A critical analysis of community participation at the primary level of the health system in Goromonzi District, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Gondo, Rachel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1454 , vital:20059
- Description: The adoption of the primary health care approach by Zimbabwe in 1980 signalled the government’s intention to consolidate the gains of the liberation struggle by providing equitable health for all citizens regardless of race and class. This approach frames community participation as central to the design and implementation of responsive health systems. Having earned international recognition for its pro-poor policies in the social sectors after independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean government over the last three decades has overseen a progressive decline in the provision of health services and near collapse of the health sector. Participation of communities, whether in the form of organised groups or as unorganised members of the public, is argued to be an important pillar in the effective performance of a health system. There has been extensive research conducted on Zimbabwe’s implementation of primary health care in light of health status, accessibility and health services uptake. A few studies have been undertaken to demonstrate that the participation of communities in the health system is an important factor in improving the effectiveness of the health system in Zimbabwe. This thesis analyses the existing mechanisms for community participation in the health system in Zimbabwe and brings out multiple perspectives on the underlying contradictions, tensions and processes at play between policy and practice. This thesis makes a contribution to the growing number of studies on participation in health by offering an empirically rich critical analysis of community participation in the health system in one ward located in Goromonzi District in Zimbabwe. In examining the structural and procedural forms of the health system, insights concerning the nature and form of community participation in primary health care are brought to the fore. The thesis concludes that the ways in which community participation takes place in the health system in Zimbabwe is influenced by a number of socio-economic, political and societal factors and this in turn has a bearing on how health policy expresses itself in practice.
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- Date Issued: 2016
A critical analysis of development NGO programmes in rural areas: a case study of East Cape Agricultural Research Project in South Africa
- Authors: Sanyangore, Agnes
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: East Cape Agricultural Research Project , Non-governmental organization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96187 , vital:31248
- Description: For a number of decades now, development non-governmental organisations (DNGOs) have been central to the world-wide development system which involves funding from international donors. Overall, DNGOs rely quite fundamentally on their donors for organisational sustainability, such that upward accountability to donors is inevitable. At the same time, as development agents, DNGOs are often celebrated for the deep participatory methodologies used when engaging with the beneficiaries of their programmes, leading to significant downward accountability – as least potentially. Often, for DNGOs, an awkward tension between upward and downward accountability exists. This thesis considers this tension by examining a DNGO in South Africa, namely, the East Cape Agricultural Research Project (ECARP), which focuses on questions around land redistribution. ECARP works with farm labourers and dwellers on commercial farms and small-scale farmers on redistributed farms. In the context of a broader understanding of ECARP’s mission, capacities and programmes, the thesis looks specifically at ECARP’s food security and sovereignty programme amongst small-scale farmers on redistributed farms. By drawing upon Interface theory, the thesis discusses in detail the diverse manner in which ECARP uses participatory methodologies in this particular programme. The thesis concludes that there is a reasonable degree of downward accountability in this programme, but that this does not distract from the fact that ECARP remains within the tension-riddled space marked by dual demands for accountability.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A critical analysis of sustainable human settlement in housing: the case of Hlalani, South Africa
- Authors: Nkambule, Sipho Jonathan
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human settlements -- South Africa , Black people -- Housing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3334 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003740 , Human settlements -- South Africa , Black people -- Housing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Description: As a result of apartheid’s history, the current South African government was initially faced with two major challenges in the development of sustainable human settlement in urban areas: delivering the quantity of houses needed to reduce the massive housing backlog (notably in black townships) and overcoming the problem of racially-based spatial separation inherited from the apartheid era. To rectify the legacies of apartheid, the state has sought to pursue a massive housing programme in urban areas for poor urban blacks. In doing so, though, it has worked within the confines of the racially-segregated South African city and has adopted a macro-economic policy with a pronounced neo-liberal thrust. This thesis examines the South African state’s housing programme with reference to questions about social sustainability and specifically sustainable human settlements. It does so by highlighting social capital and the different forms it takes, notably bonding, binding and linking capitals. This is pursued through a case study of a small area of a black township in Grahamstown called Hlalani. The case focuses on the lived experiences of Hlalani residents and their intra-household and inter-household relations as well as their linkages with local state structures. It is concluded that social capital is weak and incipient in Hlalani and that Hlalani could not, by any definition or measurement of the term, be labeled as a sustainable human settlement.
