Taking theory seriously …

Abstract

Some years ago, one of us raised an abstract point with one of the denizens of South Africa’s policy community. The aim was not to expose the issue at hand to the rich array of thinking theoretically that has flourished in recent times – theory from the South, identity, feminism, environmentalism and the like. No. The intervention mildly critiqued the assumptions that lay behind the idea of regional security in the sub-continent. The dismissive response revealed a low threshold for the world of ideas – let alone, the act of theorising – in policy discourse. ‘The problem with you, Professor’, the expert opined, ‘is that the kind of question you always ask, doesn’t get us very far’. It hasn’t always been the case that the raising of ideas branded one as the philistine at an ambassador’s lunch-table where this particular encounter took place.