Trade union responses to the casualisation of labour in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Loni, Kholosa Siphe
- Date: 2013 , 2013-04-23
- Subjects: Labor unions -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Casual labor -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Precarious employment -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Temporary employees -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Research -- South Africa Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Labor and globalization
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003056
- Description: This thesis focuses on trade union responses to casualisation of labour in the Eastern Cape. In the context of increased globalization, some employers have attempted to achieve high production outputs while saving on operational costs. The ‘flexible firm’ model is used as but one theory to explain increased flexibility in the workplace. In an effort to achieve increasingly flexible firms that may swiftly respond to subsequent challenges such as increased international competition, employers have been seen incorporating more non-standard workers in the form of casual, temporary, part-time, and seasonal workers. This has been a matter of concern for the unions for numerous reasons: some nonstandard workers are subjected to sub-standard working conditions, irregular working hours and little or no benefits; casual work is arranged in such a way that it is virtually impossible for these workers to join a union – a predicament which bears a high possibility of a decline in the typically standard worker–based membership of trade unions; and non-standard workers are often faced with the representation gap predicament which entails that they are not adequately protected by labour legislation. The thesis explores the responses of trade unions to these challenges, and the proposals that they have made in this regard, by focusing on the sectoral dynamics of non-standard labour in the province. It further discusses the regulation of non-standard labour, as poor representation of some non-standard workers bears consequences for the regulation of the practice of non-standard work. The research adopted qualitative research techniques in the form of semi-structured interviews, and used purposive and snowball sampling in accessing relevant data for analysis purposes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Loni, Kholosa Siphe
- Date: 2013 , 2013-04-23
- Subjects: Labor unions -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Casual labor -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Precarious employment -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Temporary employees -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Research -- South Africa Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Labor and globalization
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003056
- Description: This thesis focuses on trade union responses to casualisation of labour in the Eastern Cape. In the context of increased globalization, some employers have attempted to achieve high production outputs while saving on operational costs. The ‘flexible firm’ model is used as but one theory to explain increased flexibility in the workplace. In an effort to achieve increasingly flexible firms that may swiftly respond to subsequent challenges such as increased international competition, employers have been seen incorporating more non-standard workers in the form of casual, temporary, part-time, and seasonal workers. This has been a matter of concern for the unions for numerous reasons: some nonstandard workers are subjected to sub-standard working conditions, irregular working hours and little or no benefits; casual work is arranged in such a way that it is virtually impossible for these workers to join a union – a predicament which bears a high possibility of a decline in the typically standard worker–based membership of trade unions; and non-standard workers are often faced with the representation gap predicament which entails that they are not adequately protected by labour legislation. The thesis explores the responses of trade unions to these challenges, and the proposals that they have made in this regard, by focusing on the sectoral dynamics of non-standard labour in the province. It further discusses the regulation of non-standard labour, as poor representation of some non-standard workers bears consequences for the regulation of the practice of non-standard work. The research adopted qualitative research techniques in the form of semi-structured interviews, and used purposive and snowball sampling in accessing relevant data for analysis purposes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Understanding livelihood strategies of urban women traders : a case of Magaba, Harare in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Chirau, Takunda John
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Street vendors -- Zimbabwe -- Harare Women -- Zimbabwe -- Harare -- Social conditions Women -- Zimbabwe -- Harare -- Economic conditions Urban poor -- Zimbabwe -- Harare
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3335 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003742
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand and analyze the livelihood strategies of urban women traders at Magaba in Harare (Zimbabwe) in the context of the contemporary economic and political crisis. The crisis emerged in the 1990s with the introduction of a structural adjustment programme and deepened further with the fast track land reform programme initiated by the Zimbabwean government in the year 2000. The crisis has involved a down-sizing of the Zimbabwean economy and a massive rise in the rate of unemployment in the formal economy. Consequently urban life became increasingly unbearable for poor blacks and informal economic activities blossomed and started to make a significant contribution to household income and livelihoods. The role of women in the informal economy was particularly pronounced. Theoretically, the thesis is underpinned by the sustainable livelihoods framework. In examining the vulnerability context of the Magaba women traders and the institutional interventions which complicate the lives and livelihoods of these traders, I identify and unpack their diverse livelihood activities and strategies and the resources (or assets) they deploy in constructing urban livelihoods. Though their livelihood portfolios complement any earnings from formal employment by household members and though they contribute to their household’s sustenance, there are a number of daily challenges which they face in their trading activities and which they seek to counteract through a range of often ingenious coping mechanisms. The thesis is important for a number of reasons. It fills an important empirical gap in the study of Magaba market specifically, it brings to the fore the gendered character of the informal trading activities in urban Zimbabwe, and it deploys the livelihoods framework in a manner which is sensitive to both structure and agency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Chirau, Takunda John
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Street vendors -- Zimbabwe -- Harare Women -- Zimbabwe -- Harare -- Social conditions Women -- Zimbabwe -- Harare -- Economic conditions Urban poor -- Zimbabwe -- Harare
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3335 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003742
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand and analyze the livelihood strategies of urban women traders at Magaba in Harare (Zimbabwe) in the context of the contemporary economic and political crisis. The crisis emerged in the 1990s with the introduction of a structural adjustment programme and deepened further with the fast track land reform programme initiated by the Zimbabwean government in the year 2000. The crisis has involved a down-sizing of the Zimbabwean economy and a massive rise in the rate of unemployment in the formal economy. Consequently urban life became increasingly unbearable for poor blacks and informal economic activities blossomed and started to make a significant contribution to household income and livelihoods. The role of women in the informal economy was particularly pronounced. Theoretically, the thesis is underpinned by the sustainable livelihoods framework. In examining the vulnerability context of the Magaba women traders and the institutional interventions which complicate the lives and livelihoods of these traders, I identify and unpack their diverse livelihood activities and strategies and the resources (or assets) they deploy in constructing urban livelihoods. Though their livelihood portfolios complement any earnings from formal employment by household members and though they contribute to their household’s sustenance, there are a number of daily challenges which they face in their trading activities and which they seek to counteract through a range of often ingenious coping mechanisms. The thesis is important for a number of reasons. It fills an important empirical gap in the study of Magaba market specifically, it brings to the fore the gendered character of the informal trading activities in urban Zimbabwe, and it deploys the livelihoods framework in a manner which is sensitive to both structure and agency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Cash transfers and poverty reduction in South Africa: a case study of old age pensions
- Authors: Kasere, Gayle Farai
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Poverty -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Poverty -- Grahamstown -- Eastern Cape Social security -- South Africa Pensions -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003109
- Description: Social assistance in the form of cash grants is a large and fiscally costly component of anti-poverty policy in South Africa. A critical question arises: Are the grants effective tools for reducing poverty in South Africa and, moreover, how significant is their impact on poverty? As a measure of reducing poverty, the government has expanded the social grants system since the advent of the new democracy in 1994. The country's social grant system is quite comprehensive and it is intended to cover vulnerable individuals over their life course from childhood to adulthood and into old age. Policy discourse surrounding the grants centres on the sustainability of the system and its implications for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. It is therefore important that the significance of grants is identified and assessed particularly in relation to very poor households. This dissertation focuses specifically on one particular grant, namely, the old age pension. It does so in the context of the sustainable livelihoods conceptual framework and the history of the social grant system in South Africa. Statistical data collected by the South African government as well as more localised evidence gathered in the Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown is used to ascertain the significance of old age pensions for poverty reduction. While there is some evidence to suggest that pensions contribute to poverty reduction, this does not translate into poverty alleviation. In fact, there is some unevenness in the impact of pensions on poverty. In this regard, the decision-making structures in poor households regularly influence the way pension money is allocated and used within households. Grant money is normally shared in extended households, such that the pension does not simply benefit the recipient but the recipient's household as a whole. Although there is cause for concern regarding the propensity of social grants to affect people's behaviour negatively, there is a case to be made for retaining grants as an important, though not the only, form of anti-poverty strategy. This highlights the need for continued research on the social grant system and pensions more specifically.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Kasere, Gayle Farai
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Poverty -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Poverty -- Grahamstown -- Eastern Cape Social security -- South Africa Pensions -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003109
- Description: Social assistance in the form of cash grants is a large and fiscally costly component of anti-poverty policy in South Africa. A critical question arises: Are the grants effective tools for reducing poverty in South Africa and, moreover, how significant is their impact on poverty? As a measure of reducing poverty, the government has expanded the social grants system since the advent of the new democracy in 1994. The country's social grant system is quite comprehensive and it is intended to cover vulnerable individuals over their life course from childhood to adulthood and into old age. Policy discourse surrounding the grants centres on the sustainability of the system and its implications for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. It is therefore important that the significance of grants is identified and assessed particularly in relation to very poor households. This dissertation focuses specifically on one particular grant, namely, the old age pension. It does so in the context of the sustainable livelihoods conceptual framework and the history of the social grant system in South Africa. Statistical data collected by the South African government as well as more localised evidence gathered in the Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown is used to ascertain the significance of old age pensions for poverty reduction. While there is some evidence to suggest that pensions contribute to poverty reduction, this does not translate into poverty alleviation. In fact, there is some unevenness in the impact of pensions on poverty. In this regard, the decision-making structures in poor households regularly influence the way pension money is allocated and used within households. Grant money is normally shared in extended households, such that the pension does not simply benefit the recipient but the recipient's household as a whole. Although there is cause for concern regarding the propensity of social grants to affect people's behaviour negatively, there is a case to be made for retaining grants as an important, though not the only, form of anti-poverty strategy. This highlights the need for continued research on the social grant system and pensions more specifically.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Farm level institutions in emergent communities in post fast track Zimbabwe: case of Mazowe district
