ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some of the ambiguities surrounding the work of intellectuals in South Africa within the transition – a phase where conceptualizing an alternative future has become a growth industry. It explores the nature and role of critically engaged intellectual work in the present conjuncture, especially in relation to the tremendous demand for and the urgency of policy research which can be used for reconstructive purposes as well as for more short-term electioneering gains. The range of contradictions which beset intellectual work applies as much in the South African case and is likely to be accentuated within the transition. The acute ideological contestation within South African society about the legitimate guiding principles of the body politic, which effectively constitutes the history of that society, has posited a variety of social groupings against the claims and authority of those in power. The demands of the reconstructive agenda are beginning to shape the relations between intellectuals and other social agencies.
