In 2016
14 October 2016 - Anne Heffernan reviews The Road to Soweto for the LSE Africa Blog, saying that the book "could scarcely be more timely" in its analysis of student protests, worker activism, and revolution. "Without falling into a neat teleology, Brown makes a compelling case for how the road to Soweto was paved by the protest experiments of students and workers during the long decade before 1976, and he provides some hints at the end of his analysis of how that road has wound into contemporary South Africa."
7 August 2016 – Nicolas van de Walle reviews South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens alongside Thiven Reddy’s South Africa: Settler Colonialism and the Failures of Liberal Democracy for Foreign Affairs and draws attention to the “cautious optimism” of the book’s account of the ways in which protest shapes democracy.
29 July 2016 - Sashnee Moodley of Creamer Media interviews me for Polity SA about The Road to Soweto.
17 July 2016 – Carin Runciman reviews South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens for Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, suggesting that it “offers a novel philosophical and analytical base upon which to analyse post-apartheid contentious politics…”
16 June 2016 – The Road to Soweto is quoted in The Guardian’s story on the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.
16 June 2016 – The Jungewelt reviews The Road to Soweto in German.
15 June 2016 – Business Day publishes an opinion piece I’ve written on proposals to censor reporting of public protests on South Africa’s national broadcaster – “Hlaudi’s Take on June 16”.
13 June 2016 – Jeff Moloi interviews me on Algoa FM about The Road to Soweto.
8 June 2016 – OpenDemocracy publishes an article I’ve written, “Do South Africans Have the Right to Protest” – developing part of the argument of South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens to relate to recent developments.
10 May 2016 – Democracy in Africa publishes a brief introduction to the key themes of my new book, The Road to Soweto.
6 May 2016 - South Africa's Insurgent Citizens is reviewed by Prof J.E. Spence in International Affairs (Vol. 92: No. 3), alongside R.W. Johnson's recent book, How Long Will South Africa Survive? Prof Spence contrasts the two, and suggests that while "Johnson's is the work of a disillusioned liberal... Brown's [book] attempts to provide a basis for positive change and the creation of an egalitarian society ..." He also suggests that South Africa's Insurgent Citizens "deserves a wide readership..."
4 March 2016 - South Africa's Insurgent Citizens is reviewed for the Africa @ LSE blog. The book is described as "an exciting contribution for those looking for new ways of considering the question of 'insurgent citizens.'" The review concludes by suggesting that: "Brown opens the possibility for new thinking about the trajectory of South Africa’s political future...Insofar as South Africa continues to seek a way to escape its inequality and create an actually-just society, Insurgent Citizens offers a glimpse of both how that process is occurring, and how it might yet succeed."
1 March 2016 - A review in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries describes South Africa's Insurgent Citizens as "a provocative view of South African political society [that champions] a politics of disruption by, and behalf of, those left outside of a realm of oligarchic society." The review goes on to state that 'this is a well-written, sober analysis bolstered by extensive research the provides a perspective anyone interested in South Africa and its future should read... Highly recommended."
7 February 2016 - Richard Stupart provides an insightful - and challenging - analysis of how the focus of South Africa's Insurgent Citizens on the ideas of Rancière can be read alongside the ideas of Frantz Fanon in contemporary South Africa.
Read it here: http://www.richardstupart.com/2016/02/07/ranciere-v-fanon-south-africas-insurgent-citizens/
29 January 2016 - A mini review in Destiny Man magazine, calls South Africa's Insurgent Citizens "controversial" and "thought-provoking".
15 January 2016 - Jonathan Silver reviews South Africa's Insurgent Citizens for Urban Africa, calling it "compelling" and drawing attention to its "powerful accounts of street based forms of protest and contestation" as well as how it "draws the reader into the variety of ways in which communities, activists and civil society have found new, insurgent ways of challenging the existing order and of enacting the political..."
Read the review here: http://www.urbanafrica.net/review/14679/
In 2015
10 December 2015 - Estelle Sinkins interviews me for the Natal Witness, and relates the arguments of outh Africa's Insurgent Citizens to the ongoing #feesmustfall student movement shaking the country.
20 November 2015 - Liz Clarke, writing in the African Independent, reviews South Africa's Insurgent Citizens, calling it "provocative and intriguing..."
Read the review here: http://www.africanindy.com/chillout/book-review-disruptions-bring-hope-1394179
10 November 2015 - Writing in the Sunday Tribune, Liz Clark provides an overview of South Africa's Insurgent Citizens and its key arguments.
28 October 2015 - I'm interviewed by polity.org.za about the launch of South Africa's Insurgent Citizens, and the new South African politics.
21 October 2015 - A second edited extract from South Africa's Insurgent Citizens runs in The Con Mag, under the title "The Suspicion of Protestors".
Read the extract here: http://www.theconmag.co.za/2015/10/21/the-suspicion-of-protestors/
13 October 2015 - An edited extract from the Introduction to South Africa's Insurgent Citizens runs in the Business Day under the title "Citizens rewriting SA's narrative."
Read the extract here: http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2015/10/13/citizens-rewriting-sas-narrative
9 October 2015 - South Africa's Insurgent Citizens is officially launched in South Africa. Jacana Media publishes a press release that sums up the book's approach: "Politics is Alive and Well - If You Know Where to Look".
Read the release here: http://jacana.bookslive.co.za/blog/2015/10/09/politics-is-alive-and-well-if-you-know-where-to-look-julian-brown-argues-in-south-africas-insurgent-citizens/