- Authors: Chiweshe, Manase Kudzai
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Land reform -- Zimbabwe -- History -- 21st century Land settlement -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Social conditions -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003096
- Description: The thesis seeks to understand how emerging communities borne out of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe have been able to ensure social cohesion and social service provision using farm level institutions. The Fast Track Programme brought together people from diverse backgrounds into new communities in the former commercial farming areas. The formation of new communities meant that, often, there were 'stranger households'living next to each other. Since 2000, these people have been involved in various processes aimed at turning clusters of homesteads into functioning communities through farm level institutions. Fast track land reform precipitated economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe characterised by a rapidly devaluating Zimbabwean dollar, enormous inflation and high unemployment figures. This economic crisis has impacted heavily on new farmers who find it increasingly difficult to afford inputs and access loans. They have formed social networks in response to these challenges, taking the form of farm level institutions such as farm committees, irrigation committees and health committees. The study uses case studies from small-scale 'A1 farmers‘ in Mazowe district which is in Mashonaland Central Province. It employs qualitative methodologies to enable a nuanced understanding of associational life in the new communities. Through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, narratives, key informant interviews and institutional mapping the study outlines the formation, taxonomy, activities, roles, internal dynamics and social organisation of farm level institutions. The study also uses secondary data collected in 2007-08 by the Centre for Rural Development in the newly resettled areas in Mazowe. The major finding of the study is that farmers are organising in novel ways at grassroots levels to meet everyday challenges. These institutional forms however are internally weak, lacking leadership with a clear vision and they appear as if they are transitory in nature. They remain marginalised from national and global processes and isolated from critical connections to policy makers at all levels; thus A1 farmers remain voiceless and unable to have their interests addressed. Farm level institutions are at the forefront of the microeconomics of survival among these rural farmers. They are survivalist in nature and form, and this requires a major shift in focus if they are to be involved in developmental work. The institutions remain fragmented and compete amongst themselves for services from government without uniting as A1 farmers with similar interests and challenges.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Farm level institutions in emergent communities in post fast track Zimbabwe: case of Mazowe district
- Authors: Chiweshe, Manase Kudzai
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Land reform -- Zimbabwe -- History -- 21st century Land settlement -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Social conditions -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003096
- Description: The thesis seeks to understand how emerging communities borne out of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe have been able to ensure social cohesion and social service provision using farm level institutions. The Fast Track Programme brought together people from diverse backgrounds into new communities in the former commercial farming areas. The formation of new communities meant that, often, there were 'stranger households'living next to each other. Since 2000, these people have been involved in various processes aimed at turning clusters of homesteads into functioning communities through farm level institutions. Fast track land reform precipitated economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe characterised by a rapidly devaluating Zimbabwean dollar, enormous inflation and high unemployment figures. This economic crisis has impacted heavily on new farmers who find it increasingly difficult to afford inputs and access loans. They have formed social networks in response to these challenges, taking the form of farm level institutions such as farm committees, irrigation committees and health committees. The study uses case studies from small-scale 'A1 farmers‘ in Mazowe district which is in Mashonaland Central Province. It employs qualitative methodologies to enable a nuanced understanding of associational life in the new communities. Through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, narratives, key informant interviews and institutional mapping the study outlines the formation, taxonomy, activities, roles, internal dynamics and social organisation of farm level institutions. The study also uses secondary data collected in 2007-08 by the Centre for Rural Development in the newly resettled areas in Mazowe. The major finding of the study is that farmers are organising in novel ways at grassroots levels to meet everyday challenges. These institutional forms however are internally weak, lacking leadership with a clear vision and they appear as if they are transitory in nature. They remain marginalised from national and global processes and isolated from critical connections to policy makers at all levels; thus A1 farmers remain voiceless and unable to have their interests addressed. Farm level institutions are at the forefront of the microeconomics of survival among these rural farmers. They are survivalist in nature and form, and this requires a major shift in focus if they are to be involved in developmental work. The institutions remain fragmented and compete amongst themselves for services from government without uniting as A1 farmers with similar interests and challenges.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Fast track land reform programme and women in Goromonzi district, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Chakona, Loveness
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Land reform -- Research -- Zimbabwe Land settlement -- Government policy -- Zimbabwe Land reform beneficiaries -- Zimbabwe Sex discrimination against women -- Zimbabwe Women's rights -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003105
- Description: From the year 2000, land became the key signifier for tackling the unfinished business of the decolonisation process in Zimbabwe, notably by rectifying the racially-based land injustices of the past through land redistribution. This took the form of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). However, the racialised character and focus of the FTLRP tended to mask or at least downplay important gender dimensions to land in Zimbabwe. Colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe (up to 2000) had instigated, propagated and reproduced land ownership, control and access along a distinctively patriarchal basis which left women either totally excluded or incorporated in an oppressive manner. This patriarchal structuring of the land question was rooted in institutions, practices and discourses. Although a burgeoning number of studies have been undertaken on the FTLRP, few have had a distinctively gender focus in seeking to identify, examine and assess the effect of the programme on patriarchal relations and the socio-economic livelihoods of rural women. This thesis makes a contribution to filling this lacuna by offering an empirically-rich study of land redistribution in one particular district in Zimbabwe, namely, Goromonzi District. This entails a focus on women on A1 resettlement farms in the district (and specifically women who came from nearby customary areas) and on women who continue to live in customary areas in the district. My thesis concludes that the FTLRP is seriously flawed in terms of addressing and tackling the patriarchal structures that underpin the Zimbabwean land question.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Chakona, Loveness
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Land reform -- Research -- Zimbabwe Land settlement -- Government policy -- Zimbabwe Land reform beneficiaries -- Zimbabwe Sex discrimination against women -- Zimbabwe Women's rights -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003105
- Description: From the year 2000, land became the key signifier for tackling the unfinished business of the decolonisation process in Zimbabwe, notably by rectifying the racially-based land injustices of the past through land redistribution. This took the form of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). However, the racialised character and focus of the FTLRP tended to mask or at least downplay important gender dimensions to land in Zimbabwe. Colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe (up to 2000) had instigated, propagated and reproduced land ownership, control and access along a distinctively patriarchal basis which left women either totally excluded or incorporated in an oppressive manner. This patriarchal structuring of the land question was rooted in institutions, practices and discourses. Although a burgeoning number of studies have been undertaken on the FTLRP, few have had a distinctively gender focus in seeking to identify, examine and assess the effect of the programme on patriarchal relations and the socio-economic livelihoods of rural women. This thesis makes a contribution to filling this lacuna by offering an empirically-rich study of land redistribution in one particular district in Zimbabwe, namely, Goromonzi District. This entails a focus on women on A1 resettlement farms in the district (and specifically women who came from nearby customary areas) and on women who continue to live in customary areas in the district. My thesis concludes that the FTLRP is seriously flawed in terms of addressing and tackling the patriarchal structures that underpin the Zimbabwean land question.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Quality of work and work life: understanding the work ethic of medical professionals in selected hospitals in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa
- Authors: Kwizera, Alice Stella
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Hospitals -- Medical staff -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Work ethic -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Medical personnel -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Protestant work ethic
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003111
- Description: This thesis reports a study of work ethic values, beliefs and attitudes held by medical professionals in selected hospitals in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was in response to the public outcry about the declining work ethic and poor service delivery in South Africa’s healthcare sector. Scholarly interest in the work ethic and its role in economic development dates back to Max Weber’s classical work, which was the starting point for my study. The German economic sociologist published his seminal essay on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904/1905. Since that time, Weber’s ideas on the Protestant work ethic continue to inform and influence studies of the contemporary work ethic, which is thought to have become secularised. My study was informed by data collected in 2009 through a questionnaire survey and personal interviews. A total of 174 doctors and nurses, working in four urban, periurban and rural hospitals near East London, completed a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire replicated the Multi-Dimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) developed by Miller, Woehr and Hudspeth in 2001/2002. The instrument examines seven critical dimensions of the work ethic, namely self-reliance, morality, (foregoing) leisure, hard work, centrality of work in life, not wasting time, and delay of gratification. In addition, I conducted personal interviews in the same four hospitals with 41 hospital managers, doctors, nurses, and patients to discuss their understanding of the work ethic and its practical application. The study found that both doctors’ and nurses’ overall work ethic scores on the MWEP scale were above average. Although there was no significant difference between the overall work ethic scores of the two professions, doctors scored significantly higher than nurses on the ‘hard work’ and ‘self reliance’ dimensions of the work ethic scale. In the qualitative study, the doctors’ work ethic was rated much more highly than the nurses’ by their superiors and patients; and the work ethic of nurses in the urban hospitals was rated much lower than that of their rural colleagues. In contradiction to the idea of the secularization of the contemporary work ethic, religiosity and religious beliefs were influential in the endorsement of work ethic principles. In line with the notion that ‘happy’ workers are more productive, job and life satisfaction were found to be strong correlates of the work ethic of medical professionals.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Kwizera, Alice Stella