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- Date Issued: 2013
A critical Fanonian understanding of black student identities at Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Mercadal-Barroso, Adriana Kimberly
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961 -- Political and social views , Rhodes University , Education, Higher , College graduates, Black -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Attitudes , Identity , Black people -- Ethnic identity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3391 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016375
- Description: South African history is rooted in racial identities, inequalities and injustices, which the post-apartheid government has sought to address for twenty years since 1994. The transition to a post-apartheid society though has been a difficult one with the social structure and everyday life still marked by the racial past. Though racial classifications on an official basis no longer exist, racial identities continue to pervade the country. Of particular significance to this thesis are black identities including the possibility of black inferiority, which I examine in relation to black post-graduate university students in contemporary South Africa, specifically at Rhodes University. In examining this topic, I draw extensively on the work of Frantz Fanon, who wrote about both colonial society and the emerging post-colonial experience. Fanon was a young black intellectual whose work was in part based on his own experiences of being a once-colonised black person in a world which he perceived as being dominated by whiteness. In his work he expresses his own perceptions of whiteness and how the black identity has come to be shaped by and around this dominant white foundation. Fanon extensively discussed the lives of black intellectuals and elites, and demonstrated how the black identity becomes shaped by and around the world of whiteness. In doing so, he raised a range of themes, such as black inferiority, mimicry and double consciousness. I draw upon the work of Fanon in a critically sympathetic manner to delve into the experiences of black postgraduate students as they negotiate their way through a university setting dominated by a white institutional culture. I bring to the fore the argument that the racial identities of these students is not fixed and sutured but, rather, is marked by considerable fluidity and ambiguity such that black identity must be understood not just as a state of being but also as a process of becoming.
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- Date Issued: 2015
A learning state?: a case study of the post-1994 South African welfare regime
- Authors: Mungwashu, Sthembiso Handinawangu
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: South African Social Security Agency , South Africa -- Social policy , Poor -- South Africa , Social service -- South Africa , Public welfare -- South Africa , Social service -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003113 , South African Social Security Agency , South Africa -- Social policy , Poor -- South Africa , Social service -- South Africa , Public welfare -- South Africa , Social service -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis examines the processes of policymaking in South Africa, as expressed through the shifts in income maintenance policy. The thesis focuses on the processes leading to the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), as its case study. SASSA is the institutional framework for the delivery of social grants. Our intention is to test the efficacy of what we have called ‘state learning’ in the South African context. Therefore, the overall aim of the study is to assess the capacity of the ‘state to learn’ in the process of policymaking as expressed through the shifts in social grant administration and the institutional framework of social welfare in South Africa. The subsidiary goals of the research includes mapping changes in the system of social grants administration since 1994 in order to assess the sources of the shifts in its institutional framework; to assess processes and responses within the state that result in policy shifts and the extent to which these can be considered dimensions of state learning; to assess the power of ideas in the policymaking process and to assess the influence of non-state agencies/actors in policy contestation and learning processes. This is essential, because social policy, especially welfare policy research in post-apartheid South Africa, has focused on the economic value of policies and not the political processes in policymaking. For the framework of analysis the study draws on theories of learning, especially at the organizational or institutional level. We start from the perspective that policymaking and implementation cannot be reduced to a neatly ordered schema (Lamb: 1987:6). Further, that policy change and policymaking are “iterative, haphazard, and highly political processes, in which the apparently logical sequences of decision-making, may turn out to be the reverse” (Lamb, 1987:6). This is mainly because state building is a complex affair and a contested terrain; policy learning and making are neither benign nor do they involve the state working in isolation (Sabatier, 1998). To understand processes of policymaking in South Africa, we rely on content analysis of primary and secondary materials or documents and in-depth interviews with key informants involved in the policy process. The documentary sources include records of parliamentary debates, green and white papers on social welfare, ANC party documents, presidential task force reports, newspapers, magazines and court judgments. The study reveals that the establishment of SASSA lends itself to the idea of ‘state learning’. Learning is indicated in South Africa by the capacity and ability of the state to stimulate ideas, debate ideas to establish ideational matrixes as well as paradigms that have informed the development of policy, take ideas and implement them to try and solve mismatches between the intention of the state and the outcomes and the ability of the state to produce policy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
A narrative study of patients’ illness experiences on antiretroviral treatment
