A socio-economic study of East London, Cape Province, with special reference to the non-European peoples
- Authors: Bettison, D G
- Date: 1951
- Subjects: East London (South Africa) -- Social conditions , East London (South Africa) -- Economic conditions , Rural-urban migration -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3387 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013496
- Description: From Forward: The development of gold mines in the Orange Free State is likely to be to modern East London what Kaffir Wars were to old East London. "The Fighting Port", as it is commonly called, is the nearest harbour to these mines and is linked by good rail, road and air facilities. A wide variety of industry is already established. Development is likely to be rapid. At present the City contains over 80,000 persons, and with the addition of peri-urban suburbs has doubled its population in just over fifteen years. In the past is has claimed to be the healthiest holiday resort in the Union. This year a City-wide campaign has been organised to fight tuberculosis, as the City's statistics indicate that it has one of the highest rates of anywhere in the world. Within twelve years two government sided commissions of enquiry have sat in the City and reported on the administration and living conditions of the city's African populaton. Extremely strong adjectives have been used to describe, and drastic recommendations made to improve the socio-economic and general conditions of the African people. Under the holiday atmosphere of the City lies a very serious, complex, and potentially dangerous human problem.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1951
The rehabilitative value of sub-economic housing as illustrated by Schauder Township, Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, 1938-1948
- Authors: Stoker, F M L
- Date: 1954
- Subjects: Housing rehabilitation -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3389 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014554
- Description: [From Introductory discussion]. The modern approach to any sociological problem is characterised by the attempt to analyse the contributory factors in such a way that their inter-active association is clearly discernible. The simple concept of "single cause and effect" is now recognised to be a traversity of social fact. Social Pathology, therefore, may be said to attempt to isolate the multiple factors involved in a given situation, and to endeavour to determine thelr mode of inter-action in order that remedial techniques may be applied effectively. Slum conditions are obviously pathologic, by which it is understood that the environment imposes strains upon the individual to which there is ineffective adjustment. The rehabilitation of such a population would involve the converse process, restoring individuals to a condition where they are able to cope in every respect with the demands of life at their respective class levels. It is very rare indeed that only a single factor is involved in a social pathological condition and for this reason it is quite possible that one- sided efforts at rehabilitation - such as the attempt to re-house ALL slum dwellers in sub-economic houses - have a tendency to increase the pathology in another direction. Rehabilitation must therefore be based on multi-factorial analysis in which allowance is, as far as possible, made for the inter-connection of each of the individual deviations from the normal. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of good housing conditions on the 2335 Coloured slum families re-housed in sub-economic houses at Schauder Township, Port Elizabeth, from the time that these houses were first available for occupancy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1954
Some problems and methods of measuring the growth of African negroid populations
- Authors: Myburgh, Corneles Albert Lloyd
- Date: 1955
- Subjects: Africa -- Population -- Statistics , Demography -- Africa , Population forecasting -- Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013560
- Description: A dissertation ... giving details of problems and methods of obtaining statistics of the more important demographic aspects of the African Negroid populations, that is the size of a population, its sex and age distribution, migration movements, deaths and rates of increase.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1955
The voluntary welfare organisations of the Border and Transkei: a contribution to the sociology of social work
- Authors: Bettison, D G
- Date: 1956
- Subjects: Social service -- South Africa -- Transkei Social service -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Volunteer workers in social service
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003102
- Description: This research is intended to examine the internal organisational structure of the existing [voluntary welfare] organisations to ascertain what relationship may prove effective between themselves and the [Border Local Welfare] Board. This aim introduced the need to ascertain whether a) the organisations in any town were connected with organisations in other towns or to a central administrative office either in the area of investigation or outside it; or b) the organisations of any town were simply ad hoc units unrelated to any other organisation or similar organisations elsewhere. If the latter were the case then the difficulty of co-ordination and representation on the Board could probably be no better arranged than an ad hoc system as at present. If, however, the former was the predominant pattern, then it would suggest other and more convenient means to the end in view. Fourthly, it was hoped to gain some knowledge of the fund raising methods of welfare organisations, the nature of the people controlling them, the attitudes of managing committees to social work, and what they thought a case work agency should do; and, lastly, some indication of the history of social work as practised by the voluntary agencies in the area of investigation. These latter topics were not intended to form the principal subject matter of the work. They have not been treated fully in the text, but the information gathered has been included in appropriate places throughout.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1956
Grahamstown: a socio-ecological study of a small South African Town
- Authors: Watts, Hilstan Lett
- Date: 1958
