The need for an urban ecology of the Global South
- Shackleton, Charlie M, Cilliers, Sarel S, du Toit, Marie J, Davoren, Elandre
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Cilliers, Sarel S , du Toit, Marie J , Davoren, Elandre
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433744 , vital:72998 , ISBN 978-3-030-67650-6 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67650-6_1
- Description: Urban ecology is a key discipline in guiding urban development, sustainability and consequently human wellbeing. However, most urban ecological research has, and continues to be, undertaken in the Global North, and thus urban ecological methods, principles and frameworks are dominated by contributions and understandings from the Global North. However, there are a multitude of local- and national-scale contextual differences between the Global North and the Global South that limit or question the universal application of Global North perspectives and knowledge. This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book in two ways. First, it explores the development and definitions of the terms ‘urban ecology’ and ‘Global South’. Second, it presents the major biophysical and socio-economic contextual characteristics of Global South towns and cities that differentiate them from those in the Global North. These contextual differences need to be accounted for in urban ecological research, theory and application towards the development of an urban ecology that is more relevant for the Global South, and when conjoined with understandings from the Global North allow for the exploration and development of truly universal urban ecology principles and frameworks.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Cilliers, Sarel S , du Toit, Marie J , Davoren, Elandre
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433744 , vital:72998 , ISBN 978-3-030-67650-6 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67650-6_1
- Description: Urban ecology is a key discipline in guiding urban development, sustainability and consequently human wellbeing. However, most urban ecological research has, and continues to be, undertaken in the Global North, and thus urban ecological methods, principles and frameworks are dominated by contributions and understandings from the Global North. However, there are a multitude of local- and national-scale contextual differences between the Global North and the Global South that limit or question the universal application of Global North perspectives and knowledge. This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book in two ways. First, it explores the development and definitions of the terms ‘urban ecology’ and ‘Global South’. Second, it presents the major biophysical and socio-economic contextual characteristics of Global South towns and cities that differentiate them from those in the Global North. These contextual differences need to be accounted for in urban ecological research, theory and application towards the development of an urban ecology that is more relevant for the Global South, and when conjoined with understandings from the Global North allow for the exploration and development of truly universal urban ecology principles and frameworks.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Steel Valley and the absence of environmental justice in the new South Africa: Critical realism's kinship with environmental justice
- Authors: Munnik, Victor
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437067 , vital:73328 , ISBN 9781315660899 , https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Realism-Environmental-Learning-and-Social-Ecological-Change/Price-Lotz-Sistka/p/book/9780367597689
- Description: In this chapter I report work with critical realist perspective and tools to examine and review prevailing dispositions on indige-nous and institutional knowledge (Western science) in envi-ronmental learning. I open with a review of some of the macro social processes that have come to inscribe assumptions of incommensur able difference between the two kinds of knowledge. Whilst the previous hegemony of positivism would have resulted in the dismissal of much indigenous knowledge as mere superstition, contemporary intellectual perspectives (poststructural and hermeneutical) have shaped a proliferation of worldview modelling that has resulted in a macro-level ex-emplifying of indigenous knowledge as different from and op-posing Western science (Cobern and Aikenhead, 1998; Ai-kenhead, 2006). Here, the lack of adequate mediating tools has given rise to a problematic inscription of assumed differ-ence between the knowledge of indigenous peoples and that of scientific institutions. Furthermore, despite an overt emanci-patory intention in worldview discourses, the marginalization of indigenous peoples and knowledge remains. I then move into the micro arena with a case study of learning interactions in the South African science curriculum. Specifically, I explore some patterns of exclusion in relation to the manner in which stu-dents are able to gain access to the knowledge of scientific institutions. The experience and evidence reported is of a pre-liminary nature but the insights and emerging models of pro-cess provide a useful perspective on how assumed incom-mensurability of knowledge can be tenuous. The study suggests that a critical engagement with both indigenous knowledge and Western science can reveal integrative synergies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Munnik, Victor
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437067 , vital:73328 , ISBN 9781315660899 , https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Realism-Environmental-Learning-and-Social-Ecological-Change/Price-Lotz-Sistka/p/book/9780367597689
- Description: In this chapter I report work with critical realist perspective and tools to examine and review prevailing dispositions on indige-nous and institutional knowledge (Western science) in envi-ronmental learning. I open with a review of some of the macro social processes that have come to inscribe assumptions of incommensur able difference between the two kinds of knowledge. Whilst the previous hegemony of positivism would have resulted in the dismissal of much indigenous knowledge as mere superstition, contemporary intellectual perspectives (poststructural and hermeneutical) have shaped a proliferation of worldview modelling that has resulted in a macro-level ex-emplifying of indigenous knowledge as different from and op-posing Western science (Cobern and Aikenhead, 1998; Ai-kenhead, 2006). Here, the lack of adequate mediating tools has given rise to a problematic inscription of assumed differ-ence between the knowledge of indigenous peoples and that of scientific institutions. Furthermore, despite an overt emanci-patory intention in worldview discourses, the marginalization of indigenous peoples and knowledge remains. I then move into the micro arena with a case study of learning interactions in the South African science curriculum. Specifically, I explore some patterns of exclusion in relation to the manner in which stu-dents are able to gain access to the knowledge of scientific institutions. The experience and evidence reported is of a pre-liminary nature but the insights and emerging models of pro-cess provide a useful perspective on how assumed incom-mensurability of knowledge can be tenuous. The study suggests that a critical engagement with both indigenous knowledge and Western science can reveal integrative synergies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
New Possibilities for Mediation in Society: How is Environmental Education Research Responding?