- Authors: Tsope, Lindiwe
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: AIDS (Disease) Social aspects South Africa , HIV infections Social aspects South Africa , Stigma (Social psychology) , Antiretroviral agents , Disclosure of information , Social media in medicine South Africa , Discourse analysis, Narrative
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63032 , vital:28356
- Description: Eight female respondents, who have publicly disclosed their HIV-positive status on social media, were involved in a semi-structured in-depth interview process. Using the theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism and social constructionism, the study explores the effects of antiretroviral treatment on patients’ illness experiences, looking at the personal and social symbolisms and meanings attached to taking antiretrovirals. The study revealed a positive and inspirational aspect of living with HIV/AIDS and especially consuming antiretroviral therapy. It became evident that the knowledge participants had of antiretrovirals before consuming them was misguided and based more on false ‘general knowledge’ among laypersons than actual medical fact. Moreover, the study revealed that there is a social reconstruction of narratives that has taken place in each participant’s life due to consuming antiretrovirals. Publicly disclosing their statuses has also proved to have both negative and positive consequences for the individuals and for society at large. While there is a consensus that participants’ illness experiences are directly affected by antiretroviral treatment, each participant’s narrative is different, yet positive.
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- Date Issued: 2018
A participant-focused sociological analysis of Beedz, a Grahamstown skills training project for women
- Authors: Bobo, Azola Benita Dorothea
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Beedz (Makhanda, South Africa) , Feminist theory -- Developing countries , Training -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Occupational training -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Women -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5686 , vital:20964
- Description: This research looked at a participant-focused sociological analysis of Beedz, a Grahamstown skills training project for women. Beedz is run by the River of Life Church and aims to equip women with the necessary skills to participate in the economy, either as entrepreneurs or as employees. Using third world feminist theory, this research explored the experiences of women who have participated in the Beedz programme, what they went through, and whether the programme benefited them or not. In particular, this research explored how the participants experienced Beedz as a programme for women without an exclusive focus on traditional feminist issues. This research was qualitative in nature; with in-depth, semi-structured interviews being used as a means of data collection. Data was analysed using key themes emerging from the interviews. The key findings of this research were that it is important to include women in training projects, as by including them you create spaces and enabling environments for women to empower themselves. Secondly, although Beedz does not deliberately work from the third world feminist theory, it could be argued that it fits in this framework as this programme facilitates skills training through looking at women as a whole, taking into account not only their gender, but also their class and race. Recommendations were made on how the Beedz programme may be improved, based on the information gathered from the participants from the interviews conducted during the research, with the key recommendation being that the organisers of the programme need to create a space for the participants’ voice to be heard, so that the programme can be relevant and beneficial to them.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A platform for women’s experiences? a case of the hip hop scene in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Kabwato, Sasha Nyasha
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Hip-hop -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Popular culture -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rap musicians -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Musicians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Women musicians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Women, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96503 , vital:31287
- Description: The main aim of this research is to examine the hip hop scene in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape and whether hip hop can serve as a significant platform to discuss women’s lived experiences. This study also places focus on how female rappers construct their rap personas, as well as how they are perceived by their male counterparts. In order to understand the multifaceted viewpoints, it was necessary to interview both male and female hip hop artists. Eight interviews were conducted with eight young black rappers who are actively involved in the Grahamstown hip hop scene. It was found that hip hop, like any other art form, is a significant platform for women to express themselves, however gender constraints limit who is willing to listen to and promote their music. Male rappers advocate for women to talk about their stories, yet are more unlikely to listen because it does not relate to their struggles. In addition, there seem to be four specific tropes that female rappers choose to construct their identities from. Female rappers tend to create their personas around: Queen Mother, Fly Sista, Bitch with Attitude, and Lesbian. However, these categories are fluid and it was found that women navigate these categories depending on their audience and message they want to convey at a particular moment. Lastly, there is a split between Grahamstown West (Rhodes University) and Grahamstown East (township). University students are unlikely to perform in the township, and township residents rarely perform at organised events in Grahamstown West. In addition, Rhodes University students are more likely to feature on the university run radio station, rather than Radio Grahamstown, the local community radio.
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- Date Issued: 2019
A sociological analysis of Rhodes University Students previously diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed psychostimulant medications
- Authors: Brasher, Chelsea Marilyn
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Stereotypes (Social psychology) , Mental illness -- Public opinion , Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder , Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- Treatment , Symbolic interactionism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7610 , vital:21278
- Description: Using the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, bringing into account the labelling theory, the stigmas attached upon mental health issues and the medicalization approach, this study sought to document and analyze the viewpoints that previously diagnosed Rhodes University students hold towards the ADHD label and the subsequent usage of psychostimulant medications. Seven respondents were involved in an in-depth interviewing process. Out of the seven respondents chosen, five of the respondents were diagnosed in their primary school years, whereas the other two respondents were diagnosed in their late teenage years or early adult years. These respondents were included to enlighten and support the narrative of the five respondents diagnosed in their youth. The findings varied, with some of the respondents feeling negatively affected by having the ADHD label attached to them, and others, positively affected by it. The findings were also diverse in terms of how the respondents experienced stimulant usage, with some believing that the benefits of usage outweigh the costs, and others, the opposite. At a general level, it was discovered that the respondents were not affected by the ADHD label in terms of their interactions with others in primary school. It was only as they got older did some become fearful of the stigma attached to the ADHD label, and that of medication.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A sociological analysis of Rhodes University students’ understanding of depression
- Authors: Kadula, Tadala
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: College students -- South Africa -- Mental health , College students -- South Africa -- Mental health -- Case studies , Depression, Mental , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96258 , vital:31255
- Description: Using the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, this research sought to analyse and explore how Rhodes University students, both depressed and not depressed, understand depression, and how their understanding influences their interaction with people who do suffer from depression. For the purposes of this paper, eight participants were involved in an in-depth interview process. Out of the eight participants, six of them suffered from depression while the other remaining two participants had never suffered from depression, but they were close to someone who had depression. The findings of this research varied, some understood depression as a mental disturbance, others understood it as a condition that affects your emotions, and others understood it as a multifaceted condition that is highly subjective and cannot be understood using standardized measures. The participants’ personal experience and introduction into a new environment, in this context, university, changed their understanding of depression. The change in how they understood depression correlated with the change in how they interacted with depressed people.
