The relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence and followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment
- Authors: Chipumuro, Juliet
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/484 , vital:19963
- Description: Over the past few years, emotional intelligence (EI) has generated significant interest and a wealth of research as a possible area of insight into what determines outstanding performance in the workplace (Ashworth, 2013:8; Pillay, Viviers and Mayer, 2013:1). The internal environment of organisations in the labour-intense hospitality industry is complex and dynamic. Given the unpredictability of change, the researcher found the hospitality industry to be an intriguing milieu within which to ascertain the importance of EI in predicting leaders’ effectiveness as a measure of outstanding performance. As employees are the internal customers of any hotel organisation, representing many hotel organisations’ only true competitive advantage, the purpose of this quantitative investigation was to examine the relationship between leaders’ EI and followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment. Despite the intuitive plausibility of the assumption that leaders who exhibit EI competencies contribute to outstanding performance, the issue of followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment as leadership indices has received little empirical attention. This study sets out to integrate prior findings on EI, motivation and organisational commitment, to support these findings in literature, and to incorporate these findings into a comprehensive conceptual framework. Using critical realists’ post-positivistic philosophical assumptions, the researcher used the Emotional and Social Competencies Inventory (ESCI) to assess leaders’ EI. Furthermore, the Motivational Sources Inventory (MSI) was used to assess followers’ motivational behaviour, while Organisational Commitment Scales (OCS) were used to assess followers’ organisational commitment. The survey respondents consisted of 120 leaders and 435 followers from 13 hotels in four prominent hotel groups in South Africa. The quantitative data collected from the surveys was analysed quantitatively using SPSS to reach substantial results with inferences. The analysis of variance revealed an overall positive relationship between demographic variables and Leaders EI, followers’ motivational behaviour and followers’ organisational commitment. The correlational analysis revealed positive relationships between leaders’ EI and followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment (R= 0.05-, p<0.01) except for instrumental motivation. The correlation between leaders’ emotional self-awareness and followers’ intrinsic process motivation was somewhat weak while the relationship between leaders’ emotional self-awareness and instrumental motivation was found to be sufficient, but statistically not significant. The researcher can conclude that generally the results of this study reveal that organisational leaders can positively influence the motivational behaviour and organisational commitment of their followers by enhancing their own EI competencies. The results add to the leadership literature by illuminating possible antecedents to leadership effectiveness. It is believed that this research will help the hospitality industry at large in clarifying the importance of EI competencies in leadership as a means of obtaining positive motivation behaviour and commitment from followers. Furthermore, the findings have both managerial and research implications for hospitality operations strategy formulation in order to gain competitive advantage and improve the financial position of the businesses.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Chipumuro, Juliet
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/484 , vital:19963
- Description: Over the past few years, emotional intelligence (EI) has generated significant interest and a wealth of research as a possible area of insight into what determines outstanding performance in the workplace (Ashworth, 2013:8; Pillay, Viviers and Mayer, 2013:1). The internal environment of organisations in the labour-intense hospitality industry is complex and dynamic. Given the unpredictability of change, the researcher found the hospitality industry to be an intriguing milieu within which to ascertain the importance of EI in predicting leaders’ effectiveness as a measure of outstanding performance. As employees are the internal customers of any hotel organisation, representing many hotel organisations’ only true competitive advantage, the purpose of this quantitative investigation was to examine the relationship between leaders’ EI and followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment. Despite the intuitive plausibility of the assumption that leaders who exhibit EI competencies contribute to outstanding performance, the issue of followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment as leadership indices has received little empirical attention. This study sets out to integrate prior findings on EI, motivation and organisational commitment, to support these findings in literature, and to incorporate these findings into a comprehensive conceptual framework. Using critical realists’ post-positivistic philosophical assumptions, the researcher used the Emotional and Social Competencies Inventory (ESCI) to assess leaders’ EI. Furthermore, the Motivational Sources Inventory (MSI) was used to assess followers’ motivational behaviour, while Organisational Commitment Scales (OCS) were used to assess followers’ organisational commitment. The survey respondents consisted of 120 leaders and 435 followers from 13 hotels in four prominent hotel groups in South Africa. The quantitative data collected from the surveys was analysed quantitatively