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Hospitals -- Medical staff -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Work ethic -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Medical personnel -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Protestant work ethic
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003111
- Description: This thesis reports a study of work ethic values, beliefs and attitudes held by medical professionals in selected hospitals in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was in response to the public outcry about the declining work ethic and poor service delivery in South Africa’s healthcare sector. Scholarly interest in the work ethic and its role in economic development dates back to Max Weber’s classical work, which was the starting point for my study. The German economic sociologist published his seminal essay on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904/1905. Since that time, Weber’s ideas on the Protestant work ethic continue to inform and influence studies of the contemporary work ethic, which is thought to have become secularised. My study was informed by data collected in 2009 through a questionnaire survey and personal interviews. A total of 174 doctors and nurses, working in four urban, periurban and rural hospitals near East London, completed a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire replicated the Multi-Dimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) developed by Miller, Woehr and Hudspeth in 2001/2002. The instrument examines seven critical dimensions of the work ethic, namely self-reliance, morality, (foregoing) leisure, hard work, centrality of work in life, not wasting time, and delay of gratification. In addition, I conducted personal interviews in the same four hospitals with 41 hospital managers, doctors, nurses, and patients to discuss their understanding of the work ethic and its practical application. The study found that both doctors’ and nurses’ overall work ethic scores on the MWEP scale were above average. Although there was no significant difference between the overall work ethic scores of the two professions, doctors scored significantly higher than nurses on the ‘hard work’ and ‘self reliance’ dimensions of the work ethic scale. In the qualitative study, the doctors’ work ethic was rated much more highly than the nurses’ by their superiors and patients; and the work ethic of nurses in the urban hospitals was rated much lower than that of their rural colleagues. In contradiction to the idea of the secularization of the contemporary work ethic, religiosity and religious beliefs were influential in the endorsement of work ethic principles. In line with the notion that ‘happy’ workers are more productive, job and life satisfaction were found to be strong correlates of the work ethic of medical professionals.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Ruth First in Mozambique: portrait of a scholar
- Authors: Tebello, Letsekha
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: First, Ruth, 1925-1982 Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Women political activists -- South Africa Journalists -- South Africa Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa Government, Resistance to -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3320 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003108
- Description: Ruth First was an activist, journalist and sociologist trained by experience and credentialed by her numerous publications. Having lived most of her adult life as an intellectual and activist, First died in August 1982 at the hands of a regime and its supporters who intensely detested all these pursuits. This research project sketches the intellectual contributions made by the South African sociologist during her time at the Centre of African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. Her life like the newspaper she edited in the early 1970s was a Fighting Talk and this research project is about celebrating that life and valorising some of the life’s work that she left behind. Making use of qualitative research methods such as archiving, semi-structured interviews and contents analysis, this thesis sought to document Ruth First’s intellectual interventions while at the Centre of African Studies. Engaging with her work while she was in Mozambique and inserting her intellectual contributions, which like those of many African scholars have given way to debates from the global North, into our curriculum would perhaps be the real refutation of the assassin's bomb. This engagement is also crucial as it extends much further than the striking accolades which take the form of buildings and lectures established in her honour.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Tebello, Letsekha
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: First, Ruth, 1925-1982 Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Women political activists -- South Africa Journalists -- South Africa Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa Government, Resistance to -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3320 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003108
- Description: Ruth First was an activist, journalist and sociologist trained by experience and credentialed by her numerous publications. Having lived most of her adult life as an intellectual and activist, First died in August 1982 at the hands of a regime and its supporters who intensely detested all these pursuits. This research project sketches the intellectual contributions made by the South African sociologist during her time at the Centre of African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. Her life like the newspaper she edited in the early 1970s was a Fighting Talk and this research project is about celebrating that life and valorising some of the life’s work that she left behind. Making use of qualitative research methods such as archiving, semi-structured interviews and contents analysis, this thesis sought to document Ruth First’s intellectual interventions while at the Centre of African Studies. Engaging with her work while she was in Mozambique and inserting her intellectual contributions, which like those of many African scholars have given way to debates from the global North, into our curriculum would perhaps be the real refutation of the assassin's bomb. This engagement is also crucial as it extends much further than the striking accolades which take the form of buildings and lectures established in her honour.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Smashing the crystal ball: post-structural insights associated with contemporary anarchism and the revision of blueprint utopianism
- Authors: Alexander, Tarryn Linda
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social change , Utopian socialism -- Philosophy , Utopias -- Philosophy , Anarchism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3311 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003099 , Social change , Utopian socialism -- Philosophy , Utopias -- Philosophy , Anarchism
- Description: This thesis is an exploration of the images which define revolution's meaning. It suggests a possible shifting of emphasis from the scientific imaginary which centres on identifying the correct way to totalising revolution, towards a post-structuralist-anarchistic imaginary which privileges prefigurative radicalisations of social relations in the here and now. It looks specifically at how the field of post-structuralism intertwines with historically anarchist concepts to generate an horizon of social change animated by experimental and open-ended transformations. While the thesis offers positive characterisations of the types of contemporary movements, tactics and principles which embody the change from closed to open utopianism, it is chiefly a commentary on the role of theory in depicting the complexity of relations on the ground and the danger of proposing one totalising pathway from one state of society to another. It asks the reader to consider, given the achievements of movements and given the insights of post-structuralism, whether it is still worthwhile to proclaim certainty when sketching the possibilities for transcendence toward emancipation, an aim, which in itself, is always under construction. I engage this by firstly establishing a practical foundation for the critique of endpoints in theory by exploring the horizontal and prefigurative nature of a few autonomous movements today. Secondly I propose the contemporary theory of post-structuralist anarchism as concomitant with conclusions about transformation made in the first chapter. Finally I recommend a few initial concepts to start debate about the way forward from old objectivist models of transformation. The uncertainties of daily life, crumbling of economic powers and rapid pace of change in the twenty-first century have opened up fantastic spaces for innovative thought. Reconsidering old consensus around what constitutes a desirable image of revolution is of considerable importance given today's burgeoning bottom-up political energy and the global debate surrounding the possibilities for bottom-up revolutionisation of society. I submit that theories which portray stories of permanent, pure and natural end-points to revolution are deficient justifications for radical action.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Alexander, Tarryn Linda
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social change , Utopian socialism -- Philosophy , Utopias -- Philosophy , Anarchism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3311 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003099 , Social change , Utopian socialism -- Philosophy , Utopias -- Philosophy , Anarchism
- Description: This thesis is an exploration of the images which define revolution's meaning. It suggests a possible shifting of emphasis from the scientific imaginary which centres on identifying the correct way to totalising revolution, towards a post-structuralist-anarchistic imaginary which privileges prefigurative radicalisations of social relations in the here and now. It looks specifically at how the field of post-structuralism intertwines with historically anarchist concepts to generate an horizon of social change animated by experimental and open-ended transformations. While the thesis offers positive characterisations of the types of contemporary movements, tactics and principles which embody the change from closed to open utopianism, it is chiefly a commentary on the role of theory in depicting the complexity of relations on the ground and the danger of proposing one totalising pathway from one state of society to another. It asks the reader to consider, given the achievements of movements and given the insights of post-structuralism, whether it is still worthwhile to proclaim certainty when sketching the possibilities for transcendence toward emancipation, an aim, which in itself, is always under construction. I engage this by firstly establishing a practical foundation for the critique of endpoints in theory by exploring the horizontal and prefigurative nature of a few autonomous movements today. Secondly I propose the contemporary theory of post-structuralist anarchism as concomitant with conclusions about transformation made in the first chapter. Finally I recommend a few initial concepts to start debate about the way forward from old objectivist models of transformation. The uncertainties of daily life, crumbling of economic powers and rapid pace of change in the twenty-first century have opened up fantastic spaces for innovative thought. Reconsidering old consensus around what constitutes a desirable image of revolution is of considerable importance given today's burgeoning bottom-up political energy and the global debate surrounding the possibilities for bottom-up revolutionisation of society. I submit that theories which portray stories of permanent, pure and natural end-points to revolution are deficient justifications for radical action.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Social capital and fisheries co-management in South Africa: the East Coast Rock Lobster Fishery in Tshani Mankozi, Wild Coast, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Kaminsky, Alexander
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social capital (Sociology) -- Economic aspects Human capital -- South Africa Fishery management -- South Africa Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa Rural poor -- South Africa Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3322 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003110
- Description: It is evident that natural fish stocks are in rapid decline and that millions of people around the world rely on these resources for food and for securing a livelihood. This has brought many social scientists, biologists and fisheries experts to acknowledge that communities need to take more control in managing their natural resources. The paradigm shift in fisheries management from a top-down resource orientated control to a participatory people-centred control is now being advocated in many maritime nations in facilitating community-based natural resource management. At the heart of these projects is the establishment of institutions and social networks that allow for clear communication and information sharing, based on scientific data and traditional knowledge which ultimately allow empowered communities to collectively manage their resources in partnership with government, market actors and many other stakeholders. Central to the problem is the issue of access rights. In many situations where co-management of natural resources through community-government partnerships is advocated, the failure of coastal states to provide adequate legislature and regulatory frameworks has jeopardised such projects. A second issue is the failure of many states to provide adequate investments in social and human capital which will enable communities to become the primary stakeholder in the co-management of their natural resources. Whilst investments like capacity building, education, skills training and development, communications and institution building can initially require high financial investments, the regulatory costs for monitoring, controlling and surveying fish stocks along the coastline will go down as communities take ownership of their resources under sustainable awareness. The main unit of investment therefore is social capital which allows for the increase in trust, cooperativeness, assertiveness, collective action and general capabilities of natural resource governance. High levels of social capital require good social relations and interactions which ultimately create a social network of fishers, community members and leaders, government officials, market players, researchers and various other stakeholders. Co-management thus has an inherent network structure made up of social relations on a horizontal scale amongst community members as well as on a vertical scale with government and fisheries authorities. These bonding relations between people and the bridging relations with institutions provide the social capital currency that allows for a successful co-management solution to community-based natural resource governance. The South African coastline is home to thousands of people who harvest the marine resources for food security and securing a basic income. Fishing is a major cultural and historical component of the livelihoods of many people along the coastline, particularly along the Wild Coast of South Africa located on its South-eastern shoreline. Due to the geopolitical nature of South Africa’s apartheid past many people were located in former tribal lands called Bantustans. The Transkei, one of the biggest homelands, is home to some of South Africa’s poorest people, many of whom rely on the marine resources. By 1998 the government sought to acknowledge the previously unrecognised subsistence sector that lived along the South African coastline with the promulgation of the Marine Living Resources Act. The act sought to legalise access rights for fishers and provide opportunities for the development of commercial fisheries. The act and many subsequent policies largely called for co-management as a solution to the management of the subsistence sector. This thesis largely explains the administrative and legislative difficulties in transporting the participatory components of co-management to the ground level. As such co-management has largely remained in rhetoric whilst the government provides a contradictory policy regarding the management of subsistence and small-scale fishers. This thesis attempts to provide qualitative ethnographic research of the East Coast Rock Lobster fishery located in a small fishing village in the Transkei. The fishery falls somewhere on the spectrum between the small-scale and subsistence sector as there are a basket of high and low value resources being harvested. It will be argued that in order to economically and socially develop the fishery the social capital and social networks of the community and various stakeholders needs to be analysed in order to effectively create a co-management network that can create a successful collective management of natural resources thereby sustaining these communities in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Kaminsky, Alexander
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social capital (Sociology) -- Economic aspects Human capital -- South Africa Fishery management -- South Africa Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa Rural poor -- South Africa Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3322 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003110
- Description: It is evident that natural fish stocks are in rapid decline and that millions of people around the world rely on these resources for food and for securing a livelihood. This has brought many social scientists, biologists and fisheries experts to acknowledge that communities need to take more control in managing their natural resources. The paradigm shift in fisheries management from a top-down resource orientated control to a participatory people-centred control is now being advocated in many maritime nations in facilitating community-based natural resource management. At the heart of these projects is the establishment of institutions and social networks that allow for clear communication and information sharing, based on scientific data and traditional knowledge which ultimately allow empowered communities to collectively manage their resources in partnership with government, market actors and many other stakeholders. Central to the problem is the issue of access rights. In many situations where co-management of natural resources through community-government partnerships is advocated, the failure of coastal states to provide adequate legislature and regulatory frameworks has jeopardised such projects. A second issue is the failure of many states to provide adequate investments in social and human capital which will enable communities to become the primary stakeholder in the co-management of their natural resources. Whilst investments like capacity building, education, skills training and development, communications and institution building can initially require high financial investments, the regulatory costs for monitoring, controlling and surveying fish stocks along the coastline will go down as communities take ownership of their resources under sustainable awareness. The main unit of investment therefore is social capital which allows for the increase in trust, cooperativeness, assertiveness, collective action and general capabilities of natural resource governance. High levels of social capital require good social relations and interactions which ultimately create a social network of fishers, community members and leaders, government officials, market players, researchers and various other stakeholders. Co-management thus has an inherent network structure made up of social relations on a horizontal scale amongst community members as well as on a vertical scale with government and fisheries authorities. These bonding relations between people and the bridging relations with institutions provide the social capital currency that allows for a successful co-management solution to community-based natural resource governance. The South African coastline is home to thousands of people who harvest the marine resources for food security and securing a basic income. Fishing is a major cultural and historical component of the livelihoods of many people along the coastline, particularly along the Wild Coast of South Africa located on its South-eastern shoreline. Due to the geopolitical nature of South Africa’s apartheid past many people were located in former tribal lands called Bantustans. The Transkei, one of the biggest homelands, is home to some of South Africa’s poorest people, many of whom rely on the marine resources. By 1998 the government sought to acknowledge the previously unrecognised subsistence sector that lived along the South African coastline with the promulgation of the Marine Living Resources Act. The act sought to legalise access rights for fishers and provide opportunities for the development of commercial fisheries. The act and many subsequent policies largely called for co-management as a solution to the management of the subsistence sector. This thesis largely explains the administrative and legislative difficulties in transporting the participatory components of co-management to the ground level. As such co-management has largely remained in rhetoric whilst the government provides a contradictory policy regarding the management of subsistence and small-scale fishers. This thesis attempts to provide qualitative ethnographic research of the East Coast Rock Lobster fishery located in a small fishing village in the Transkei. The fishery falls somewhere on the spectrum between the small-scale and subsistence sector as there are a basket of high and low value resources being harvested. It will be argued that in order to economically and socially develop the fishery the social capital and social networks of the community and various stakeholders needs to be analysed in order to effectively create a co-management network that can create a successful collective management of natural resources thereby sustaining these communities in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Social networks in recently established human settlements in Grahamstown East/Rhini, South Africa
- Authors: Mukorombindo, Yeukai Chido
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social networks -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Human settlements -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Social capital (Sociology) Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social life and customs Poor -- Social networks -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions Social change -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Informal sector (Economics) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3310 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003098
- Description: This thesis attempts to understand the concepts of social capital and social networks within the South African government’s current policy on “human settlements”. It considers the association between social networks, social capital and social cohesion, community development and improved general quality of life. The thesis also explores the possibility and challenges of using social capital and social networks amongst low income urban communities as a viable strategy against poverty and for the development of sustainable human settlements. The thesis will examine the nature and form in which informal social networks function in a low income urban community in South Africa and the benefits that arise from these. The thesis particularly looked at informal social security networks in the form of savings clubs/stokvels and burial societies as well as other informal social networks such as religious associations and neighbourhood social support groups. The study discovered that in light of the high unemployment rate, high poverty levels and increasing urban economic pressures, most low income households cannot access or rely on social networks as a means of survival but on grants and wages. Social security networks are only accessible to those who can afford monthly membership contributions thereby excluding the poorest of the poor. For those who can afford to be members of social security networks, the benefits are limited and they do not adequately address household needs. The study also showed how those who cannot afford to be members of social security networks still have access to some sort of communal social support. Neighbours stand out as valuable in this regard. However, the casual neighbourhood support networks are not ‘resource rich’ mainly due to, the inability of people to donate and reciprocate. Religious networks are mainly identified with emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being, providing friendship, comfort and advice but these benefits are only provided to members only in their time of need. The theoretical understanding of social networks producing social capital which is seen as being beneficial to the poorest of the poor is questioned, as the results show the inequalities and divisions that exist within informal social networks themselves. On the other hand, all the social networks considered in this thesis have managed to contribute towards strengthening neighbourly relations, trust, building community identity and promoting values of ubuntu- sharing and caring for one another which in the long-run benefits the community, both members and non-members alike.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Mukorombindo, Yeukai Chido
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Social networks -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Human settlements -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Social capital (Sociology) Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social life and customs Poor -- Social networks -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions Social change -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Informal sector (Economics) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3310 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003098