- Subjects: Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Buildings , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3386 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013424
- Description: Little is known at present about the development, structure, and functions of small towns in the Union of South Africa, and there is a need to fill this gap in our knowledge. A study has been made of Grahamstown, a small South African town. This study is monographic and intensive in character, and heuristic in aim. Ad hoc hypotheses have been formulated on the basis of the findings of the study, and these must be tested by subsequent studies of other small towns. Grahamstown, the subject of the study, was chosen largely for reasons of convenience, and also because of its interesting development. It is suggested that in many ways the town is possibly a typical small town, but at this stage we cannot know if this is so. Only the white population of the town was investigated, as it was necessary to limit research to manageable proportions, and in addition several studies have already been made of the non-white populations of the town. The analysis has been described as socio-ecological, as basically the methodological approach used is an attempt to wed the methods of the urban demographer and the social ecologist. Time and space are used as the two co-ordinates for the analysis, so that both a social historical and an ecological-demographic analysis of the town have been made. The historical analysis of the development and functions of Grahamstown relies heavily on material collected from the early newspapers of the town. Grahamstown, once the most important town in the Eastern Cape Province, known as the ''Emporium" and ''Metropolis" of the Eastern Cape, and the most progressive town in the Colony, is to-day a small static town with, on the whole, relatively restricted influence. This fundamental change in the historical development of the town, hitherto unexplained, is the result of the changes in the socioecological make-up of the region around the town. Founded in 1812 as a strategic outpost on the frontier of the Colony, Grahamstown dominated a wide region; as the gateway to and the supply centre for, the frontier, the town flourished and reigned supreme. From the mid 19th Century onwards the region began to change to a developed one, with the frontier more and more inland. Grahamstown, no longer a strategic outpost in a frontier region, lost its dominant ecological position to Port Elizabeth, the natural supply base for, and gateway to, the new settled region. As one town among many in the new settled region, Grahamstown gradually lost many of its former functions, and began to stagnate. The town is to-day mainly known for its important educational function. This function, a relic from the days of the town's zenith, has saved the town from complete stagnation. The town is what it is to-day largely because of the socio-ecological regional influences which have operated on it since its foundation. To-day Grahamstown is located within the Port Elizabeth metropolitan district. The town is the centre of a wide variety of regional services of an ad hoc type, and the modal region served seems to be that settled by the 1820 Settlers - basically the town is mainly a supply centre for its surrounding rural areas. The demographic structure of the town reveals a static population. Growth of the white population has been practically static since about 1880, and the age structure is that of a stationary population. Particularly noticeable is the under-representation of the young working group in the population, and it is suggested that due to the lack of economic opportunities in the town, the young workers of the town, especially the unmarried males, migrate to larger urban areas to seek employment, and advancement. The sex-ratio of the population shows an excess of females, and this may be due to migration out of an excess of young males, and possibly migration in of older spinsters. Retired persons definitely migrate to the town to settle. The town, a predominantly English speaking one, has practically no industries, and so the population contains a majority of workers engaged in professional, administrative, and commercial activities. This stresses the service and supply functions of the town. The ecological analysis delineated various natural areas and zones in the town. The pattern approximates to patterns revealed by studies of American towns. Although the areas involved were relatively small, ecological differentiation was marked. The spatial distribution of demographic and other social phenomena was studied in detail. The results of the study have allowed several ad hoc hypotheses concerning the development, functions, and structures of small towns in South Africa to be formulated. These may be tested by subsequent studies, and so ultimately knowledge and theories about our small towns may be built up.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1958
An investigation of the role of conflict in the stratificationary process of the African in the copper mining industry of Northern Rhodesia between the years, 1943-1961
- Authors: Coetzee, J A G
- Date: 1964
- Subjects: Social conflict -- Zambia , Conflict management -- Zambia , Copper industry and trade -- Zambia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3382 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013332
- Description: The aim of this study is to investigate the role of CONFLICT in the stratificationary process of the African in the Copper Mining Industry of Northern Rhodesia between the years 1943 - 1961. The hypothesis and assumptions which it is desired to prove can be classified as falling into four categories: 1. that which accepts human beings as individuals acting in group structures, each group having its appropriate goals and ends forming discernable patterned action systems; 2. that these groups can be reconstructed to show variable patterns of action which might be either accommodative or initially contradictory as conflicts emerge within the system; 3. that items 1 and 2 above can be objectivised by empirical materials and that they change in time, and, in so doing, are modified in structure-functional relations; 4. that conflict is the process which animates the patterns and prescribes new goals and ends within the patterned activity systems. An indefinite number of causality factors are possible in explaining social change, but we confine ourselves to the concept