using SPSS to reach substantial results with inferences. The analysis of variance revealed an overall positive relationship between demographic variables and Leaders EI, followers’ motivational behaviour and followers’ organisational commitment. The correlational analysis revealed positive relationships between leaders’ EI and followers’ motivational behaviour and organisational commitment (R= 0.05-, p<0.01) except for instrumental motivation. The correlation between leaders’ emotional self-awareness and followers’ intrinsic process motivation was somewhat weak while the relationship between leaders’ emotional self-awareness and instrumental motivation was found to be sufficient, but statistically not significant. The researcher can conclude that generally the results of this study reveal that organisational leaders can positively influence the motivational behaviour and organisational commitment of their followers by enhancing their own EI competencies. The results add to the leadership literature by illuminating possible antecedents to leadership effectiveness. It is believed that this research will help the hospitality industry at large in clarifying the importance of EI competencies in leadership as a means of obtaining positive motivation behaviour and commitment from followers. Furthermore, the findings have both managerial and research implications for hospitality operations strategy formulation in order to gain competitive advantage and improve the financial position of the businesses.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The gendered appropriation of the mobile phone for online health information by youths in Zimbabwean tertiary learning institutions
- Authors: Tsarwe, Stanley Zvinaiye
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/738 , vital:19986
- Description: The study uses domestication of technology and Cultural Studies theories to investigate how youth in three institutions of tertiary learning in Harare, Zimbabwe are accessing health-related information online using their smart phones. The study critically examines how youths deploy these digital media technologies to construct their identities in a context where social and political power is unevenly distributed. To understand these issues, the study uses a triangulated research design comprising a social survey, in-depth individual interviews and field observation for data collection. Results from this data gathering showed that the use of digital media technologies differ across gender, at least in terms of the distribution of online health seeking practices between male and female youths. According to the survey results, more women tend to use their mobile phones to access health-related information. Data from the individual in-depth interviews showed that the most significant site of social change (social disruption) relates to how digital media facilitates emerging new identities (i.e. identity in the broader sense as well as health-related and sexual health identities). For both young men and young women, mobile phones are used precisely for image management, peer acceptance and the desire to define respective feminities and masculinities within their social networks. Both male and female youths assert they are able to access a variety of information online, and some of this information would not easily accessible when sought from traditional structures such as their parents. This way, youth feel that digital media technologies allow them to cultivate their own preferred identities outside the purview of parental authority and social control. Drawing on postmodern literature, such emerging identities are predicated on cultural volatility, unpredictability, decentralisation and refusal to fixation and conformity to socially constructed identities about being a youth, or being a young Zimbabwean woman or man, for example. Thus, the use of mobile phones and mobile Internet by youths in Zimbabwe to access health-related information has sociopolitical significance, because it allows young people to fashion preferred identities that resists entrenched regimes of social power. For young people in Zimbabwe, online health seeking practices precisely reflects attempt towards negotiating with and circumvent the structural limitations of either an expensive health care system or the general curiosity associated with growing up. That way, it is arguable that youth use digital media technologies to help them exercise some level of social autonomy and agency in dealing with everyday life. Individual in-depth interviews demonstrated that mobile phones and mobile Internet can thus be seen as opening up more spaces for youth to learn more about issues about growing up, sexuality and adolescents that a conservative society such as Zimbabwe traditionally consider as ‘inappropriate’ for youth consumption. They argued that the inability of parents to discuss with them issues about growing up often result in them “finding out on our own” using digital media technologies to satisfy the desire to wean themselves from what they view as arbitrary and asymmetrical social power. The study demonstrated that youth use the mobile phone to challenge the social world of adults and to show resistance to it, thereby strengthening a subculture as well as constructing an identity. However, despite the positive attributes of social capital, connectivity and personalised experience afforded by the mobile phone, the mobile phone is sometimes a source of conflict in relationships between young men and women; that is, between unmarried partners. Young women reported that their boyfriends often force them to disclose who they communicate with using their mobile phones. They also reported that their boyfriends often did some random surveillance of their social media contacts and activities. Thus, whilst one of the mobile phone’s most powerful attribute is its ability to offer personalised experience, as well as offer synchronised and unlimited access to distant connections, results from in-depth interviews showed that some unwritten expectations and norms dictated that young men closely watch their ‘girlfriends’ social media activities, including their online search activities. As a result, privacy as well as the much touted relationship between mobile phone and women’s autonomy becomes contested arenas. Even at young ages, and before marriage, women are socialised to show subservience to their partners by allowing them access to their mobile phones.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Tsarwe, Stanley Zvinaiye