- O’Donoghue, Rob B, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: O’Donoghue, Rob B , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437354 , vital:73372 , ISBN 978-9460911590 , https://brill.com/display/title/36964?rskey=xymnmAandresult=1
- Description: African universities have, since their inception in the colonial era, been governed by a colonial framing of research agendas and modernist trajectories. Keeley and Scoones (2003), for example, explain how agronomy in the French colonies in Afri-ca was shaped by the ‘particular form of science’that arrived in Mali as the French set about expanding the production of cot-ton. French scientific research, at the time (in the post World War 1 period) emphasized the economic development of the colonies, which introduced scientific ways of improving the par-ticular production of cash crops, dealing with pests and improv-ing varieties, locating early university-based research in pat-terns of bureaucratic and state formation. Expatriate research-ers from universities in France, England and Belgium were brought to the colonies to set the agenda for research, as most of the colonial universities offered research and teaching pro-grammes that were accredited by universities in the ‘mother country’. While the number of expatriate researchers working in African universities may have declined in recent years, with the emphasis now on short-term consultancies (from the ‘donor country’), funding and technical inputs from mother and donor countries continues to shape research. What is of note here is how research agendas are coupled with particular research conventions and processes of administrative and social organ-ization1 that are seldom explicit..
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: O’Donoghue, Rob B , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437354 , vital:73372 , ISBN 978-9460911590 , https://brill.com/display/title/36964?rskey=xymnmAandresult=1
- Description: African universities have, since their inception in the colonial era, been governed by a colonial framing of research agendas and modernist trajectories. Keeley and Scoones (2003), for example, explain how agronomy in the French colonies in Afri-ca was shaped by the ‘particular form of science’that arrived in Mali as the French set about expanding the production of cot-ton. French scientific research, at the time (in the post World War 1 period) emphasized the economic development of the colonies, which introduced scientific ways of improving the par-ticular production of cash crops, dealing with pests and improv-ing varieties, locating early university-based research in pat-terns of bureaucratic and state formation. Expatriate research-ers from universities in France, England and Belgium were brought to the colonies to set the agenda for research, as most of the colonial universities offered research and teaching pro-grammes that were accredited by universities in the ‘mother country’. While the number of expatriate researchers working in African universities may have declined in recent years, with the emphasis now on short-term consultancies (from the ‘donor country’), funding and technical inputs from mother and donor countries continues to shape research. What is of note here is how research agendas are coupled with particular research conventions and processes of administrative and social organ-ization1 that are seldom explicit..
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Taxation and electronic commerce
- Stelloh, Marcus M, Stack, Elizabeth M
- Authors: Stelloh, Marcus M , Stack, Elizabeth M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6066 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004611
- Description: Transactions conducted using the Internet have expanded dramatically in the past few years and countries and their governments have become concerned about the consequences that electronic commerce may have on their tax revenues. Because of this many organisations and inter-governmental agencies have met to try to design a solution that will be compatible with the systems of the various countries and achieve tax neutrality. A number of proposals were made and discussed to try to design a fair and efficient e-tax system. The proposed system that is ultimately adopted must consider different tax bases and systems in order to achieve this. In this research the impact of e-commerce on the imposition of income tax was briefly referred to and four different proposals for levying value-added tax or sales tax were analysed in order to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each and to determine which system would most adequately address the needs of e-commerce. Certain modifications and additions to the proposed systems have been suggested in order to satisfy the specific needs of the South African tax system, while still taking other countries’ tax systems into account. Using Amazon.com Inc. and Skype Technologies South Africa Limited as examples, it is demonstrated how the new amended system will work. It was found that the proposed systems and the system adapted to meet the South African needs would, with a few relatively minor changes to the Value-Added Tax legislation, be suitable for the purposes of imposing value-added tax on e-commerce transactions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Stelloh, Marcus M , Stack, Elizabeth M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6066 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004611
- Description: Transactions conducted using the Internet have expanded dramatically in the past few years and countries and their governments have become concerned about the consequences that electronic commerce may have on their tax revenues. Because of this many organisations and inter-governmental agencies have met to try to design a solution that will be compatible with the systems of the various countries and achieve tax neutrality. A number of proposals were made and discussed to try to design a fair and efficient e-tax system. The proposed system that is ultimately adopted must consider different tax bases and systems in order to achieve this. In this research the impact of e-commerce on the imposition of income tax was briefly referred to and four different proposals for levying value-added tax or sales tax were analysed in order to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each and to determine which system would most adequately address the needs of e-commerce. Certain modifications and additions to the proposed systems have been suggested in order to satisfy the specific needs of the South African tax system, while still taking other countries’ tax systems into account. Using Amazon.com Inc. and Skype Technologies South Africa Limited as examples, it is demonstrated how the new amended system will work. It was found that the proposed systems and the system adapted to meet the South African needs would, with a few relatively minor changes to the Value-Added Tax legislation, be suitable for the purposes of imposing value-added tax on e-commerce transactions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
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