Darwin’s Origin of Species [GK26][GK27](1859), despite its almost complete silence about human evolution, was the catalyst for widespread discussion and debate during the 1860s about the history and future of humanity; about slavery and the identity of the human ‘races’; and about competition and struggle in Victorian society. Three popular novels of the early 1860s – George Meredith’s Evan Harrington [GK28](1860), Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations [GK29](1860–61), and Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies [GK30](1862–63) – illustrate how quickly Darwin’s ideas were appropriated into fictions dealing with race and social class in the decade of the American Civil War, the Morant Bay Rebellion, and the Second Reform Bill. Although generally associated with literary realism, Darwin’s work may be better aligned with the new narrative form so popular in the 1860s: sensation fiction.

The historical apartheid dichotomy and its present-day effects in South Africa remain characterised by exclusion and inequality along racial lines, with specific reference to land access. While land redistribution efforts have sought to foster inclusion and equity, the narratives on landownership remain multi-dimensional. This study aimed to determine the underlining narrative themes and potential gaps in research regarding the landownership struggle in South Africa. The methodology includes a bibliometric review to identify keywords, clusters and research trends in relevant publications through VOSviewer (v1.6.17) software. Furthermore, a thematic analysis using NVivo 12 was applied to achieve the research aim. Four clusters were identified, including agricultural production, land reform, the rural economy and poverty reduction, with recent research focused on agricultural land, livelihoods and poverty alleviation. The findings highlighted the continuing inequality in landownership and a gap in research regarding the post-redistribution use of land. The chapter proposes a reimagining of urban planning in South Africa, Africa and the global south through identifying future research avenues in land redistribution to catalyse the equitable and productive utilisation of land. This includes research on the role of financial support mechanisms and political capacity in land redistribution interventions.

Chapter 3 addresses how those in the Love Jones Cohort discuss being Black and middle class, and how the growth of the Black middle class is causing a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots in the Black community. Chapter 3 explains that the tension engendered by this divide takes the form of expressing a degree of responsibility to the larger Black community. Cohort members discussed how gender is a central component of how they experience being Black and middle class. The Cohort were hesitant about explicitly incorporating their SALA status/lifestyle as a key aspect of how they perceived being Black and middle class. Instead, the impact of their SALA lifestyle on their middle-class status was made explicit in their discussions of their lifestyles, wealth decisions etc.

This chapter examines the case of Hong Kong from the perspective of internal self-determination. It provides two distinct images of Hong Kong: as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China which enjoys a high degree of autonomy (and therefore, internal self-determination); and as an entity which is struggling to achieve universal suffrage (i.e. denial of internal self-determination). The chapter argues that in the struggle for universal suffrage, the principle and language of internal self-determination can play a mixed role. It can help Hong Kong people to articulate their demands for democracy; but it can also heighten tensions with China. Whatever the case may be, engaging with the concept of internal self-determination will be unavoidable.

On the morning of Monday, 25 May 1964, following a ‘very pleasant, well organised and enjoyable’ flight, 38 Australian police stepped from their specially chartered Qantas Boeing 707, City of Brisbane, onto the tarmac at Nicosia International Airport, in the capital of Cyprus. It had been a long flight, ‘the longest [day] of my life’, wrote First Constable John Owens. Their landing had been delayed while the pilot ‘flew the length of the island several times’ waiting for the mist to lift. Finally on the ground at 7am, Owens recalled, ‘the Cyprus air was noticeably hot and moist – a marked contrast to the early morning frosts of Canberra, which we had left 24 hours before’.