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/738 , vital:19986
- Description: The study uses domestication of technology and Cultural Studies theories to investigate how youth in three institutions of tertiary learning in Harare, Zimbabwe are accessing health-related information online using their smart phones. The study critically examines how youths deploy these digital media technologies to construct their identities in a context where social and political power is unevenly distributed. To understand these issues, the study uses a triangulated research design comprising a social survey, in-depth individual interviews and field observation for data collection. Results from this data gathering showed that the use of digital media technologies differ across gender, at least in terms of the distribution of online health seeking practices between male and female youths. According to the survey results, more women tend to use their mobile phones to access health-related information. Data from the individual in-depth interviews showed that the most significant site of social change (social disruption) relates to how digital media facilitates emerging new identities (i.e. identity in the broader sense as well as health-related and sexual health identities). For both young men and young women, mobile phones are used precisely for image management, peer acceptance and the desire to define respective feminities and masculinities within their social networks. Both male and female youths assert they are able to access a variety of information online, and some of this information would not easily accessible when sought from traditional structures such as their parents. This way, youth feel that digital media technologies allow them to cultivate their own preferred identities outside the purview of parental authority and social control. Drawing on postmodern literature, such emerging identities are predicated on cultural volatility, unpredictability, decentralisation and refusal to fixation and conformity to socially constructed identities about being a youth, or being a young Zimbabwean woman or man, for example. Thus, the use of mobile phones and mobile Internet by youths in Zimbabwe to access health-related information has sociopolitical significance, because it allows young people to fashion preferred identities that resists entrenched regimes of social power. For young people in Zimbabwe, online health seeking practices precisely reflects attempt towards negotiating with and circumvent the structural limitations of either an expensive health care system or the general curiosity associated with growing up. That way, it is arguable that youth use digital media technologies to help them exercise some level of social autonomy and agency in dealing with everyday life. Individual in-depth interviews demonstrated that mobile phones and mobile Internet can thus be seen as opening up more spaces for youth to learn more about issues about growing up, sexuality and adolescents that a conservative society such as Zimbabwe traditionally consider as ‘inappropriate’ for youth consumption. They argued that the inability of parents to discuss with them issues about growing up often result in them “finding out on our own” using digital media technologies to satisfy the desire to wean themselves from what they view as arbitrary and asymmetrical social power. The study demonstrated that youth use the mobile phone to challenge the social world of adults and to show resistance to it, thereby strengthening a subculture as well as constructing an identity. However, despite the positive attributes of social capital, connectivity and personalised experience afforded by the mobile phone, the mobile phone is sometimes a source of conflict in relationships between young men and women; that is, between unmarried partners. Young women reported that their boyfriends often force them to disclose who they communicate with using their mobile phones. They also reported that their boyfriends often did some random surveillance of their social media contacts and activities. Thus, whilst one of the mobile phone’s most powerful attribute is its ability to offer personalised experience, as well as offer synchronised and unlimited access to distant connections, results from in-depth interviews showed that some unwritten expectations and norms dictated that young men closely watch their ‘girlfriends’ social media activities, including their online search activities. As a result, privacy as well as the much touted relationship between mobile phone and women’s autonomy becomes contested arenas. Even at young ages, and before marriage, women are socialised to show subservience to their partners by allowing them access to their mobile phones.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Field evaluation of the use of select entomopathogenic fungal isolates as microbial control agents of the soil-dwelling life stages of a key South African citrus pest, Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)
- Authors: Coombes, Candice Anne
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/507 , vital:19965
- Description: The control of false codling moth (FCM), Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick, 1912) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), in citrus orchards is strongly reliant on the use of integrated pest management as key export markets impose stringent chemical restrictions on exported fruit and have a strict no entry policy towards this phytosanitary pest. Most current, registered control methods target the above-ground life stages of FCM, not the soil-dwelling life stages. As such, entomopathogenic fungi which are ubiquitous, percutaneously infective soil-borne microbes that have been used successfully as control agents worldwide, present ideal candidates as additional control agents. Following an initial identification of 62 fungal entomopathogens isolated from soil collected from citrus orchards in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, further laboratory research has highlighted three isolates as having the greatest control potential against FCM subterranean life stages: Metarhizium anisopliae G 11 3 L6 (Ma1), M. anisopliae FCM Ar 23 B3 (Ma2) and Beauveria bassiana G Ar 17 B3 (Bb1). These isolates are capable of causing above 80% laboratory-induced mycosis of FCM fifth instars. Whether this level of efficacy was obtainable under sub-optimal and fluctuating field conditions was unknown. Thus, this thesis aimed to address the following issues with regards to the three most laboratory-virulent fungal isolates: field efficacy, field persistence, optimal application rate, application timing, environmental dependency, compatibility with fungicides and the use of different wetting agents to promote field efficacy. Following fungal application to one hectare treatment blocks in the field, FCM infestation within fruit was reduced by 28.3% to 81.7%. Isolate Bb1 performed best under moderate to high soil moisture whilst Ma2 was more effective under low soil moisture conditions. All isolates, with the exception of Ma2 at one site, were recorded in the soil five months post-application. None of the wetting agents tested were found to be highly toxic to fungal germination and similar physical suspension characteristics were observed. Fungicide toxicity varied amongst isolates and test conditions. However, only Dithane (a.i. mancozeb) was considered incompatible with isolate Ma2. The implication of these results and the way forward is discussed. This study is the first report of the field efficacy of three laboratory-virulent fungal isolates applied to the soil of conventional citrus orchards against FCM soil-dwelling life stages. As such, it provides a foundation on which future research can build to ensure the development and commercialisation of a cost-effective and consistently reliable product.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Coombes, Candice Anne
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/507 , vital:19965
- Description: The control of false codling moth (FCM), Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick, 1912) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), in citrus orchards is strongly reliant on the use of integrated pest management as key export markets impose stringent chemical restrictions on exported fruit and have a strict no entry policy towards this phytosanitary pest. Most current, registered control methods target the above-ground life stages of FCM, not the soil-dwelling life stages. As such, entomopathogenic fungi which are ubiquitous, percutaneously infective soil-borne microbes that have been used successfully as control agents worldwide, present ideal candidates as additional control agents. Following an initial identification of 62 fungal entomopathogens isolated from soil collected from citrus orchards in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, further laboratory research has highlighted three isolates as having the greatest control potential against FCM subterranean life stages: Metarhizium anisopliae G 11 3 L6 (Ma1), M. anisopliae FCM Ar 23 B3 (Ma2) and Beauveria bassiana G Ar 17 B3 (Bb1). These isolates are capable of causing above 80% laboratory-induced mycosis of FCM fifth instars. Whether this level of efficacy was obtainable under sub-optimal and fluctuating field conditions was unknown. Thus, this thesis aimed to address the following issues with regards to the three most laboratory-virulent fungal isolates: field efficacy, field persistence, optimal application rate, application timing, environmental dependency, compatibility with fungicides and the use of different wetting agents to promote field efficacy. Following fungal application to one hectare treatment blocks in the field, FCM infestation within fruit was reduced by 28.3% to 81.7%. Isolate Bb1 performed best under moderate to high soil moisture whilst Ma2 was more effective under low soil moisture conditions. All isolates, with the exception of Ma2 at one site, were recorded in the soil five months post-application. None of the wetting agents tested were found to be highly toxic to fungal germination and similar physical suspension characteristics were observed. Fungicide toxicity varied amongst isolates and test conditions. However, only Dithane (a.i. mancozeb) was considered incompatible with isolate Ma2. The implication of these results and the way forward is discussed. This study is the first report of the field efficacy of three laboratory-virulent fungal isolates applied to the soil of conventional citrus orchards against FCM soil-dwelling life stages. As such, it provides a foundation on which future research can build to ensure the development and commercialisation of a cost-effective and consistently reliable product.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Synthesis and exploration of resorcinol derivatives as Plasmodium falciparum Hsp90 inhibitors
- Authors: Umumararungu, Théoneste