- Description: This thesis attempts to understand the concepts of social capital and social networks within the South African government’s current policy on “human settlements”. It considers the association between social networks, social capital and social cohesion, community development and improved general quality of life. The thesis also explores the possibility and challenges of using social capital and social networks amongst low income urban communities as a viable strategy against poverty and for the development of sustainable human settlements. The thesis will examine the nature and form in which informal social networks function in a low income urban community in South Africa and the benefits that arise from these. The thesis particularly looked at informal social security networks in the form of savings clubs/stokvels and burial societies as well as other informal social networks such as religious associations and neighbourhood social support groups. The study discovered that in light of the high unemployment rate, high poverty levels and increasing urban economic pressures, most low income households cannot access or rely on social networks as a means of survival but on grants and wages. Social security networks are only accessible to those who can afford monthly membership contributions thereby excluding the poorest of the poor. For those who can afford to be members of social security networks, the benefits are limited and they do not adequately address household needs. The study also showed how those who cannot afford to be members of social security networks still have access to some sort of communal social support. Neighbours stand out as valuable in this regard. However, the casual neighbourhood support networks are not ‘resource rich’ mainly due to, the inability of people to donate and reciprocate. Religious networks are mainly identified with emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being, providing friendship, comfort and advice but these benefits are only provided to members only in their time of need. The theoretical understanding of social networks producing social capital which is seen as being beneficial to the poorest of the poor is questioned, as the results show the inequalities and divisions that exist within informal social networks themselves. On the other hand, all the social networks considered in this thesis have managed to contribute towards strengthening neighbourly relations, trust, building community identity and promoting values of ubuntu- sharing and caring for one another which in the long-run benefits the community, both members and non-members alike.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The structural arrangements in local government and their role in promoting community participation in basic service delivery: a case study of Emalahleni and Intsika Yethu local municipalities in the Chris Hani District Municipality area
- Authors: Nqwemeshe, Nomvuyo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Water utilities -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- Evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003103
- Description: This study analyses the effectiveness of community participation in service delivery. The area of study, the Chris Ham District Municipality (CHDM), is a Water Services Authority, responsible for ensuring access to water services (water and sanitation) by all communities within its jurisdiction. There are eight local municipalities within the CHDM. The objective of this study is to determine whether systems are in place in local government to promote participation by communities in service delivery projects and whether these systems are being utilised efficiently by the role-players concerned. The role-players in this research are people who are involved in community development programmes of the municipality (municipal staff in the relevant departments of the municipalities under study, the social facilitators, civil society organisations, ward committees, ward councillors, traditional authorities as well as the representatives of communities (Project Steering Committees) who are beneficiaries of the projects under study). The projects that are under study were selected from a readily available list of CHDM capital projects that appear in the 2003/2004 financial year funding plan and are running. The findings of the study at both levels (local and district) show that the municipal environment is not conducive to promoting community participation. This is linked to factors such as the structural arrangements, whereby the offices relevant for promoting community participation are not fully occupied, which provided evidence that community participation is not prioritised. There is lack of coordination of programmes within the local government spheres as well within departments of the DM and strategies for community participation have been found to be non-effective. At project level lack of community participation is linked to the utilisation of ward committees as the only mechanism for community participation regardless of its un-equal and party biased representation. This study therefore concludes that although the systems to promote community participation are in place, they are not effective.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Nqwemeshe, Nomvuyo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Water utilities -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Citizen participation , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- Evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003103
- Description: This study analyses the effectiveness of community participation in service delivery. The area of study, the Chris Ham District Municipality (CHDM), is a Water Services Authority, responsible for ensuring access to water services (water and sanitation) by all communities within its jurisdiction. There are eight local municipalities within the CHDM. The objective of this study is to determine whether systems are in place in local government to promote participation by communities in service delivery projects and whether these systems are being utilised efficiently by the role-players concerned. The role-players in this research are people who are involved in community development programmes of the municipality (municipal staff in the relevant departments of the municipalities under study, the social facilitators, civil society organisations, ward committees, ward councillors, traditional authorities as well as the representatives of communities (Project Steering Committees) who are beneficiaries of the projects under study). The projects that are under study were selected from a readily available list of CHDM capital projects that appear in the 2003/2004 financial year funding plan and are running. The findings of the study at both levels (local and district) show that the municipal environment is not conducive to promoting community participation. This is linked to factors such as the structural arrangements, whereby the offices relevant for promoting community participation are not fully occupied, which provided evidence that community participation is not prioritised. There is lack of coordination of programmes within the local government spheres as well within departments of the DM and strategies for community participation have been found to be non-effective. At project level lack of community participation is linked to the utilisation of ward committees as the only mechanism for community participation regardless of its un-equal and party biased representation. This study therefore concludes that although the systems to promote community participation are in place, they are not effective.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Young veterans, not always social misfits: a sociological discourse of Liberian transmogrification experiences
- Authors: Agbedahin, Komlan
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Child soldiers -- Liberia Children and war -- Liberia Liberia. Armed Forces -- Demobilization -- Social aspects Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1999-2003
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3316 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003104
- Description: This thesis examines the phenomenon of child-soldiering from a different perspective. It seeks to challenge, using a novel approach, earlier studies on the roles of former child-soldiers in post-war societies. It focuses on the subjectivity of young veterans, that is war veterans formerly associated with armed forces and groups as children during the 14-year gruesome civil war which bedevilled Liberia between 1989 and 2003. This civil war claimed roughly 250,000 lives, and saw the active participation of approximately 21,000 child-soldiers. This thesis departs from previous works which mostly painted an apocalyptic picture of young veterans, and explores the nexus between their self-agency, Foucauldian technologies of the self and their transformation in the post-war society. The majority of previous scholarly works which have dominated the field of child-soldiering dwelt on the impact of armed conflict on the child-soldiers, the negative consequences, the causes of child-soldiering, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of the young veterans after their disarmament and demobilization. What this thesis seeks to do however, is to establish that, rather than considering the young veterans simply as social misfits, distraught and dispirited human beings, it should be noted that young veterans through their agency, are capable of ensuring their reintegration into their war-ravaged societies. Sadly, these young former fighters’ self-agency and technologies of the self in defining their civilian trajectories have often been overshadowed by vaunted humanitarian aid and multilayered war-profiteering. This study is underpinned by interpretive constructivism, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, sociometer theory and expectancy theory, and sheds light on how young veterans’ self-agency, instrumental coalitions, and decision-making processes, synergistically shifted the negative identities foisted on them as a result of their participation in the war.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Agbedahin, Komlan
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Child soldiers -- Liberia Children and war -- Liberia Liberia. Armed Forces -- Demobilization -- Social aspects Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1999-2003
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3316 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003104
- Description: This thesis examines the phenomenon of child-soldiering from a different perspective. It seeks to challenge, using a novel approach, earlier studies on the roles of former child-soldiers in post-war societies. It focuses on the subjectivity of young veterans, that is war veterans formerly associated with armed forces and groups as children during the 14-year gruesome civil war which bedevilled Liberia between 1989 and 2003. This civil war claimed roughly 250,000 lives, and saw the active participation of approximately 21,000 child-soldiers. This thesis departs from previous works which mostly painted an apocalyptic picture of young veterans, and explores the nexus between their self-agency, Foucauldian technologies of the self and their transformation in the post-war society. The majority of previous scholarly works which have dominated the field of child-soldiering dwelt on the impact of armed conflict on the child-soldiers, the negative consequences, the causes of child-soldiering, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of the young veterans after their disarmament and demobilization. What this thesis seeks to do however, is to establish that, rather than considering the young veterans simply as social misfits, distraught and dispirited human beings, it should be noted that young veterans through their agency, are capable of ensuring their reintegration into their war-ravaged societies. Sadly, these young former fighters’ self-agency and technologies of the self in defining their civilian trajectories have often been overshadowed by vaunted humanitarian aid and multilayered war-profiteering. This study is underpinned by interpretive constructivism, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, sociometer theory and expectancy theory, and sheds light on how young veterans’ self-agency, instrumental coalitions, and decision-making processes, synergistically shifted the negative identities foisted on them as a result of their participation in the war.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
A learning state?: a case study of the post-1994 South African welfare regime
- Mungwashu, Sthembiso Handinawangu
- 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
- 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
Management and the dynamics of labour process: study of workplace relations in an oil refinery, Nigeria
- Oladeinde, Olusegun Olurotimi
- Authors: Oladeinde, Olusegun Olurotimi
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Personnel management -- Nigeria Petroleum industry and trade -- Personnel management -- Nigeria Performance -- Management -- Nigeria Industrial relations -- Nigeria Organizational behavior -- Nigeria Total quality management -- Nigeria Labor unions -- Nigeria Petroleum workers -- Nigeria -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3299 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003087