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- Date Issued: 2019
A sociological analysis of the lives and livelihoods of child support grant caregivers in Queenstown, South Africa
- Authors: Ntantiso, Ziyanda
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7925 , vital:21325
- Description: The post-apartheid state in South Africa has initiated and implemented a large-scale social assistance programme in the form of social grants, including the child support grant. The grant system is meant to provide recipients, who comprise mainly people from poor black households, with the capacity to reduce levels of poverty in their households. The grant with the largest number of recipients is the child support grant, and it is given to the caregiver of a child eligible to receive the grant. Though the value of the monthly grant is minimal, the prevailing literature suggests that it does contribute in some way to enhancing the welfare of the recipients. This thesis focuses on child support grant recipients in the town of Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, and particularly those recipients for whom the grant is the crucial source of income. The main objective of the thesis is to understand and analyse the lives and livelihoods of child support grant recipients (all women) in Queenstown, South Africa. In this regard, the vast majority of caregivers of grant children are women and they often rely exclusively on the grant in taking care of themselves and the children. The thesis does not seek to determine any direct causal relationship between the child grant and poverty reduction, as much of the existing literature seeks to do. It focuses instead on the lives of the grant recipients, including the many challenges they face, as well as how they use the grant to pursue livelihoods in a manner which may at least inhibit the prospects of entering into deeper levels of poverty. The thesis demonstrates that, despite their deprived conditions of material existence, the female caregivers in Queenstown display significant agency in caring for their grant children.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A sociological analysis of the Rhodes University Students and staff members’ perceptions on the use of traditional medicine and biomedicine
- Authors: Mankantshu, Buncwanekazi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Traditional medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Ethnopharmacology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , College students -- Attitudes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , College students -- Medical care -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Social medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Rhodes University -- Employees -- Medical care , Rhodes University -- Employees -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96280 , vital:31257
- Description: The primary objective of this study was to understand to the role that discourse on traditional medicine plays in the choices that Rhodes University students and staff make regarding who they consult when they are sick. A secondary objective was to explore the participants’ views on the Department of Health’s draft policy on the institutionalisation of African traditional medicine and potential collaboration with the biomedical health care system. This was a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews and questionnaires to collect data, which was interpreted using thematic data analysis. A key finding was that participants were mostly influenced by their families with regard to the health care choices – either biomedical or traditional medicine. And that affordability, accessibility and availability are not important factors in health care choices as suggested by literature. Participants also based their decisions on what they believed would help them, either biomedicine or traditional medicine.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Academic readiness of students for higher education: a case for academic support at Rhodes University
- Authors: Khoza, Lebogang Peter
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: College student development programs -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Dropouts -- Prevention , College students -- South Africa-- Makhanda -- Social conditions , School failure -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Academic achievement-- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student adjustment -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Counseling in higher education -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student Integration Model , Conceptual Framework Model , Geometric Design of Student Persistence
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147848 , vital:38678
- Description: The worrying existence of incidences of student retention, poor pass rates and an increase in repetition rates is a cause for concern for institutions of higher learning in South Africa. The problem of student retention is not new in our institutions of higher learning. Support structures, strategies, and policies need to be developed for different academic and social challenges that students face daily. This study explores the need for academic support at Rhodes University; it also explores the internal and external problems that students face, the perceptions and experiences of students on academic support available to them. The study implemented a narrative research approach implanted within a qualitative research framework. Data was collected through a questionnaire, and narrative interviews. Tinto’s Student Integration Model was used to analyse the data in this study and was supplemented by Louw’s conceptual framework model and Swail’s Geometric Design of Student Persistence. These three models position the student experience as the foundation for academic support programmes and development. The study argues that as long as effective and adequate academic support is lacking, students will continue to experience difficulties in completing their studies. The findings from the study reveal that at present, Rhodes University provides support to students who are in extended studies. However, this support system disadvantages many students, notably those not in the extended studies programme. As a result, such students are not supported through strategies and structures that extended studies students receive. Furthermore, the data generates internal and external problems that student face daily, as a result, the findings showed that there is a need for academic support at Rhodes. The study recommends that Rhodes University must establish an academic unit that will provide academic support to all students registered in the university.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Access and control of biodiversity in the context of biopiracy: the case of pelargonium sidoides in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality
- Authors: Doyle, Anastasia Roxane
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Biopiracy -- South Africa , Traditional ecological knowledge -- South Africa , Plants, Cultivated -- Patents , Biodiversity -- Conservation -- South Africa , Pelargoniums -- Harvesting -- South Africa , Pelargonium sidoides -- Harvesting -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76321 , vital:30547
- Description: The purpose of this research is to explore access and control of biodiversity in the context of biopiracy with specific reference to the case of pelargonium sidoides in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. The research is informed by the increased appropriation of local biodiversity and indigenous knowledge by industry as well as global debates on promoting sustainable resource utilisation and sustainable rural livelihoods. This study adopts a two-pronged conceptual approach mainly, Marx’s Ecology and the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework (SRLF). The former provides useful insights into the processes and dynamics of power asymmetries between developed and developing countries, capital accumulation, inherent displacement and the predatory nature of capitalism. Whilst the latter addresses how livelihoods are fashioned in a holistic way. As a significant starting point the South African political economy is examined through the lens of the two economies debate. This research is primarily qualitative using in-depth interviews, observations and archival research as the primary data collection techniques. Preliminary site visits were conducted to negotiate access. Key informants of the study were representatives of the core groups (interested and affected stakeholders) involved in the case of pelargonium sidoides. Specifically, participants included representatives from the Imingcangathelo Community Development Trust and the Masakhane Community Property Association, local harvesters, local community members, monitoring and enforcement environmental officers, plant breeders (cultivators), scientists, local businessmen involved in natural resource trade, academics, legal representatives and non-governmental organisations. The Rhodes University research ethical guidelines were followed accordingly. The findings of the study suggest that trade in pelargonium sidoides is influenced by a complex and dynamic interplay between the state-industry-rural elite coalitions. Moreover, that this activity is largely centralised and exclusionary. This process is depicted in the unsustainable utilisation of pelargonium sidoides and other natural resources, the dismantling of local livelihoods, exploitation of harvesters and an incoherent environmental governance structure. At the core of this unequal system of exchange is industry, which effectively functions to generate profits whilst dispossessing peripheral communities such as the Masakhane community. The study therefore, argues that in order for local communities to access the trade there needs to be a shift in this system of unequal exchange. Not only regarding beneficiation, but in building community capacity and becoming involved as critical stakeholders in the governance of resources in the study area. The study found that there are competing narratives that inform the status and sustainability of pelargonium sidoides. Furthermore, given the current trajectory of the Masakhane community’s struggle for land, access to natural resources and exclusion from decision-making regarding pelargonium sidoides, the area will continue to be underdeveloped with concomitant poverty, inequality and comprised rural livelihoods.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Ambivalence and paradox: the battered woman's interactions with the law and other helping resources
- Authors: Labe, Dana
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Family violence , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3333 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003127 , Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Family violence , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Description: This thesis explores how the battered woman attachment to her abusive partner impacts on her interactions with the legal system and non-legal resources. This qualitative research project is based on in-depth interviews conducted with seven abused women who procured interdicts in terms of the Prevention of Family Violence Act 133 of 1993 to restrain their husbands from assaulting them. The research reviews the nature of abuse suffered by the participants, their psychological attachments to their husbands, and their patterns of help-seeking in relation to the law and non-legal resources. Two main theoretical frameworks, psychoanalysis and feminism inform this study. The study found that the participants retained unrealistic hopes that their husbands would reform and become loving, caring partners, and that they treated their husbands with care and sympathy despite their husbands’ often brutal behaviour towards them. The findings suggest that the women’s behaviour towards their husbands was the product of two reality distorting psychological defences, splitting and the moral defence which they used to preserve their attachments to their abusive partners. These defences intersected with rigid patriarchal prescriptions of femininity which dictate that women should be stoically caring towards their husbands, and should hold relationships together no matter what the cost to themselves. The participants interactions with the legal system and with non-legal sources of help were structured by their reliance on splitting and the moral defence, and by the dictates of patriarchal ideology. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that at one level the participants sought help to get protection from abuse, the study shows that their help-seeking was motivated by their conflicting desires to punish and reform their husbands. The participants sought help in ways which enabled them to strike a compromise between expressing their anger at their husbands, whilst simultaneously preserving their psychological attachments to them. The study concludes that the women’s interactions with the law and with other helping resource reflect their attempts to preserve their paradoxical attachments to their husbands, and to stabilise their own fragile sense of self and gender identity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