CONFLICT, with special reference to the Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia. The economic factors operating, together with the political and social factors, producing a typical stratification of the African in the industry, sofar as this reveals changing patterns of progressive and aggressive goal thrusts and redefinition of the social positions of the contesting participants, are dealt with in the appropriate sections of this investigation. The model has been developed in relation to the study of the total social system with special emphasis on their overtly political and economical aspects. Part 1, in its entirety, deals with the theory of conflict. It also contains our own development of the theme. The empirical data are contained in parts 2, 3, with a section on envisaged future social developments. The conclusion, to this investigation, forms the last part , with an exhaustive testing of the TEN-POINT HYPOTHESIS given at the end of Part 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1964
Absenteeism in the footwear industry in South Africa
- Authors: Townsend, A C
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Absenteeism (Labor) -- South Africa , Footwear industry -- South Africa , Employees -- South Africa , South Africa -- Industries
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3384 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013408
- Description: From Introduction: During the past three decades or more, the study of absenteeism in industry has been carried on in many different ways, by numerous investigators and in a wide range of industries. The purpose of such studies has varied; sometimes they have been stimulated by purely academic interest and have sought to investigate the relationship between absenteeism and various other measurable factors in the work situation such as age, race, sex, length of service and wage rates. Most studies, however, have been prompted by the urgent necessity to determine whether an absence problem existed within a specific factory, community or industry and to discover some effective means of dealing with it. Most studies have been empirical and pragmatic as has befitted their intentions. Inevitably, those who have conducted studies of the latter type have asked two questions (a) how do the absence rates emerging from this investigation compare with those from other studies and (b) are they 'normal' or 'abnormal'? In other words, does the data which has been gathered indicate the existence of an absence problem? The main purpose of this monograph is to demonstrate that the Gross Absence Rate is not an effective basis for the discovery of answers to either of these questions. It will seek, in other words, to demonstrate the truth of the following fundamental postulate: THE GROSS ABSENCE RATE IS NOT, IN ITSELF, A SUFFICIENT BASIS FOR THE COMPARISON OF THE ABSENCE BEHAVIOUR OF ONE GROUP OF WORKERS WITH THAT OF ANOTHER OR WITH A PRE-ESTABLISHED NORM, NOR IS IT AN ADEQUATE INDICATOR OF THE PRESENCE OR OTHERWISE OF AN ABSENCE PROBLEM AMONG ANY GIVEN GROUP OF WORKERS. Although this study will include some account of investigations into the relationship between absence rates and various socio-economic factors, it will do so primarily in order to seek support for the above postulate.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
Community leadership in Grahamstown
- Authors: Van der Merwe, Hendrik W
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Sociology, Urban -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Community leadership -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Community development, Urban -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3390 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014564
- Description: In this study an analysis was made of the leadership structure of the community of Grahamstown. It was hypothesized that the leadership structure is pluralistic i.e. that leaders are divided along themselves on different issues. An historical and documentary analysis of various aspects of community life revealed that leaders were not united on almost all issues. An analysis of the voluntary associations in which the top leaders took an active part revealed great discrepancy in terms of orientation toward the community, society, and social exclusiveness. A schedule was administered to 90 leaders who were identified by the Cooperating- Informant Technique. Data. were collected about their background characteristics, attitudes toward certain local issues and their general ideological orientations. It was found that stands taken on local issues can best be interpreted in terms of ideological orientation. We conclude that local community leadership is pluralistic. In view of the relationship between local issues and the larger society, several selected problems merit further investigation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
A systematic study of the dynamics of human communication : with special reference to systems emergent from the Action Frame of Reference
- Authors: Kapelus, Saville
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Communication , Content analysis (Communication)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3369 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012624 , Communication , Content analysis (Communication)
- Description: "Communication" has been described as one of the busiest crossroads in the study of human behaviour. Workers in many disciplines have stressed the importance of knowledge about communication to their own work as well as contributing to the general pool of literature on the various aspects of the subject. Intro., p. 1
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
An investigation into the components of motivation so far as these determine employee stability and work satisfaction amongst Europeans and Africans engaged in the same occupational grading in the copper mining industry of Zambia
- Authors: Coetzee, J A G
- Date: 1968
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3383 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013334
- Description: From introduction: The aim of this study is to analyse the motivational system, so far as this regulates and orients the stability and work satisfactions of Europeans and Africans, in a supervisory occupational category engaged in industrial-mining in the Copper Mining Company of Rhokana, Zambia , during a period of six years, ending in 1963 .
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
A study of Jewish identification and commitment in Johannesburg
- Authors: Dubb, Allie A
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Jews -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Johannesburg (South Africa) -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3362 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011564
- Description: The present study is an investigation of the nature and extent of Jewish identification and commitment in the Johannesburg Jewish Community. Jewish identification is defined as the attitudes and behaviour through which Jews express their identity with each other and with the Jewish group. It is conceived as comprising several dimensions - structural, cultural, religious, etc . - each of which may be assessed in terms of attitudes and/or behaviour. The aim of the study is, in the first place to describe the various dimensions of Jewish identification and to discover relations between them, and between them and other variables. Fieldwork consisted in the administration of a schedule, lasting about an hour, by trained interviewers to a quota sample of Johannesburg Jews. The schedule comprised questions relating to behaviour, attitudes and personal particulars. These data were augmented by several intensive interviews and by interviewers' observations. The final sample consisted of 286 men and women, in almost equal proportions, who had answered affirmatively the initial question, "Are you Jewish?" Five hypotheses were postulated, mainly on the basis of the findings of several previous studies in the United States. Briefly, it was postulated: firstly, that Jews would tend to identify through their attitudes to a greater extent than through actual behaviour; secondly that the area in which identification on the behavioural level was most likely to be manifested, was in patterns of social relations; thirdly, that observance of religious rituals was primarily a manifestation of identification rather than religious commitment ; fourthly; that there was some conflict between the desire to maintain the group and the feeling that barriers between ethnic groups should be minimal; and, finally , that the boundaries of the .Jewish community could be defined most adequately in terms of the relevance to community membership to the allocation of roles rather than in cultural terms. The first hypothesis had to be partially rejected; the remaining four were confirmed by the data. The study comprises eleven Chapters: in the first four, the problem is defined, hypotheses stated and research and sampling methods discussed; in Chapter Five, the demographic background is described, and in Chapters Six to Ten the findings relating to the various dimensions are presented and the hypotheses tested. In the final Chapter, the hypotheses and various specific findings are discussed in relation to their wider theoretical implications, as well as to their possibilities for further research and practical applications.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1973
The African press in South Africa
- Authors: St Leger, Frederick York
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Press -- South Africa -- History Ethnic press -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3328 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003116
- Description: In a plural society, riven by deep conflict, as is South Africa, where however the Press retains a considerable measure of freedom to contribute to the political process it is the political role which is of the greatest significance rather than, for example, the reflection by the Press of social values or the internal organisation of the Press as a social system. Although it is, of course, hardly possible completely to ignore these other aspects in any institutional study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1975
Black and white women: a socio-historical study of domestic workers and their employers in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Cock, Jacklyn
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Household employees -- South Africa Working class -- South Africa Women, Black -- Employment -- South Africa South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3287 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003075
- Description: Domestic service constitutes one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. Yet it is a largely unstudied occupation. There has been no previous investigation of domestic workers in the Eastern Cape, and to date only two comprehensive studies of domestic workers in other areas of South Africa. This neglect is significant, for such inquiry involves questioning the accepted pattern of inequalities on which the entire social order is based.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
A victimological study among Coloureds in the Cape Peninsula
- Authors: Strijdom, Hendrik Gert
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Victims of crimes -- South Africa -- Western Cape Colored people (South Africa) -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3342 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004582
- Description: From Introduction: Criminology developed as a reaction to the various revolutions that were occurring in the European countries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In response to the turmoil and disorder of Western society criminologists attempted to discover the natural laws of society hoping to establish a stable social order. Crime was regarded as something that disturbed society and, therefore, had to be controlled or prevented. According to Quinney and Wildeman (1977) the development of criminology can be viewed as an ongoing attempt to explain crime in terms of established social order. They state that in the history of criminology there is, however, a lack of a clear accumulative theoretical growth and continue as follows: "No line of theoretical development can be found that leads to a well-developed body of knowledge. The study of crime is characterized by a number of divergent theoretical perspectives that exist in relative isolation from one another" (p. 38). Quinney and Wildeman (1977) distinguish five theoretical perspectives in the development of criminology namely: (I) early and classical criminological thought, (2) nineteenth-century sociological criminology, (3) nineteenth-century biological criminology, (4) twentieth-century eclectic criminology, and (5) twentieth-century sociological criminology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1983