- Description: The focus of this thesis is on labour-management relations in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria. The study explores current managerial practices in the corporation and their effects on the intensification of work, and how the management sought to control workers and the labour process. The study explores the experiences of workers and their perception of managerial practices. Evidence suggests that managerial practices and their impacts on workplace relations in NNPC have become more subtle, with wider implications for workers’ experience and the labour process. Using primary data obtained through interviews, participant observation, and documentary sources, the thesis assesses how managerial practices are varieties of controls of labour in which workers’ consent is also embedded. This embeddedness of the labour process generates new types of worker subjectivity and identity, with significant implications for labour relations. The study suggests that multiple dimensions of workers’ sense-making reflect the structural and subjective dimensions of the labour process. In NNPC, the consequence of managerial practices has been an emergence of a new type of subjectivity; one that has closely identified with the corporate values and is not overtly disposed towards resistance or dissent. While workers consent at NNPC continues to be an outcome of managerial practices, the thesis examined its implications. The thesis seeks to explain the effects of managerial control mechanisms in shaping workers’ experience and identity. However, the thesis shows that while workers remain susceptible to these forms of managerial influence, an erasure or closure of oppositions or recalcitrance will not adequately account for workers’ identity-formation. The thesis shows that while managerial control remains significant, workers inhabit domains that are ‘unmanaged’ and ‘unmanageable’ where ‘resistance’ and ‘misbehaviour’ reside. Without a conceptual and empirical interrogation, evidence of normative and mutual benefits of managerial practices or a submissive image of workers will produce images of workers that obscure their covert opposition and resistance. Workers ‘collude’ with the ‘hubris’ of management in order to invert and subvert managerial practices and intentions. Through theoretical reconceptualization, the thesis demonstrates the specific dimensions of these inversions and subversions. The thesis therefore seeks to re-insert “worker-agency” back into the analysis of power-relations in the workplace; agency that is not overtly under the absolute grip of managerial control, but with a multiplicity of identities and multilevel manifestations.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Oladeinde, Olusegun Olurotimi
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Personnel management -- Nigeria Petroleum industry and trade -- Personnel management -- Nigeria Performance -- Management -- Nigeria Industrial relations -- Nigeria Organizational behavior -- Nigeria Total quality management -- Nigeria Labor unions -- Nigeria Petroleum workers -- Nigeria -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3299 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003087
- Description: The focus of this thesis is on labour-management relations in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria. The study explores current managerial practices in the corporation and their effects on the intensification of work, and how the management sought to control workers and the labour process. The study explores the experiences of workers and their perception of managerial practices. Evidence suggests that managerial practices and their impacts on workplace relations in NNPC have become more subtle, with wider implications for workers’ experience and the labour process. Using primary data obtained through interviews, participant observation, and documentary sources, the thesis assesses how managerial practices are varieties of controls of labour in which workers’ consent is also embedded. This embeddedness of the labour process generates new types of worker subjectivity and identity, with significant implications for labour relations. The study suggests that multiple dimensions of workers’ sense-making reflect the structural and subjective dimensions of the labour process. In NNPC, the consequence of managerial practices has been an emergence of a new type of subjectivity; one that has closely identified with the corporate values and is not overtly disposed towards resistance or dissent. While workers consent at NNPC continues to be an outcome of managerial practices, the thesis examined its implications. The thesis seeks to explain the effects of managerial control mechanisms in shaping workers’ experience and identity. However, the thesis shows that while workers remain susceptible to these forms of managerial influence, an erasure or closure of oppositions or recalcitrance will not adequately account for workers’ identity-formation. The thesis shows that while managerial control remains significant, workers inhabit domains that are ‘unmanaged’ and ‘unmanageable’ where ‘resistance’ and ‘misbehaviour’ reside. Without a conceptual and empirical interrogation, evidence of normative and mutual benefits of managerial practices or a submissive image of workers will produce images of workers that obscure their covert opposition and resistance. Workers ‘collude’ with the ‘hubris’ of management in order to invert and subvert managerial practices and intentions. Through theoretical reconceptualization, the thesis demonstrates the specific dimensions of these inversions and subversions. The thesis therefore seeks to re-insert “worker-agency” back into the analysis of power-relations in the workplace; agency that is not overtly under the absolute grip of managerial control, but with a multiplicity of identities and multilevel manifestations.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Oil enclave economy and sexual liaisons in Nigeria's Niger Delta region
- Authors: Gandu, Yohanna Kagoro
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Women -- Violence against -- Nigeria Abused women -- Nigeria Sexual abuse victims -- Nigeria Prostitution -- Nigeria Oil industries -- Nigeria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003106
- Description: This thesis examines the intersection of oil enclave economy and the phenomenon of sexual liaisons in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The particular focus of this thesis is on the extent to which oil enclavity contributes to the emergence of sexual liaisons between local women and expatriate oil workers. Despite the fact that the Nigerian oil industry has been subjected to considerable scholarly debate for over five decades, this aspect of the social dimension of oil has not received adequate scholarly attention. Gender-specific discourse has tended to focus more on women protest. Other aspects, such as gender-specific violence that women in the region have had to live with, are either ignored or poorly articulated. Picketing of oil platforms by protesting women is celebrated as signs that women are active in the struggle against oil Transnational Companies (TNCs). While women protest is a significant struggle against oil TNCs, it has the potential of blurring our intellectual focus on the specific challenges confronting women in the Niger Delta. This study shows that since the inauguration of the Willink Commission in 1957, national palliatives meant to alleviate poverty in the Niger Delta region have not been gender sensitive. A review of the 1957 Willink Commission and others that came after it shows that the Nigerian state is yet to address the peculiar problems that the oil industry has brought to the women folk in the region. The paradox is that while oil provides enormous wealth and means of patronage to the Nigerian state elite, the oil TNCs, and better paid expatriate oil workers, a large section of the local Oil Bearing Communities (OBCs), especially women and unemployed youth, are not only dispossessed but survive in an environment characterised by anxiety and misery. With limited survival alternatives, youths resort to violent protest including oil thefts and bunkering. Local women are also immersed in this debacle because some of them resort to sexual liaisons with economically empowered expatriate oil workers as an alternative means of survival. This study therefore shifts the focus to women by exploring the extent to which sexual liaison reflects the contradictions in the enclave oil economy. The study employed an enclave economy conceptual framework to demonstrate that oil extractive activities compromise and distort the local economies of OBCs. This situation compels local women to seek for alternative means of survival by entering into sexual liaisons with more financially privileged expatriate oil workers. The study reviewed relevant secondary documentary sources of data. Further, it employed primary data collection techniques which include in-depth interviews/life histories, ethnographic observations, focus group discussions, and visual sociology. Besides obtaining the social profile and challenges facing the women involved in sexual liaisons with expatriate oil workers, the study provides an outline of participants’ narratives on the different social and economic dimensions of the intersection of oil enclave economy and sexual liaisons. The study found that some of the women involved in sexual liaisons with expatriate oil workers have been abandoned with ‘fatherless’ children. Some of them have also been rejected by their immediate family members and, in some cases, by their community. The study also found that the phenomenon of sexual liaisons and the incidents of abandoned ‘fatherless’ children that result from the practice, has over the years been played out through local resentment against oil TNCs and their expatriate employees. This finding helps to fill the gap in narratives and to make sense of the civic revolt and deepening instability in the Niger Delta region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Gandu, Yohanna Kagoro
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Women -- Violence against -- Nigeria Abused women -- Nigeria Sexual abuse victims -- Nigeria Prostitution -- Nigeria Oil industries -- Nigeria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003106
- Description: This thesis examines the intersection of oil enclave economy and the phenomenon of sexual liaisons in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The particular focus of this thesis is on the extent to which oil enclavity contributes to the emergence of sexual liaisons between local women and expatriate oil workers. Despite the fact that the Nigerian oil industry has been subjected to considerable scholarly debate for over five decades, this aspect of the social dimension of oil has not received adequate scholarly attention. Gender-specific discourse has tended to focus more on women protest. Other aspects, such as gender-specific violence that women in the region have had to live with, are either ignored or poorly articulated. Picketing of oil platforms by protesting women is celebrated as signs that women are active in the struggle against oil Transnational Companies (TNCs). While women protest is a significant struggle against oil TNCs, it has the potential of blurring our intellectual focus on the specific challenges confronting women in the Niger Delta. This study shows that since the inauguration of the Willink Commission in 1957, national palliatives meant to alleviate poverty in the Niger Delta region have not been gender sensitive. A review of the 1957 Willink Commission and others that came after it shows that the Nigerian state is yet to address the peculiar problems that the oil industry has brought to the women folk in the region. The paradox is that while oil provides enormous wealth and means of patronage to the Nigerian state elite, the oil TNCs, and better paid expatriate oil workers, a large section of the local Oil Bearing Communities (OBCs), especially women and unemployed youth, are not only dispossessed but survive in an environment characterised by anxiety and misery. With limited survival alternatives, youths resort to violent protest including oil thefts and bunkering. Local women are also immersed in this debacle because some of them resort to sexual liaisons with economically empowered expatriate oil workers as an alternative means of survival. This study therefore shifts the focus to women by exploring the extent to which sexual liaison reflects the contradictions in the enclave oil economy. The study employed an enclave economy conceptual framework to demonstrate that oil extractive activities compromise and distort the local economies of OBCs. This situation compels local women to seek for alternative means of survival by entering into sexual liaisons with more financially privileged expatriate oil workers. The study reviewed relevant secondary documentary sources of data. Further, it employed primary data collection techniques which include in-depth interviews/life histories, ethnographic observations, focus group discussions, and visual sociology. Besides obtaining the social profile and challenges facing the women involved in sexual liaisons with expatriate oil workers, the study provides an outline of participants’ narratives on the different social and economic dimensions of the intersection of oil enclave economy and sexual liaisons. The study found that some of the women involved in sexual liaisons with expatriate oil workers have been abandoned with ‘fatherless’ children. Some of them have also been rejected by their immediate family members and, in some cases, by their community. The study also found that the phenomenon of sexual liaisons and the incidents of abandoned ‘fatherless’ children that result from the practice, has over the years been played out through local resentment against oil TNCs and their expatriate employees. This finding helps to fill the gap in narratives and to make sense of the civic revolt and deepening instability in the Niger Delta region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Race, class and inequality: an exploration of the scholarship of Professor Bernard Magubane
- Authors: Tanyanyiwa, Precious