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/717 , vital:19984
- Description: In this research project, we have synthesized a series of nine dimethyl ether resorcinol analogues of NMS-E973 (L-1) 38, a potent Hsp90 inhibitor. These analogues were chosen because they share the same pharmacophore with NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 and were thus expected to have a similar biological activity. Moreover, it is generally easier to synthesize the dimethyl ether resorcinol analogues of NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 as compared to their demethylated counterparts. Since other Hsp90 inhibitors such as geldanamycin 19 have demonstrated anti-plasmodial activity, we also expected our compounds to be Hsp90 inhibitors and to possess anti-plasmodial activity. However, our compounds were tested for growth inhibitory activity of Plasmodium falciparum and not for P. falciparum Hsp90 (PfHSP90) inhibitory activity. The synthesis involved a series of steps that led to the formation of the ester compound TU-011 (L-7) 43 that was then used as a precursor for different NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 analogues. The choice of analogues to be synthesized was dictated by binding affinity predictions obtained from molecular docking. The chosen synthetic analogues were active against chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium falciparum (3D7 strain) in a Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase assay and they were not generally cytotoxic to human cervical adenocarcinoma cell line HeLa. The most active of our compounds was TU-018 (L-103) 50 with an IC50 value of approximately 1.830 µM as compared to the standard, chloroquine, with an IC50 value of 0.01062 µM. Some of the compounds showed mild cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells with IC50 values higher than 25 µM as compared to the standard apoptosis inducer drug, emetine that had an IC50 value of 0.09948 µM. These results highlight the fact that the synthesized analogues are novel relatively non-toxic anti-plasmodial agents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Umumararungu, Théoneste
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/717 , vital:19984
- Description: In this research project, we have synthesized a series of nine dimethyl ether resorcinol analogues of NMS-E973 (L-1) 38, a potent Hsp90 inhibitor. These analogues were chosen because they share the same pharmacophore with NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 and were thus expected to have a similar biological activity. Moreover, it is generally easier to synthesize the dimethyl ether resorcinol analogues of NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 as compared to their demethylated counterparts. Since other Hsp90 inhibitors such as geldanamycin 19 have demonstrated anti-plasmodial activity, we also expected our compounds to be Hsp90 inhibitors and to possess anti-plasmodial activity. However, our compounds were tested for growth inhibitory activity of Plasmodium falciparum and not for P. falciparum Hsp90 (PfHSP90) inhibitory activity. The synthesis involved a series of steps that led to the formation of the ester compound TU-011 (L-7) 43 that was then used as a precursor for different NMS-E973 (L-1) 38 analogues. The choice of analogues to be synthesized was dictated by binding affinity predictions obtained from molecular docking. The chosen synthetic analogues were active against chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium falciparum (3D7 strain) in a Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase assay and they were not generally cytotoxic to human cervical adenocarcinoma cell line HeLa. The most active of our compounds was TU-018 (L-103) 50 with an IC50 value of approximately 1.830 µM as compared to the standard, chloroquine, with an IC50 value of 0.01062 µM. Some of the compounds showed mild cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells with IC50 values higher than 25 µM as compared to the standard apoptosis inducer drug, emetine that had an IC50 value of 0.09948 µM. These results highlight the fact that the synthesized analogues are novel relatively non-toxic anti-plasmodial agents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Contesting masculinities: a study of selected texts of resistance to conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s
- Authors: Mason, Paul
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2332 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020842
- Description: The theoretical framework for this thesis and analysis of primary texts revolves around the problem of conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s. The ideology of masculinity that underpinned and sustained the practice of conscription is referred to throughout as the hegemonic version. This term is interchangeable with others, namely masculinism and ‗the real man.‘ The aim is to interpret the selected texts for strains of resistance to the practice of conscription and its assumptions as to what to what constitutes the natural or real man. In the Introduction to this thesis I begin by explaining the personal dimension of my role as researcher, after which I motivate my research project and explain its theoretical and methodological orientation, focusing on the concepts that play a significant role in analysis of the primary texts. The Introduction concludes with an outline of the content of Chapters 1–5. Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion, on the general level, of the practice of conscription and resistance to it, and proceeds to a concern with conscription in 1980s South Africa. Attention is paid to prevailing attitudes towards gender and sexuality within both the SADF and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). Discussion of gender and sexuality as constructs of identity proceeds to a focus on the conceptual tools for textual analysis provided by theories of masculinity. The final section of this chapter pays attention to specific post-structuralist notions of identity that serve analysis of the primary texts, that is, the notions of the subject, agency and the author. Having engaged mainly with secondary texts in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents the first sustained critical engagement with primary texts in which resistance was expressed against the institution of conscription and the hegemonic version of masculinity that underpinned it. These expressions of resistance occurred within a rock music counter-culture of the period, known as the Voëlvry movement. Attention is given to overlaps or links between this counter-culture and that of America in the 1960s, as well echoes between the Vietnam and Border Wars. Analysis of these links is applied to a memoir selected for its appropriateness. Threaded through the chapter is a concern with expressions of masculine identity within the Voëlvry counter-culture, the SADF and the ECC. Chapter 3 focuses on three novels and one collection of short stories, each narrated in the first person and written by gay authors who performed their National Service. Attention is paid to the protagonists‘ perceptions of themselves, their troubled relationships with their fathers, and the struggle to come out within a context that prohibited them from doing so. Chapter 4 concerns three wartime memoirs and two written by men who refused to perform their National Service. Underlying concerns in this chapter are the question of fact versus fiction in the genre of the memoir, authors‘ perceptions of and relationships with women, and expressions of vulnerability. Chapter 5 concentrates on the interviews that comprise the Appendix. The chapter establishes its theoretical ground by focusing on principles of narrative structure and the relation of personal to narrative identity. The chapter pays attention to the displays of power and the vulnerabilities of both veteran soldiers and resisters. Theory deployed in analysis of the primary texts serves the principal concerns articulated in the title to the thesis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Mason, Paul
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2332 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020842
- Description: The theoretical framework for this thesis and analysis of primary texts revolves around the problem of conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s. The ideology of masculinity that underpinned and sustained the practice of conscription is referred to throughout as the hegemonic version. This term is interchangeable with others, namely masculinism and ‗the real man.‘ The aim is to interpret the selected texts for strains of resistance to the practice of conscription and its assumptions as to what to what constitutes the natural or real man. In the Introduction to this thesis I begin by explaining the personal dimension of my role as researcher, after which I motivate my research project and explain its theoretical and methodological orientation, focusing on the concepts that play a significant role in analysis of the primary texts. The Introduction concludes with an outline of the content of Chapters 1–5. Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion, on the general level, of the practice of conscription and resistance to it, and proceeds to a concern with conscription in 1980s South Africa. Attention is paid to prevailing attitudes towards gender and sexuality within both the SADF and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). Discussion of gender and sexuality as constructs of identity proceeds to a focus on the conceptual tools for textual analysis provided by theories of masculinity. The final section of this chapter pays attention to specific post-structuralist notions of identity that serve analysis of the primary texts, that is, the notions of the subject, agency and the author. Having engaged mainly with secondary texts in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents the first sustained critical engagement with primary texts in which resistance was expressed against the institution of conscription and the hegemonic version of masculinity that underpinned it. These expressions of resistance occurred within a rock music counter-culture of the period, known as the Voëlvry movement. Attention is given to overlaps or links between this counter-culture and that of America in the 1960s, as well echoes between the Vietnam and Border Wars. Analysis of these links is applied to a memoir selected for its appropriateness. Threaded through the chapter is a concern with expressions of masculine identity within the Voëlvry counter-culture, the SADF and the ECC. Chapter 3 focuses on three novels and one collection of short stories, each narrated in the first person and written by gay authors who performed their National Service. Attention is paid to the protagonists‘ perceptions of themselves, their troubled relationships with their fathers, and the struggle to come out within a context that prohibited them from doing so. Chapter 4 concerns three wartime memoirs and two written by men who refused to perform their National Service. Underlying concerns in this chapter are the question of fact versus fiction in the genre of the memoir, authors‘ perceptions of and relationships with women, and expressions of vulnerability. Chapter 5 concentrates on the interviews that comprise the Appendix. The chapter establishes its theoretical ground by focusing on principles of narrative structure and the relation of personal to narrative identity. The chapter pays attention to the displays of power and the vulnerabilities of both veteran soldiers and resisters. Theory deployed in analysis of the primary texts serves the principal concerns articulated in the title to the thesis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Phylogenetics and historical biogeography of the Teloganodidae (Ephemeroptera)