'Rhodesians' in South Africa : a study of immigrants from Zimbabwe
- Authors: Simon, Alan
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Zimbabweans South Africa -- Foreign population Zimbabwe -- Emigration and immigration South Africa -- Emigration and immigration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005630
- Description: Although most whites have remained in Zimbabwe after independence and not all who have emigrated came to South Africa, large numbers established themselves as an immigrant community in this country. The aim of this study is to "sociologically capture" this community's views about their past experiences in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and their present experiences in South Africa. This is done by employing a generative methodological procedure whereby members of the target population themselves generated issues considered to be of importance to their previous and new situational contexts. As it was not possible to obtain a random sample of all Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, questionnaire data were collected from four separate categories of respondents. In addition, depth interviews were conducted and thus responses have been analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings demonstrate that for the most part, few "Zimbabweans" - whites who are reasonably accepting of the new socio-political order in independent Zimbabwe - have come to South Africa. Rather, most of the immigrants, whose views were canvassed in this research investigation, seem to be bitter "Rhodesians" who have been unable to accept change and integration and the consequent loss of white privilege in the new Zimbabwe. These recent immigrants have not found all things to their satisfaction in South Africa moreover, despite the similar socio-political structures in former Rhodesia and contemporary South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
The origins, development and demise of the South African Indian Council 1964-1983 : a sociological interpretation
- Authors: Desai, Ashwin
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: South African Indian Council -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3349 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007082 , South African Indian Council -- History
- Description: It was the actions of the Congress Alliance that dominated the political activity of the dominated classes in the 1950s. Mobilising across class and colour lines, the actions of the Congress Alliance had witnessed a growing unity between the leading political organisations of the Indian, African and Coloured dominated classes. However just as quickly as it appeared, the Congress Alliance disappeared from the poitical scene, crushed by the state's repressive apparatus. The state, in order to ensure that the extra-parliamentary opposition characteristic of the 1950s did not once again re-emerge, sought to divide the dominated classes more systematically along ethnic and racial lines by creating mechanisms for the implementation of the policy of separate development. It is within this context that the Promotion of Bantu-Self-Government Act of 1959 was passed and the Coloured Persons' Representative Council (CRC) and the ' South African Indian Council (SAIC) were established. Whilst the history of Indian political organisations in the pre-1960 period has been extensively researched, no in-depth study of the SAIC has been made. Probably the main reason for this area being under-researched, has been the inability of researchers to gain access to information on the SAlC, especially of the period covering the early years of the organisation’ s existence. This study aims to fill this vacuum by utilizing in the main previously unused minutes of the SAlC from 1964 to 1977 together with numerous documents and memoranda presented to the South African government by SAlC delegations in the aforementioned period.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
Immigrant adaptation in South Africa
- Authors: Couper, Michael Patrick
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Immigrants -- South Africa South Africa -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3330 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003118
- Description: Although the immigrant flow to South Africa has been relatively small compared to that of other immigrant receiving countries, when considered in terms of the size of South Africa's population and the fact that immigrants are restricted to the White population group, the role of immigrants in this society is considerable. Despite this, few comprehensive studies of the experiences of immigrants in South Africa have been attempted. The aim of this study is to examine the adaptation of immigrants from various countries according to a number of dimensions. Adaptation is conceived of as a dynamic and multidimensional process. A mail survey of seven immigrant groups in South Africa was undertaken during 1985. A total of 3,520 completed questionnaires were obtained from respondents representing British, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, British African and Portuguese African immigrants. The relationships among dimensions of subjective adaptation (satisfaction, identification and acceptance) and objective adaptation (social, cultural, economic, religious and political adaptation) are examined. The role of settlement and citizenship intentions are also investigated, as are various factors (country of origin, length of residence, etc.) that affect immigrant adaptation in South Africa. Multivariate analyses are undertaken to explore the nature of the relationships among these variables. Following these analyses a model of immigrant adaptation in South Africa is proposed. This model is intended to serve as a framework to guide future research on the adaptation of immigrants in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
