepreneurship is a vitally important arena of scholarly research and teaching. Doctoral level training is needed to equip researchers in the core concepts and empirical findings of this emerging domain. This seminar involves two of the field’s leading scholars as co-teachers and provides an in-depth survey of recent social entrepreneurship scholarship and its theoretical background. It has been taught at different universities in the United States, including Harvard, and will now be offered for the first time in South Africa. More information about the seminar, in general, is available at https://sedocseminar.org

Program description

The informal economy, defined as business activities that occur outside of formal institutional boundaries but within the boundaries of informal institutions, is a massive force in the engine of the world economy, but it remains largely shrouded in secrecy and hidden from sight. The goal of our research program is to unveil entrepreneurial dynamics in the informal economy.

In collaboration with a local NGO, we will explore the role of non-market institutions in driving informal economic activity in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa. We will be working with and collecting both quantitative and qualitative data on all enterprises in a particular township. This will include novel sets of survey, visual, and geospatial data.