An analysis of the asset-based community development approach to early childhood development interventions in Grahamstown township pre-schools: a case study of the Centre for Social Development and Rhodes University Community Engagement
- Authors: Maponya, Mapula
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63670 , vital:28469
- Description: Is the glass half-full or half-empty? The purpose of this research was to show how Centre for Social Development and Rhodes University Community Engagement applies the Asset-Based Community Development approach in ECD interventions in Grahamstown township pre-schools. The subsidiary goals of the research were to highlight the challenges in the Early Childhood Development sector in Gahamstown, find out how the approach contributes to empowerment, participation and sustainability, and analyse the challenges that CSD and RUCE face in applying the approach and the relationship between the two organisations. The case study focused on the Centre for Social Development (CSD) and Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE). These two cases established projects that aim to improve Grahamstown township pre-schools. The apartheid system created a childhood of adversity for black children including inadequate access to social services, quality nutrition, health care and education. Black children in rural areas and townships faced tremendous obstacles in terms of access to quality ECD centres due to poverty and lack of adequate resources. In Grahamstown, various problems such as unemployment, poverty and restrictive apartheid regulations created a need for ECD interventions. Both organisations applied the Asset-Based Community Development approach to improve ECD in Grahamstown. The asset-based approach was created as a response to the impact of the needs-based approach. The needs- based approach focuses on deficiencies that exist in a community and uses outside experts and resources to address the deficiencies. The needs-based approach builds communities from the outside in, further disempowers community members and creates an environment of dependency. The asset-based approach on the other hand, was created to change the legacy of dependency by focusing on capacity building. A capacity-focused paradigm recognizes the gifts, skills and talents of community members. This approach is bottom- up beginning with what is available in the community and building on that. The approach aims to empower people, create a positive outlook on circumstances, and encourages organisations to work together with community members in community development projects. To achieve the main and subsidiary goals of the research, qualitative research was conducted using the case study method. In pursuing the objective of the thesis, I conducted research among ECD practitioners, student volunteers and staff from CSD and RUCE. Based on the findings it is clear that the application of the Asset-Based approach has a positive impact on ECD practitioners, children at the pre-schools and student volunteers. Through the application of the ABCD approach, ECD practitioners became proactive and took the driving seat in the development process. The ECD practitioners built strong relationships with community members and outside organisations. They have improved their skills and qualifications, and are on their way to restoring their agency, finding their voice and achieving independence. This has a positive impact on children at the pre-schools as they receive quality education and care. There are various challenges and contradictions in the application of the approach but the ECD practitioners view the communities in which they operate as half-full and not half-empty
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
An analysis of the development model for ex-farmworkers and adjacent communities in the Indalo association of private game reserves in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Tessendorf, Samantha Millicent
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Game reserves -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- Citizen participation , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3399 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018547
- Description: Over the past fifteen years there has been an extensive conversion of land use from traditional farming practices to conservation and private game reserves. It has been suggested by Langholz and Kerley (2006:2) that privately owned preserved areas can engage in ecotourism initiatives by protecting biodiversity, succeeding financially and contributing to social upliftment. However, ecotourism has to operate within the context of historical land dispossession of the majority black population and current land reform initiatives to address this problem. In view of the economic, social and environmental importance of ecotourism based private game reserves (PGRs) in South Africa, particularly the Eastern Cape, the main goal of this research is to examine the Indalo association of private game reserves in the Eastern Cape Province’s development model for ex-farmworkers and adjacent communities. This was done through a literature survey and analysis of existing studies and by interviewing the managers of the Indalo PGRs and a few farmworkers to get their opinions of the tension between what they are doing and the imperatives of land reform. This involved an exploration of their community development work, particularly around issues of job creation, participation in decision-making, capacity building and sustainability. The thesis comes to the following conclusions. The first is that the establishment of PGRs have a significant positive impact on the local areas in which they are established. As a land-use, ecotourism based game reserves are an economically and ecologically desirable alternative to other land uses. Therefore the ecotourism based private game reserve industry with its extensive community development focus for farmworkers and local communities is a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional land reform. The second is that the Indalo PGRs development work has built capacity in the communities it has served. However, community participation, particularly in decision-making is limited and needs more attention if productive and sustainable development is to be achieved. Lastly, communities rely heavily on external support for their development and upliftment. However, the majority of the PGRs have/or are putting measures in place to ensure the continuation of community development projects to ensure the long-term sustainability of projects.
