Commerce powered by 'National culture'? : an assessment of "Wear Local" campaigns as tools for reinvigorating the textile and clothing industries in Ghana and South Africa
- Authors: Darku, Esther Naa Dodua
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Textile industry -- Economic aspects -- Ghana Textile industry -- Economic aspects -- South Africa Sustainable development -- Ghana , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2172 , vital:27619
- Description: This study examines the use of ‘cultural’ imagery and messaging as a tool to revitalise crucial national industries. Specifically, it examines the use of Wear Local campaigns in Ghana and South Africa as strategies to rejuvenate their textile industries and to make them viable in an increasingly competitive global market. Conceptualising Wear Local campaigns as possessing both cultural and economic imperatives, this study highlights how both factors contribute to making products of Buy Local campaigns marketable by showing their importance as both cultural and economic products. Using a descriptive-evaluative design, the study adopted a triangulated research approach comprising a survey, key informant interviews and document analysis. Survey questionnaires were administered to a total sample of 308 respondents in Ghana and South Africa. The qualitative phase of the study involved 10 key informant interviews (comprising textile labour unions, clothing designers, and government officials in both countries) and document/documentary research. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while the qualitative data were analysed using interpretive approaches, such as content analysis. The results indicate significant uses of national cultural elements in the campaign messaging in both Ghana and South Africa, as well as notable differences in the ways in which these campaigns resonated with consumers in the two countries. For instance, cultural differences accounted for high popularity of the campaign in Ghana and low popularity in South Africa. Following from these findings, the study concludes that the discourse on Buy Local and Wear Local, and the use of national culture in commerce, must go beyond the question of efficacy to examine the conditions under which these campaigns can become an effective economic/market tool. The study makes an important contribution to the existing knowledge on national culture, national economy and globalisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Darku, Esther Naa Dodua
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Textile industry -- Economic aspects -- Ghana Textile industry -- Economic aspects -- South Africa Sustainable development -- Ghana , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2172 , vital:27619
- Description: This study examines the use of ‘cultural’ imagery and messaging as a tool to revitalise crucial national industries. Specifically, it examines the use of Wear Local campaigns in Ghana and South Africa as strategies to rejuvenate their textile industries and to make them viable in an increasingly competitive global market. Conceptualising Wear Local campaigns as possessing both cultural and economic imperatives, this study highlights how both factors contribute to making products of Buy Local campaigns marketable by showing their importance as both cultural and economic products. Using a descriptive-evaluative design, the study adopted a triangulated research approach comprising a survey, key informant interviews and document analysis. Survey questionnaires were administered to a total sample of 308 respondents in Ghana and South Africa. The qualitative phase of the study involved 10 key informant interviews (comprising textile labour unions, clothing designers, and government officials in both countries) and document/documentary research. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while the qualitative data were analysed using interpretive approaches, such as content analysis. The results indicate significant uses of national cultural elements in the campaign messaging in both Ghana and South Africa, as well as notable differences in the ways in which these campaigns resonated with consumers in the two countries. For instance, cultural differences accounted for high popularity of the campaign in Ghana and low popularity in South Africa. Following from these findings, the study concludes that the discourse on Buy Local and Wear Local, and the use of national culture in commerce, must go beyond the question of efficacy to examine the conditions under which these campaigns can become an effective economic/market tool. The study makes an important contribution to the existing knowledge on national culture, national economy and globalisation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Participation and paradoxes: community control of mineral wealth in South Africa's Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela communities
- Authors: Mnwana, Sonwabile Comfords
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Sciences)
- Identifier: vital:11952 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/526 , Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Description: Resource control as a form of community participation in the mineral economy has gained much recognition. One prevailing argument is that direct control of natural resources by local communities is an important precondition for equitable utilisation of the natural resource wealth, peaceful co-existence between mining corporations and indigenous communities, and congenial relations between local communities and the state. Studies have also shown that the absence of direct community control of mineral wealth remains a major factor in the communal resistance and socio-political conflict witnessed in the natural resource-endowed regions of countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, little is known about mineral resource control at the community level. Does community control necessarily