Members of the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) publish widely. In addition to commissioned reports, we produce peer-reviewed academic journals and books, as well as popular materials.

The Labour Studies: Working Class Education Series

The Labour Studies: Working Class Education Series publishes texts generated for worker, popular and union education programmes and projects with which NALSU is involved. These include the annual Vuyisile Mini Winter Schools, and the short course programme on Policy, Theory and Research for Labour Movements. These texts are published online, as well as in hard copy, for broader distribution to unions and other movements, as well as labour service oganisations and labour studies institutions. 

• No. 1/ 2019: Reynolds, J. and van der Walt, L., eds. (2019). Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State. Working-Class Education Series, Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. A free copy can be downloaded here.
• No. 2/ 2022: Patel, Z. and van der Walt, L., eds., (2022). Building African Working-Class Unity: The Makhan Singh Memorial Lectures. Working-Class Education Series, Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa/ AwaaZ magazine, Nairobi, Kenya. Revised edition.  A free copy can be downloaded here.

Academic publications

NALSU has a growing list of academic publications, best accessed through our member’s own pages, listed under the “People” tab (or click here).

Books

The large volume of publications includes  academic books as sole authors or editors (the edited books also include chapters by the editors):  

• Johnson, D., Nieftagodien, N. and van der Walt, L., eds. (2022). Labour Struggles in Southern Africa 1919-1949: New Perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU). Pretoria: HSRC Press.
• Alfers, L, Chen, M, & Plagerson, S., eds. (2022). Social Contracts and Informal Workers in the Global South. London: Elgar.
• Helliker, K. and van der Walt, L., eds. (2022). Politics at a Distance from the State: Radical and African perspectives. Oakland: PM Press.
• Rogan, M., ed. (2019). Post-Schooling Educational Trajectories and the Labour Market in South Africa. Pretoria: HSRC Press.
• Midgley, J., Surender, R. and Alfers, L., eds. (2019). Handbook of Social Policy and Development. London: Elgar Publishing.
• Reynolds, J., Fine, B. and Van Niekerk, R., eds. (2019). Race, class and the post-apartheid democratic state. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
• Reynolds, J. (2018). Development planning in South Africa: Provincial policy and state power in the Eastern Cape. London: Zed Books.
• Helliker, K. and van der Walt, L., eds. (2018). Politics at a Distance from the State: Radical and African perspectives. London: Routledge.

Research Reports

Research Reports are longer publications that present the findings of NALSU research projects, collaborative initiatives or commissioned work. These reports are not subject to peer review.  In 2013, the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) released a report entitled Foundational overview of the Eastern Cape labour market, which drew on Census 2011 data, as well as administrative data gathered by the Departments of Labour and Public Works. A number of editions of an annual Eastern Cape labour market review, based on survey and administrative data, were released before the series was discontinued to accommodate the increasing volume of work on academic publications and project-based work.