Transitioning into work: A learning and work transitioning process perspective
- Authors: Ramsarup, Presha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/392944 , vital:68814 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279362
- Description: Due to the relative newness and contemporary emergence of environmental concerns and sustainable development challenges, policies and forms of work, little is known about the transitioning patterns from education to work. As environmental occupations are found in multiple sectors, and at multiple levels, it is necessary to understand how diversity of disciplinary foundation, historical factors and the nature of the field-based occupation as it is emerging influence transitions into work, especially for highly specialised occupations that are in high demand, such as wildlife vets or wetland ecologists, and in critical occupations that shape sustainable development for whole communities, such as sustainable development employees in municipalities. This chapter utilises a complex notion of learning pathways as neither completely individualistic nor wholly structurally determined, and positions our interest in transitions research within a framing of critical vocationalism that seeks to address not only individual experiences of transitioning, or individual agentive factors, but also structural dynamics and structural processes that can help to ‘ease’ the transitioning process in these critical areas of green skills development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Mbeki's African Renaissance Vision as Reflected in isiXhosa Written Poetry: 2005–2011
- Authors: Mona, Godfrey V , Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174705 , vital:42502 , ttps://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2018.1457616
- Description: IsiXhosa literary critics have not yet interrogated literature that was produced during and after the tenure of Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki as deputy president and president of the Republic of South Africa in order to study the impact of his African Renaissance doctrine. This article analyses poetry that was produced from 2005 to 2011. The content of the isiXhosa written poetry is profoundly influenced by the context of former President Mbeki's African Renaissance philosophy, its implementation structures and philosophy of self-confidence and self-reliance. The selected poems analysed and interpreted in this article suggest that Mbeki's legacy of the African Renaissance empowered poets to develop a narrative that advances the building of a regenerated South African nation and the African continent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Green skills research: Implications for systems, policy, work and learning
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Presha
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/392875 , vital:68808 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279362
- Description: This chapter brings the diverse contributions offered in the different sections of this book together into a pathway for new policy development research, new forms of critical skills research and ongoing engagement with education and training system development. The chapter first provides a meta-reflection on the different types of green skills research that are needed to, in combination, make a stronger impact on the national system of skills research and planning. Secondly, the chapter makes a strong argument for aligning green skills research to the Sustainable Development Goals, and their critical and contextual articulation at national level, with emphasis on working with the cross-cutting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, Target 4.7 that motivates for governments to include a focus on education and sustainable development across the lifelong learning system in order to enable and support learning and skills for enabling the other SDGs to be realised in practice. Lastly, the chapter considers the shift in the way that work is considered when political economy meets political ecology, and we argue that work transforms towards not only a productive focus, or a social focus, but also an ontologically grounded regenerative focus, much needed at the start of the twenty-first century.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
An evaluation of the current extent and potential spread of Black Bass invasions in South Africa
- Authors: Khosa, Dumisani , Marr, Sean M , Wasserman, Ryan J , Zengeya, Tsungai A , Weyl, Olaf L F
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/103867 , vital:32317 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-01930-0
- Description: Black Bass, a collective name for members of the centrarchid genus Micropterus, are native to North America, but have been introduced globally to enhance recreational angling. This study assessed the distribution of Micropterus salmoides, M. dolomieu and M. punctulatus in South Africa using both formal (survey-based) and informal (tournament data and social media) information sources. Analysis of the distribution data showed habitat bias between the data sources. Survey data from formal information sources were dominated by locality records in riverine environments while those derived from informal information sources focused more on lacustrine habitats. Presence data were used to develop niche models to identify suitable areas for their establishment. The predicted distribution range of M. salmoides revealed a broad suitability over most of South Africa, however, the Cape Fold Ecoregion and all coastal regions were most suitable for the establishment for both M. dolomieu and M. punctulatus. Flow accumulation and precipitation of coldest quarter were the most important environmental variables associated with the presence of all Black Bass species in South Africa. In addition, anthropogenic disturbance such as agricultural activities were associated with the presence of both Smallmouth Bass and Spotted Bass. An extensive area-based invasion debt was observed for all Micropterus spp. The potential for further spread of Black Bass in South Africa is of ecological concern because of their impact on native biota.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A continental-scale validation of ecosystem service models
- Authors: Willcock, Simon , Hooftman, Danny A P , Balbi, Stefano , Blanchard, Ryan , Dawson, Terence P , O’Farrell, Patrick J , Hickler, Thomas , Hudson, Malcolm D , Lindeskog, Mats , Martinez-Lopez, Javier , Mulligan, Mark , Reyers, Belinda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Sitas, Nadia , Villa, Ferdinando , Watts, Sophie M , Eigenbrod, Felix , Bullock, James M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177476 , vital:42825 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00380-y
- Description: Faced with environmental degradation, governments worldwide are developing policies to safeguard ecosystem services (ES). Many ES models exist to support these policies, but they are generally poorly validated, especially at large scales, which undermines their credibility. To address this gap, we describe a study of multiple models of five ES, which we validate at an unprecedented scale against 1675 data points across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019