Illness as intersubjectivity: a sociological perspective
- Authors: Pitfield, Doreen Jennie
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Humanism , Medical care -- Sociological aspects , Intersubjectivity , Medical ethics -- Sociological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3329 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003117 , Humanism , Medical care -- Sociological aspects , Intersubjectivity , Medical ethics -- Sociological aspects
- Description: This thesis explores the historical roots of scientific medicine in an effort to highlight the lack of humanist intersubjectivity within the contemporary medical model. The study notes that contemporary medicine is overtly scientific and that its scientific framework is upheld and furthered by a medical model which draws legitimation from the irrefutability of what is referred to variously within this work, as its scientific "regime". It is shown that in terms of the humanist tradition people, not science, constitute the epicentre of meaningful experiential participation in the defining of human social reality. This, it is argued, implies a radically different ontology from other sociological perspectives on medicine. The thesis suggests that the contemporary medical model loses sight of the patient's ability to cognitively participate in the defining of illness, diagnosis and treatment in terms of his/her experience thereof , and argues that contemporary medicine, by advancing the idea that it alone has the correct and only answer to such problems, has led to a situation which promotes an overmedicalisation of society . The study gives an indication of the way in which this overmedicalisation has led to areas of human life becoming conceived of only in relation to medical expertise. In this respect it is noted that medicine has so successfully infiltrated the human consciousness (involving areas as diverse as childbirth, genetic engineering, transplant surgery and death), that decisions on health are invariably taken from a foundation of scientific legitimation which seems to exclude the patient as subject. It is argued that this way of making decisions reinforces the requirement for a scientific medical model which as it negates the human element insidiously amplifies its power over human life; thereby devaluing the very people it seeks to serve. The thesis suggests that in terms of a humanist reading of the Oath of Hippocrates, medical decisions can only be taken within a framework of experiential involvement which includes both medical expertise and lay understanding. It is indicated that when this happens, social reality functions in terms of a symbolic participation which fosters a commitment to equalise the conditions of human existence, and promotes a dialogical negotiatory process which is both intersubjectively and ongoingly produced.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
The integration of academic skills/support programmes into university department structures: a case study in the sociology of education
- Authors: Drewett, Michael
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Compensatory education -- South Africa , Education, Higher , Education -- Philosophy , Rhodes University. Academic Development Programme
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3327 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003115
- Description: This research focuses on the extent to which the Rhodes University Academic Skills Programme (ASP), now known as the Academic Development Programme, is able to act as an agent of progressive change within Rhodes University. In so doing it concentrates on the potential of the strategy of integrated academic development for dealing with the academic needs of university students within the context of South Africa as a society in transition. The candidate considers the inability of structuralist educational theory to account for the potential of human agency at the site of formal education. It is shown that structuralist theories provide deterministic and pessimistic accounts of the role of institutions of formal education. In support of this contention this study explores the history of ASP at Rhodes University, demonstrating that significant change in student academic development has already taken place. ASP has contributed to change within the said University through challenging traditional notions of academic development. This thesis suggests that the non-structuralist critical theory of Jurgen Habermas provides a more holistic account of ASP than do structuralist theories of formal education. Through the incorporation of Habermas's theory of communicative action a process of critical integration is explored, showing that a strategy of integrated academic development has the potential to involve all those who have an interest in university education through a process of rational discourse. This potential is strengthened by the fact that many students and staff have expressed an awareness of the need for an integrated academic development strategy. This thesis subsequently explores the possibility of there being a process of democratic and rational discourse which could lead to a progressive integration programme in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology. This thesis stresses the contested nature of the integration process within departments. It is indicated that Habermas's critical theory is able to account for the changes which have taken place in the past and which are presently under way. It is argued that it not possible to predict future outcomes, but that if ASP pursues a process of rational discourse, it will indeed be able to stimulate a critical integrative approach to academic development in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993