- Pereira da Conceicoa, Lyndall Louise
- Authors: Pereira da Conceicoa, Lyndall Louise
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64900 , vital:28629
- Description: The Teloganodidae are a mayfly family endemic to the southwestern Cape (South Africa), with relatives in Madagascar and Asia. Like many other aquatic invertebrates in Africa, they have been considerably understudied. Research into biodiversity and biogeography allows an understanding of the earth’s biota, producing knowledge which can be used to develop strategies to preserve and monitor this biota. Mismanagement of water systems places biodiversity of river fauna under an ever-increasing extinction threat. This investigation explores rivers in under-collected areas to determine how well teloganodids have been represented in the literature, with four genera and five species described at the onset of this study. A lectotype for Lestagella penicillata Barnard (1940) has been elected and described in detail, setting “benchmark” characters for future descriptions. Standard DNA sequencing methods provide portions of three mitochondrial genes; cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), small subunit ribosomal 16S RNA (16S), 12S ribosomal DNA (12S) and two nuclear genes, Histone 3 (H3) and 28S ribosomal DNA (28S) for up to 255 specimens. Fore and hind wings of 79 teloganodid adults were used to examine phylogenetic signal and evolutionary divergence using geometric morphometrics. A multi-faceted approach is used to investigate relationships between clades and the effects of deep-time climatic and landform changes which have influenced the diversity and distribution seen today. Tree (Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood) and network (parsimony) phylogenies, ancestral reconstruction, historical biogeography and wingevolution of the Teloganodidae are investigated. Species tree analyses discovered 27 species and six genera. Distinct lineages are restricted to catchments, and strong phylogeographic structure was found within most genera. Southern African Teloganodidae are shown to have originated in the Cretaceous, with divergence and dispersal of lineages depended on their established locality at the time of tectonic events (uplift) and climatic changes (sea level regressions and transgressions). Geographic clines in wing-shape of Lestagella across its range imply evolutionary adaptations to specific catchment landscape and environment. A detailed analysis of biodiversity has many valuable contributions, from directing future research, understanding adaptive processes, fine-tuning phylogeographical and evolutionary hypotheses, to improving management and conservation decisions in order to preserve endemic biodiversity hotspots.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Pereira da Conceicoa, Lyndall Louise
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64900 , vital:28629
- Description: The Teloganodidae are a mayfly family endemic to the southwestern Cape (South Africa), with relatives in Madagascar and Asia. Like many other aquatic invertebrates in Africa, they have been considerably understudied. Research into biodiversity and biogeography allows an understanding of the earth’s biota, producing knowledge which can be used to develop strategies to preserve and monitor this biota. Mismanagement of water systems places biodiversity of river fauna under an ever-increasing extinction threat. This investigation explores rivers in under-collected areas to determine how well teloganodids have been represented in the literature, with four genera and five species described at the onset of this study. A lectotype for Lestagella penicillata Barnard (1940) has been elected and described in detail, setting “benchmark” characters for future descriptions. Standard DNA sequencing methods provide portions of three mitochondrial genes; cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), small subunit ribosomal 16S RNA (16S), 12S ribosomal DNA (12S) and two nuclear genes, Histone 3 (H3) and 28S ribosomal DNA (28S) for up to 255 specimens. Fore and hind wings of 79 teloganodid adults were used to examine phylogenetic signal and evolutionary divergence using geometric morphometrics. A multi-faceted approach is used to investigate relationships between clades and the effects of deep-time climatic and landform changes which have influenced the diversity and distribution seen today. Tree (Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood) and network (parsimony) phylogenies, ancestral reconstruction, historical biogeography and wingevolution of the Teloganodidae are investigated. Species tree analyses discovered 27 species and six genera. Distinct lineages are restricted to catchments, and strong phylogeographic structure was found within most genera. Southern African Teloganodidae are shown to have originated in the Cretaceous, with divergence and dispersal of lineages depended on their established locality at the time of tectonic events (uplift) and climatic changes (sea level regressions and transgressions). Geographic clines in wing-shape of Lestagella across its range imply evolutionary adaptations to specific catchment landscape and environment. A detailed analysis of biodiversity has many valuable contributions, from directing future research, understanding adaptive processes, fine-tuning phylogeographical and evolutionary hypotheses, to improving management and conservation decisions in order to preserve endemic biodiversity hotspots.
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- Date Issued: 2016