Anxious radicals
SPRO-CAS and the Apartheid society
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4604228 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alf Stadler (0000-0001-9619-5508, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1975 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 102-108 |
| Publication date | 1975-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057077508707946 |
| OpenAlex | W2062437954 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
SPRO-CAS, the Study Project of Christianity in Apartheid Society, was established in 1969 to explore the possibilities and problems of creating a social order in South Africa based on the 'integrated thrusts of love and association' as an alternative to the apartheid society. The Project's work developed in two phases. SPRO-CAS I attempted an analysis of the South African situation, mainly in a series of 'commissions', while SPRO-CAS II tried to formulate strategies for producing change. During its four years of active existence, SPRO-CAS published nearly a dozen major reports for which the members of the commissions wrote something over a hundred preparatory papers. SPRO-CAS work extended beyond propaganda and analysis. It established the so-called Black Community Projects, the intention of which may be gauged from slogans like 'from Service to Action', 'From working with the poor to working with and under', 'From Whitemen working in Black communities to Blackmen working in Black communities'. In addition, under it aegis a publishing company, Ravan Press, was established and continues to publish engage poetry, novels and political analyses. The literature SPRO-CAS produced was polemical in intent, though it lacked a single direction. This makes it difficult to review without doing an injustice to some of the themes and positions adopted by individuals within it. Its amorphous political identity clouded the Project's work. The novelist Alan Paton argued that while he longed passionately for 'one common society', he did not think it profitable for SPRO-CAS to record 'passionate longings', nor should it attempt to provide a blueprint for an ideal society. Only a party could do that, and it was 'unthinkable' that it should behave like a party. Actually SPRO-CAS veered between recording passionate longings to preparing blueprints for an ideal society, and the fact that its former director, Peter Randall, fought the 1974 election as a Social Democrat may also have reflected an aspiration to constitute a party. Much of its published work was a debate involving impossibly diverse groups. It is perhaps indicative of the condition of the post-liberal fraction in South
Development economics · Economics · Environmental ethics · Political economy · Political science · Radical · Sociology · Chemistry · Legal Issues in South Africa · Philosophy · South African History and Culture
| Citations per year | 0.21 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2020 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |