63 New projects Changing the narrative on economic rights In partnership with the Centre for Economic and Social Rights, the CSC will be embarking on a new project concerned with thinking through how economic rights can be framed as human rights in pursuit of contributing towards a radical rethinking of economic power and economic systems. This project will focus on supporting interventions linked to narrative change around economic rights within campaigns led by social justice organisations. The project will unpack the existing narrative landscape on economic rights and contribute towards initiatives on building new narratives. This project is funded by the Open Society Foundation. Transforming labour statistics for the 4IR economy It is well-established that the world of work has changed and is in the process of further transformation. Various forms of non-standard work have been growing for many years – from labour broking, outsourcing and zero hours contracts to new forms of work in the platform economy. Much of this work is precarious in nature raising significant challenges for a society as unequal as ours. Yet our labour statistics have failed to keep abreast of these new developments and can often provide very limited information about the nature of informal and precarious work. A joint initiative between the CSC and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, will attempt to address this gap by piloting a survey that can measure formal and informal work. The aim of this project is to provide evidence on how employment data beyond the formal labour market can be captured and use this to contribute to discussions with policy makers and academics on how labour market data can be better captured in an increasingly informal and precarious labour market. Palaeo-Research Institute (P-RI) 5 year Strategic review This year, the P-RI was subjected to a 5-year strategic review. The self-review process started in the beginning of the year and the report was presented to the review committee in November 2021. The external appraisal process was also concluded in the same month. While we have yet to receive formal evaluation response from the URC, general verbal feedback from the review was positive. Research 2021 stands out as an exceptional year with publications in Cell and Science, and two each in Nature and PNAS. We published 74 papers in ISI indexed journals 16 (30%) of which are in journals with impact factors greater or equal to 4. We produced 24.24 DHET Units which translates to R2 424 000 for UJ coffers We have had publications in such high-impact journals every year, which we consider to be promising for a new research entity with a relatively small capital footprint at UJ. Teaching We are developing UJ’s capacity to offer small-scale, sustainable higher education training in the palaeosciences by providing a student-centred learning environment for post-graduate research and selected under-graduate courses that aim to equal international standards in field-related education. In 2021 our excellence in P-RI under-graduate teaching has been recognised by the nomination of Dr Vilakazi for the Students’ Choice Award nomination, Faculty of Humanities Teaching Award. Conferences This year the P-RI hosted the international 14th Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG) Meeting via Zoom (Figure 1). The Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG) is an official Working Group of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) established in 2000. This was the first time the WBRG was hosted by an African institution. The conference was a major success; it attracted 35 speakers and over 100 attendees from over 24 countries and ran without a single technical glitch. Prestigious Awards This year Dr Nonny Vilakazi and Dr. Dominique Gommery (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris, CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle & Sorbonne Université) the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History and the University of Johannesburg Geology Department who constitute the Bolt’s Farm Research team were awarded one of only six Franco-African ‘Tremplin’ prizes by the French Academy of Sciences. This prize is a scientific award for research excellence executed through research cooperation between the French and South African teams.
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