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Magubane, Bernard -- Knowledge and learning , South Africa -- Race relations , Sociology -- South Africa , Race -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy , Social classes -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3324 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003112 , Magubane, Bernard -- Knowledge and learning , South Africa -- Race relations , Sociology -- South Africa , Race -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy , Social classes -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis begins with the assumption that the theory of academic dependency provides an adequate framework within which the relationship between social science communities in the North and South can be understood. Present problems of social scientists in the South have very often been attributed to this dependence and it has been concluded that academic dependence has resulted in an uncritical and imitative approach to ideas and concepts from the West (Alatas, 2000). This dependence has also resulted in the general regression among social scientists based in the South and in a marginalisation of their works within the social science community no matter how significant and original they may be. The problematic invisibility of the works of prominent South African scholars is a dimension of a wider crisis of academic dependence, if unchecked this current trend will also reinforce academic dependence. From the nature of the problems generated by academic dependence, it is obvious that there is a need for an intellectual emancipation movement. This movement may take different forms that may range from but are not limited to a commitment to endogeneity which involves among other things, knowledge production that takes South African local conditions seriously enough to be the basis for the development of distinct conceptual ideas and theories. This requires transcending the tendency to use ‘the local’ primarily as a tool for data collection and theoretical framing done from the global north. Secondly, there is a need to take the local, indigenous, ontological narratives seriously enough to serve as source codes for works of distinct epistemological value and exemplary ideas within the global project of knowledge production. Endogeneity in the context of African knowledge production should also involve an intellectual standpoint derived from a rootedness in the African conditions; a centring of African ontological discourses and experiences as the basis of intellectual work (Adesina, 2008: 135). In this study, it is suggested that the recommendations highlighted above can only succeed if scholars make an effort to actually engage with locally produced knowledge. There is therefore a need to make greater efforts to know each other’s work on Africa. This demand is not to appease individual egos but it is essential for progress in scientific work. African communities will benefit from drawing with greater catholicity from the well–spring of knowledge about Africa generated by Africans. In the South African context, transcending academic dependence in the new generation of young academics requires engagement with the work of our local scholars who have devoted their lives to knowledge production. This thesis explores the scholarship of Professor Bernard Magubane by engaging with his works on race, class and inequality by locating his works within the wider debates on race, class and inequality in South Africa. The specific contributions of Professor Magubane to the enterprise of knowledge production are identified and discussed in relation to his critique of Western social science in its application to Africa. The making of Professor Magubane’s life, his career, scholarship and biography details are analysed with the intention of showing their influence on Magubane as a Scholar. The examination of Professor Magubane’s intellectual and biographical accounts help to explain the details, contexts and implications of his theoretical paradigm shifts. This helps prove that Professor Magubane’s experiences and theoretical positions were socially and historically constituted. The research from which this thesis derives is part of an NRF-funded project, on Endogeneity and Modern Sociology in South Africa, under the direction of Professor Jimi Adesina.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Tanyanyiwa, Precious
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Magubane, Bernard -- Knowledge and learning , South Africa -- Race relations , Sociology -- South Africa , Race -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy , Social classes -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3324 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003112 , Magubane, Bernard -- Knowledge and learning , South Africa -- Race relations , Sociology -- South Africa , Race -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy , Social classes -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis begins with the assumption that the theory of academic dependency provides an adequate framework within which the relationship between social science communities in the North and South can be understood. Present problems of social scientists in the South have very often been attributed to this dependence and it has been concluded that academic dependence has resulted in an uncritical and imitative approach to ideas and concepts from the West (Alatas, 2000). This dependence has also resulted in the general regression among social scientists based in the South and in a marginalisation of their works within the social science community no matter how significant and original they may be. The problematic invisibility of the works of prominent South African scholars is a dimension of a wider crisis of academic dependence, if unchecked this current trend will also reinforce academic dependence. From the nature of the problems generated by academic dependence, it is obvious that there is a need for an intellectual emancipation movement. This movement may take different forms that may range from but are not limited to a commitment to endogeneity which involves among other things, knowledge production that takes South African local conditions seriously enough to be the basis for the development of distinct conceptual ideas and theories. This requires transcending the tendency to use ‘the local’ primarily as a tool for data collection and theoretical framing done from the global north. Secondly, there is a need to take the local, indigenous, ontological narratives seriously enough to serve as source codes for works of distinct epistemological value and exemplary ideas within the global project of knowledge production. Endogeneity in the context of African knowledge production should also involve an intellectual standpoint derived from a rootedness in the African conditions; a centring of African ontological discourses and experiences as the basis of intellectual work (Adesina, 2008: 135). In this study, it is suggested that the recommendations highlighted above can only succeed if scholars make an effort to actually engage with locally produced knowledge. There is therefore a need to make greater efforts to know each other’s work on Africa. This demand is not to appease individual egos but it is essential for progress in scientific work. African communities will benefit from drawing with greater catholicity from the well–spring of knowledge about Africa generated by Africans. In the South African context, transcending academic dependence in the new generation of young academics requires engagement with the work of our local scholars who have devoted their lives to knowledge production. This thesis explores the scholarship of Professor Bernard Magubane by engaging with his works on race, class and inequality by locating his works within the wider debates on race, class and inequality in South Africa. The specific contributions of Professor Magubane to the enterprise of knowledge production are identified and discussed in relation to his critique of Western social science in its application to Africa. The making of Professor Magubane’s life, his career, scholarship and biography details are analysed with the intention of showing their influence on Magubane as a Scholar. The examination of Professor Magubane’s intellectual and biographical accounts help to explain the details, contexts and implications of his theoretical paradigm shifts. This helps prove that Professor Magubane’s experiences and theoretical positions were socially and historically constituted. The research from which this thesis derives is part of an NRF-funded project, on Endogeneity and Modern Sociology in South Africa, under the direction of Professor Jimi Adesina.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
The disempowering faces of the flexible firm: a case study of Gaborone Private Hospital
- Authors: Makorie, Theona Tariro
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Gaberone Private Hospital -- Employees , Gaberone Private Hospital -- Personnel management , Gaberone Private Hospital -- Management , Nursing services -- Administration , Nurses -- Employment -- Botswana , Nursing -- Law and legislation -- Botswana , Hospitals -- Medical staff -- Botswana , Hospitals -- Administration -- Botswana
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3352
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the ways in which the practice of t the Flexible Firm Model (FFM) disempowered the non-citizen professional nurses at Gaborone Private Hospital (GPH) in Gaborone, Botswana. GPH is a member of the Life Health care group of private hospitals based in South Africa. This study sought to probe the manner in which the practice of FFM influenced the employment relationship for non-citizen professional nurses. It also sought to examine the impact of the nature of the employment relationship on career development and representation and participation. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were applied. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. Thirty-five questionnaires were issued out to professional nursing staff and thirty-three responses were received. The response rate was ninety-four percent. The qualitative research data consisted of twelve in-depth interviews with professional nurses, the human resources manager , a professional nurse agency owner and a private clinic co-owner. Document analysis in the form of labour legislation, employee guides and employment contracts was used to validate data collected from the in-depth interviews. The results from the questionnaire revealed that an overwhelming majority of the professional nurses were Non-Citizens' dependent contractors. Although just under half of the participants held two or more previous contracts with GPH, an overwhelming majority had never been promoted. In addition, none of the participants were affiliated to the Botswana Nurses Association (BNA), the local equivalency of a professional nursing trade union. The in-depth interviews disclosed a sense of helplessness at their perceived disempowerment within the employment relationship, a poor career development and weak representation and participation. This study concluded that disempowerment at GPH was manifested through worker representation and participation and in effective skill upgrade. These forms of disempowerment were made worse by the global professional nurse shortage and maladministration of avail able human resources. Effective use of human resources and continued education could be employed to circumvent the adverse results of disempowerment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Makorie, Theona Tariro
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Gaberone Private Hospital -- Employees , Gaberone Private Hospital -- Personnel management , Gaberone Private Hospital -- Management , Nursing services -- Administration , Nurses -- Employment -- Botswana , Nursing -- Law and legislation -- Botswana , Hospitals -- Medical staff -- Botswana , Hospitals -- Administration -- Botswana
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3352
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the ways in which the practice of t the Flexible Firm Model (FFM) disempowered the non-citizen professional nurses at Gaborone Private Hospital (GPH) in Gaborone, Botswana. GPH is a member of the Life Health care group of private hospitals based in South Africa. This study sought to probe the manner in which the practice of FFM influenced the employment relationship for non-citizen professional nurses. It also sought to examine the impact of the nature of the employment relationship on career development and representation and participation. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were applied. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. Thirty-five questionnaires were issued out to professional nursing staff and thirty-three responses were received. The response rate was ninety-four percent. The qualitative research data consisted of twelve in-depth interviews with professional nurses, the human resources manager , a professional nurse agency owner and a private clinic co-owner. Document analysis in the form of labour legislation, employee guides and employment contracts was used to validate data collected from the in-depth interviews. The results from the questionnaire revealed that an overwhelming majority of the professional nurses were Non-Citizens' dependent contractors. Although just under half of the participants held two or more previous contracts with GPH, an overwhelming majority had never been promoted. In addition, none of the participants were affiliated to the Botswana Nurses Association (BNA), the local equivalency of a professional nursing trade union. The in-depth interviews disclosed a sense of helplessness at their perceived disempowerment within the employment relationship, a poor career development and weak representation and participation. This study concluded that disempowerment at GPH was manifested through worker representation and participation and in effective skill upgrade. These forms of disempowerment were made worse by the global professional nurse shortage and maladministration of avail able human resources. Effective use of human resources and continued education could be employed to circumvent the adverse results of disempowerment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Trials and triumphs in public office: the life and work of E J N Mabuza