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- Date Issued: 2015
An analysis of understandings of and attitudes towards transgender people on a South African university campus
- Authors: Mantungo, Xolelwa Thandokazi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Transgender people -- South Africa -- Public opinion , Gender identity -- South Africa -- Public opinion , Transgender college students -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76309 , vital:30546
- Description: There are issues that always arise when it comes to gender identities and gender expressions. These issues are a result of the gender binary that corners people into being either feminine or masculine. Our societies are shaped in ways that supports this gender binary. If you are born a female, you are expected to be feminine and if you are born a male you are expected to act in a masculine way. When a person whose gender identity does not correspond with his or her assigned sex at birth, their behaviour is problematized and sometimes even criminalized and they are considered as deviant individuals by many societies. Consequently, most people who do not conform to gender societal norms are more exposed to violence, stigmatization, discrimination, marginalization, and victimization. People have difficulty understanding that there is ‘gender variance’, in other words, that there are more than just two genders. It is apparent that, even though societies enforce the gender binary, there are individuals who wish to express their genders in different ways, thus there are people who identify as transgender. The main focus of this dissertation is on the gender identities of transgendered people. Transgender people are people whose gender identity and or gender expression is distinct from the sex to which they were assigned at birth. The transgender group is a minority group (including in African countries) and one can argue that it is either misrepresented, misunderstood, hardly visible and ignored. This is evident when one looks at the lack of research on transgender populations in Africa. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the understandings that people have about transgender people on a South African university campus. In this dissertation the intent is to explore what it means to be transgender, the Rhodes University students’ understandings of transgendered people, the issues of gender identities and gender expressions and the challenges that transgender people face. The research question that this dissertation seeks to find an answer to is “Do Rhodes University students understand the notion of transgender and how do they react towards transgendered people on campus?”
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- Date Issued: 2019
An analytical commentary on Act No 40 (Welfare Organisations Act) of 1947 and its relation to Act No 79 (National Welfare Act) of 1965
- Authors: Barratt, Inez
- Date: 1968
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:21286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7690
- Description: From Introduction: Act No. 40 of 1947, after nineteen years in operation has been superseded by Act No. 79 of 1965. Here an attempt will be made to establish first those conditions which, in the years preceding 1944, produced a demand, both from the general electorate, from members of the legislature and from those actively concerned with the problems of social welfare in South Africa, that appropriate legislation be promulgated to alleviate the conditions. As Act 40/1947 was drafted in an attempt to remedy antecedent conditions, so it is hoped to show that in its provisions, and their attempted execution by the organs established in terms of the Act, there may be discerned the germs of at least some of the provisions of Act 79/1965. Effects of past economic depressions as well as a more recent increased awareness of overseas conditions and thinking, coupled with the war-time atmosphere and the start of rapid industrialisation all .affected the legislation that was finally passed. The degree of unanimity amongst those who advocated control of Welfare bodies through legislation will be considered, as well as the adequacy of the means available for its enforcement. So, too, will habits of thought and action which both affected interpretation and limited co-operation on several levels, for they also are amongst the factors which, by limiting the Act's effectiveness, strengthened the demand for new legislation. Attention will also be paid to that reaction against things regarded as "foreign” which, always present in South Africa, gathered strength from the 1860's, gained expression in official quarters especially after 1948 and which, together with the policy of separate development, greatly affected activities in terms of Act 40/1947.
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- Date Issued: 1968
Attitudes and perceptions of marriage and divorce among Indian Muslim students
- Authors: Naidoo, Suraya
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Muslim families -- Social life and customs , Muslim students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3289 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003077 , Muslim families -- Social life and customs , Muslim students -- Attitudes
- Description: This study explores the question of religion and ethnicity as a source of family diversity and ideology. An ideal-typical "traditional Muslim family ideology" was developed and tested. Eight Indian Muslim students at Rhodes University were asked about their attitudes and perceptions of marriage and family life, to determine the particular type of family ideology that these students embraced. Family-related issues such as marriage; the division of labour; gender roles; the extended family system; divorce; and polygamy were addressed. On the basis of the research results, it was found that these students largely adopted the "traditional Muslim family ideology". Religion and ethnicity were found to play an important role, in the make-up of these students' perception of marriage and family life, and a strong preference for the extended family was shown.
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- Date Issued: 2001