translate to equity? How does local involvement in the mobilisation of mining royalties benefit different segments of the community? Indeed, how do different segments of the community “control” the wealth? What is the specific model adopted to engender broad-based community participation in the utilisation of mineral wealth – and does it matter? These theoretical and practical questions were the impetus for undertaking this study in the Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela – two platinum-rich ‘traditional’ communities in South Africa’s North West Province that have significant control over platinum resources in their territories. Utilising ethnographic data collected in the two study communities in 2008 and 2009, the thesis examines the character of community participation in platinum wealth utilisation; specifically, the conditions under which community participation promotes or hinders sustainable community development. The analysis uses a “three-dimensional participation ladder” conceptual scheme, based in part on Sherry Arnstein’s (1969) “ladder of citizen participation” and subsequent typologies of participation. Among the key findings of the thesis are that despite observed benefits, the interface of resource wealth and community development is fraught with tokenistic participation, elite-targeted grassroots anger, and local tensions – all linked to the contradictory nature of participation. The thesis further reveals that in some instances the challenge of platinum wealth-engendered community development tends to undermine existing customary and democratic spaces for participation, and that this is exacerbated by community-level issues such as poverty and inequality. The findings of the study compel a shift of analytical focus from conflict as an epiphenomenon of collective community exclusion and deprivation (as in the case of many natural-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere), to conflict as also resulting from collective community inclusion (in natural resource utilisation). At the policy level, the study generates insights that will, hopefully, assist mineral resource-endowed countries, such as South Africa, in dealing with the challenge of developing appropriate policy frameworks for regulating business and social partnerships between local communities and mining corporations, and within resource-rich communities themselves.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Mnwana, Sonwabile Comfords
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Sciences)
- Identifier: vital:11952 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/526 , Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Description: Resource control as a form of community participation in the mineral economy has gained much recognition. One prevailing argument is that direct control of natural resources by local communities is an important precondition for equitable utilisation of the natural resource wealth, peaceful co-existence between mining corporations and indigenous communities, and congenial relations between local communities and the state. Studies have also shown that the absence of direct community control of mineral wealth remains a major factor in the communal resistance and socio-political conflict witnessed in the natural resource-endowed regions of countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, little is known about mineral resource control at the community level. Does community control necessarily translate to equity? How does local involvement in the mobilisation of mining royalties benefit different segments of the community? Indeed, how do different segments of the community “control” the wealth? What is the specific model adopted to engender broad-based community participation in the utilisation of mineral wealth – and does it matter? These theoretical and practical questions were the impetus for undertaking this study in the Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela – two platinum-rich ‘traditional’ communities in South Africa’s North West Province that have significant control over platinum resources in their territories. Utilising ethnographic data collected in the two study communities in 2008 and 2009, the thesis examines the character of community participation in platinum wealth utilisation; specifically, the conditions under which community participation promotes or hinders sustainable community development. The analysis uses a “three-dimensional participation ladder” conceptual scheme, based in part on Sherry Arnstein’s (1969) “ladder of citizen participation” and subsequent typologies of participation. Among the key findings of the thesis are that despite observed benefits, the interface of resource wealth and community development is fraught with tokenistic participation, elite-targeted grassroots anger, and local tensions – all linked to the contradictory nature of participation. The thesis further reveals that in some instances the challenge of platinum wealth-engendered community development tends to undermine existing customary and democratic spaces for participation, and that this is exacerbated by community-level issues such as poverty and inequality. The findings of the study compel a shift of analytical focus from conflict as an epiphenomenon of collective community exclusion and deprivation (as in the case of many natural-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere), to conflict as also resulting from collective community inclusion (in natural resource utilisation). At the policy level, the study generates insights that will, hopefully, assist mineral resource-endowed countries, such as South Africa, in dealing with the challenge of developing appropriate policy frameworks for regulating business and social partnerships between local communities and mining corporations, and within resource-rich communities themselves.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
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