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Papers by Jonathan Schoots

Proceedings of the Fourth workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL 2023), 2023

This article offers an overview of the IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions Digital Archive, which ho... more This article offers an overview of the IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions Digital Archive, which hosts digitized texts and images of early isiXhosa newspapers and books from 1870-1914. The archive offers new opportunities for a range of research across multiple fields, and responds to debates around the importance of African intellectual traditions and their indigenous language sources in generating African social sciences which is contextually relevant. We outline the content and context of these materials and offer qualitative and quantitative details with the aim of providing an overview for interested scholars and a reference for those using the archive.

Proceedings of the Fourth workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL 2023), 2023

This paper showcases new research avenues made possible by applying computational methods to hist... more This paper showcases new research avenues made possible by applying computational methods to historical isiXhosa text. I outline a method for isiXhosa computational text analysis which adapts word frequency analysis to be applied to isiXhosa texts focusing on root words. The paper showcases the value of the approach in a study of emerging political identities in early African nationalism, examining a novel dataset of isiXhosa newspapers from 1874 to 1890. The analysis shows how a shared identity of ‘Blackness’ (Abantsundu and Abamnyama) dynamically emerged, and follows the impact of leading intellectuals as well as African voter mobilization in shaping communal political discourse.

Poetics, 2020

The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discu... more The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376-1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt. Our interest is in discovering both the semanticnetwork (article 1) and the factional-network (article 2) mechanics of this unexpected spillover from foreign-policy conflict into domestic revolt. Our central finding at the semantic level, in this first article, is that the spillover from war to revolution was mediated through the ceremonial and political-economy sides of religion. The methodology in this first article is to uncover the evolving narrative-network structures exhibited in Florentine political discussion-namely, changing inter-correlations among keywords about topics, through chapters and subplots. "Narrative-network analysis" for us means (a) uncovering changing topological portraits of how subplots interlink through time, and (b) discovering interlocking linguistic "hinges" through which new historical trajectories of subplot combinations become defined. In our case, the linguistic hinges between foreign policy and domestic revolt were rooted in religion. How the evolving issues and topics discussed in this article express themselves in domestic (and eventually violent) political conflict between the anti-war Parte Guelfa faction and the pro-war Civic 'faction' will be the subject of the second of this complementary pair of articles.

Development in Practice, 2015

ABSTRACT Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective wh... more ABSTRACT Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.

Poetics, 2020

Abstract We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately pri... more Abstract We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings. Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.

Social Dynamics, 2020

African intellectual traditions have much to offer social analysis, yet many historical African i... more African intellectual traditions have much to offer social analysis, yet many historical African intellectuals remain obscured by history and peripheral to contemporary academic work. This paper turns to the writings of the prolific amaXhosa intellectual S.E.K. Mqhayi, exploring his social and political thought, and considering how his work can be taken as part of an African sociological tradition. Focusing on Mqhayi’s use of history and biography as both the method and site of social analysis, the paper shows how Mqhayi developed a powerful vantage point on social transformations in order to create knowledge for African people under colonialism. The piece closes with a consideration of how Mqhayi and other African intellectuals writing outside of the academy might be integrated into teaching and researching an African sociological tradition.

Poetics (forthcoming in special issue on Socio-semantic networks), 2020

We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the... more We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings.
Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.

Poetics- Special Issue on Socio-Semantic Networks, 2019

The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discu... more The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376-1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt. Our interest is in discovering both the semantic-network (article 1) and the factional-network (article 2) mechanics of this unexpected spillover from foreign-policy conflict into domestic revolt. Our central finding at the semantic level, in this first article, is that the spillover from war to revolution was mediated through the ceremonial and political-economy sides of religion.

What areas of social life do our existing social theories allow us to understand, and what areas ... more What areas of social life do our existing social theories allow us to understand, and what areas of society
leave us baffled, unsettled and unable to respond? This paper will argue that we are in need of new
interpretive tools to allow us to understand the areas of our social world that have previously been
excluded from academic view by our colonial and apartheid history, and even by progressive liberal and
Marxist responses to apartheid. By first surveying the intellectual history of sociology’s emergence as a
discipline and its formations in South Africa, I will argue that we are unable to effectively think about
large areas of the African cultural and social world within our society.
In search of alternatives this paper will explore the work of the prolific early 20th c. intellectual, S.E.K.
Mqhayi. Mqhayi was a product of the complex social hybridity of his time, but oriented this hybridity
towards amaXhosa and African people. By looking at his various mediums of writing I will argue that
Mqhayi offers powerful insight into the complexities of the changing social world of his time and that his
methodologies—so different from those of academic sociology—give us powerful insights into an
African tradition which can revitalise contemporary social inquiry.

Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is bo... more Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.

Proceedings of the Fourth workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL 2023), 2023

This article offers an overview of the IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions Digital Archive, which ho... more This article offers an overview of the IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions Digital Archive, which hosts digitized texts and images of early isiXhosa newspapers and books from 1870-1914. The archive offers new opportunities for a range of research across multiple fields, and responds to debates around the importance of African intellectual traditions and their indigenous language sources in generating African social sciences which is contextually relevant. We outline the content and context of these materials and offer qualitative and quantitative details with the aim of providing an overview for interested scholars and a reference for those using the archive.

Proceedings of the Fourth workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL 2023), 2023

This paper showcases new research avenues made possible by applying computational methods to hist... more This paper showcases new research avenues made possible by applying computational methods to historical isiXhosa text. I outline a method for isiXhosa computational text analysis which adapts word frequency analysis to be applied to isiXhosa texts focusing on root words. The paper showcases the value of the approach in a study of emerging political identities in early African nationalism, examining a novel dataset of isiXhosa newspapers from 1874 to 1890. The analysis shows how a shared identity of ‘Blackness’ (Abantsundu and Abamnyama) dynamically emerged, and follows the impact of leading intellectuals as well as African voter mobilization in shaping communal political discourse.

Poetics, 2020

The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discu... more The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376-1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt. Our interest is in discovering both the semanticnetwork (article 1) and the factional-network (article 2) mechanics of this unexpected spillover from foreign-policy conflict into domestic revolt. Our central finding at the semantic level, in this first article, is that the spillover from war to revolution was mediated through the ceremonial and political-economy sides of religion. The methodology in this first article is to uncover the evolving narrative-network structures exhibited in Florentine political discussion-namely, changing inter-correlations among keywords about topics, through chapters and subplots. "Narrative-network analysis" for us means (a) uncovering changing topological portraits of how subplots interlink through time, and (b) discovering interlocking linguistic "hinges" through which new historical trajectories of subplot combinations become defined. In our case, the linguistic hinges between foreign policy and domestic revolt were rooted in religion. How the evolving issues and topics discussed in this article express themselves in domestic (and eventually violent) political conflict between the anti-war Parte Guelfa faction and the pro-war Civic 'faction' will be the subject of the second of this complementary pair of articles.

Development in Practice, 2015

ABSTRACT Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective wh... more ABSTRACT Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.

Poetics, 2020

Abstract We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately pri... more Abstract We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings. Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.

Social Dynamics, 2020

African intellectual traditions have much to offer social analysis, yet many historical African i... more African intellectual traditions have much to offer social analysis, yet many historical African intellectuals remain obscured by history and peripheral to contemporary academic work. This paper turns to the writings of the prolific amaXhosa intellectual S.E.K. Mqhayi, exploring his social and political thought, and considering how his work can be taken as part of an African sociological tradition. Focusing on Mqhayi’s use of history and biography as both the method and site of social analysis, the paper shows how Mqhayi developed a powerful vantage point on social transformations in order to create knowledge for African people under colonialism. The piece closes with a consideration of how Mqhayi and other African intellectuals writing outside of the academy might be integrated into teaching and researching an African sociological tradition.

Poetics (forthcoming in special issue on Socio-semantic networks), 2020

We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the... more We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings.
Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.

Poetics- Special Issue on Socio-Semantic Networks, 2019

The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discu... more The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376-1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt. Our interest is in discovering both the semantic-network (article 1) and the factional-network (article 2) mechanics of this unexpected spillover from foreign-policy conflict into domestic revolt. Our central finding at the semantic level, in this first article, is that the spillover from war to revolution was mediated through the ceremonial and political-economy sides of religion.

What areas of social life do our existing social theories allow us to understand, and what areas ... more What areas of social life do our existing social theories allow us to understand, and what areas of society
leave us baffled, unsettled and unable to respond? This paper will argue that we are in need of new
interpretive tools to allow us to understand the areas of our social world that have previously been
excluded from academic view by our colonial and apartheid history, and even by progressive liberal and
Marxist responses to apartheid. By first surveying the intellectual history of sociology’s emergence as a
discipline and its formations in South Africa, I will argue that we are unable to effectively think about
large areas of the African cultural and social world within our society.
In search of alternatives this paper will explore the work of the prolific early 20th c. intellectual, S.E.K.
Mqhayi. Mqhayi was a product of the complex social hybridity of his time, but oriented this hybridity
towards amaXhosa and African people. By looking at his various mediums of writing I will argue that
Mqhayi offers powerful insight into the complexities of the changing social world of his time and that his
methodologies—so different from those of academic sociology—give us powerful insights into an
African tradition which can revitalise contemporary social inquiry.

Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is bo... more Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.