- Authors: Sarimana, Ashley
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Mabuza, E J (Enos John), 1939- Public officers -- South Africa South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century South Africa -- History -- 20th century South Africa -- Social conditions -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- History -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 20th century Apartheid -- South Africa South Africa -- Race relations Actor-network theory
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003093
- Description: Enos John Nganani Mabuza's life and work is used as a case study to highlight the conceptual and methodological theories and challenges in academic biographical writing regarding history, memory and legacies. This thesis answers the question: Who was Mabuza and what is his place or relevance in South Africa's history? We over-simplify and stereotype people because it is convenient. We judge others but there is no saint without a past or a sinner without a future. Mabuza reconciled with the main liberation movements and moved from a maligned position on the political fringes to a respectable one within the emerging black economic elite. History, like reference systems and values is not calcified or static. It is prone to interpretation, adaptation, modification, invention, manipulation, decomposition and re-composition. Bourdieu's habitus-field analysis, theory or logic of practice, notions of capital (symbolic, political, social, cultural and economic) is used together with Latour's actor-network theory as the basis of analysis of the social contracts and trust bonds that Mabuza was able to create and which enabled him to navigate South Africa's socio-political and economic milieus during apartheid and the transition in the early 1990s. As people or actors, we believe in the mantra, nothing ventured, nothing gained. We exercise agency and take risks every day. We make choices and those choices have consequences. Mabuza's choices in the fields of education, politics and business had implications for how he is perceived or has been written into history. His choices put notions of identity, citizenship, power, legitimacy, ambition, elite accommodation, class, personal and professional networks, popular struggles, agency and structure under the spotlight. Mabuza's involvement in Bantustan politics, for instance, is contextualised in terms of a historical overview of the unpopular role played by traditional authorities in South Africa before and during colonialism and apartheid. His later foray into the world of business, however, was facilitated in part, by the personal and professional contacts that he made whilst he was in politics and the opportunities which opened up during the country's political transition. Mabuza adapted to changing circumstances and demonstrated a level of versatility which other Bantustan functionaries did not or could not exercise.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Sarimana, Ashley
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Mabuza, E J (Enos John), 1939- Public officers -- South Africa South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century South Africa -- History -- 20th century South Africa -- Social conditions -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- History -- 20th century Homelands (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 20th century Apartheid -- South Africa South Africa -- Race relations Actor-network theory
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003093
- Description: Enos John Nganani Mabuza's life and work is used as a case study to highlight the conceptual and methodological theories and challenges in academic biographical writing regarding history, memory and legacies. This thesis answers the question: Who was Mabuza and what is his place or relevance in South Africa's history? We over-simplify and stereotype people because it is convenient. We judge others but there is no saint without a past or a sinner without a future. Mabuza reconciled with the main liberation movements and moved from a maligned position on the political fringes to a respectable one within the emerging black economic elite. History, like reference systems and values is not calcified or static. It is prone to interpretation, adaptation, modification, invention, manipulation, decomposition and re-composition. Bourdieu's habitus-field analysis, theory or logic of practice, notions of capital (symbolic, political, social, cultural and economic) is used together with Latour's actor-network theory as the basis of analysis of the social contracts and trust bonds that Mabuza was able to create and which enabled him to navigate South Africa's socio-political and economic milieus during apartheid and the transition in the early 1990s. As people or actors, we believe in the mantra, nothing ventured, nothing gained. We exercise agency and take risks every day. We make choices and those choices have consequences. Mabuza's choices in the fields of education, politics and business had implications for how he is perceived or has been written into history. His choices put notions of identity, citizenship, power, legitimacy, ambition, elite accommodation, class, personal and professional networks, popular struggles, agency and structure under the spotlight. Mabuza's involvement in Bantustan politics, for instance, is contextualised in terms of a historical overview of the unpopular role played by traditional authorities in South Africa before and during colonialism and apartheid. His later foray into the world of business, however, was facilitated in part, by the personal and professional contacts that he made whilst he was in politics and the opportunities which opened up during the country's political transition. Mabuza adapted to changing circumstances and demonstrated a level of versatility which other Bantustan functionaries did not or could not exercise.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
A social realist analysis of collaborative curriculum development processes in an academic department at a South African university
- Authors: Vorster, Jo-Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Curricula Journalism -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Curriculum planning -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3339 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004314
- Description: This study reports on a social-realist analysis of collaborative curriculum development in a journalism and media studies (JMS) department at a South African university. Archer's social-realist meta-theoretical framework is used to theorise about mechanisms that influence collaborative curriculum development within the context of the JMS Department. The thesis examines the cultural, structural and agential conditions that influenced the process of developing a JMS curriculum that aimed to integrate theory and practice. Bernstein's theories of knowledge recontextualisation and disciplinary knowledge structures are used in the analysis. Bernstein argues that knowledge recontextualisation constitutes a site of struggle. This thesis is an examination of the "struggles" for the epistemic-pedagogic device (Maton's elaboration of Bernstein's epistemic device) during the recontextualisation process that aimed to integrate media studies (MS) and media production (MP) in the JMS curriculum. Traditionally academic work has been an individual endeavour. However, given the growing need to work in disciplinary and inter-disciplinary teams, it is imperative to develop knowledge of the mechanisms that influence such practices. This thesis is a contribution to knowledge of collaborative processes at the level of an academic department in a university. It contributes to knowledge of cultural, structural and agential mechanisms that enable or constrain collaborative curriculum development within a particular kind of context. In addition it contributes to knowledge of the nature of leadership that may be necessary to facilitate productive collaborative relationships and practices in such a context. The curriculum development project reported on in this thesis was initiated in 2003; however, data collection for the study was conducted in 2006 when the curriculum for the fourth year (JMS 4) of the Bachelor of Journalism degree was developed. Since the JMS course prepares students to work as journalists or media workers it is necessary for the curriculum and pedagogy to be oriented both towards the academy and towards the media industries. The aim of the JMS degree is to develop students who will be critically reflexive journalists or media workers. As such the course is both theoretical (MS) and practical (MP). One of the findings of this research project is that the integration of MS and MP is a complex project given that the knowledge of the two disciplines is structured differently. MS is concept-dependent and some aspects of it can be applied to journalism and media practice, while MP is practical and thus context-dependent, though underpinned by theory. A further finding is that both the collaborative work and the integration project required different identity shifts from the lecturers in the JMS Department. Some were more able to make the shifts than others. The thesis shows that the knowledge recontextualisation struggles in the curriculum development processes of the Department of JMS centred around, inter alia, the setting of boundaries between the department and the media and journalism industries, between MS and MP and between MS theory and journalism theory. In addition, existing boundaries between MS and MP lecturers had to be traversed. These boundaries were circumscribed by, amongst other things, unequal power relations emanating from the higher status traditionally accorded to theoretical knowledge by universities, the tensions around the nature of journalism education and training and the differential properties and powers of the various lecturers within the department. The existence of a strong regulative discourse was found to be an important unifying mechanism in a tension-ridden context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Vorster, Jo-Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Curricula Journalism -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Curriculum planning -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3339 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004314
- Description: This study reports on a social-realist analysis of collaborative curriculum development in a journalism and media studies (JMS) department at a South African university. Archer's social-realist meta-theoretical framework is used to theorise about mechanisms that influence collaborative curriculum development within the context of the JMS Department. The thesis examines the cultural, structural and agential conditions that influenced the process of developing a JMS curriculum that aimed to integrate theory and practice. Bernstein's theories of knowledge recontextualisation and disciplinary knowledge structures are used in the analysis. Bernstein argues that knowledge recontextualisation constitutes a site of struggle. This thesis is an examination of the "struggles" for the epistemic-pedagogic device (Maton's elaboration of Bernstein's epistemic device) during the recontextualisation process that aimed to integrate media studies (MS) and media production (MP) in the JMS curriculum. Traditionally academic work has been an individual endeavour. However, given the growing need to work in disciplinary and inter-disciplinary teams, it is imperative to develop knowledge of the mechanisms that influence such practices. This thesis is a contribution to knowledge of collaborative processes at the level of an academic department in a university. It contributes to knowledge of cultural, structural and agential mechanisms that enable or constrain collaborative curriculum development within a particular kind of context. In addition it contributes to knowledge of the nature of leadership that may be necessary to facilitate productive collaborative relationships and practices in such a context. The curriculum development project reported on in this thesis was initiated in 2003; however, data collection for the study was conducted in 2006 when the curriculum for the fourth year (JMS 4) of the Bachelor of Journalism degree was developed. Since the JMS course prepares students to work as journalists or media workers it is necessary for the curriculum and pedagogy to be oriented both towards the academy and towards the media industries. The aim of the JMS degree is to develop students who will be critically reflexive journalists or media workers. As such the course is both theoretical (MS) and practical (MP). One of the findings of this research project is that the integration of MS and MP is a complex project given that the knowledge of the two disciplines is structured differently. MS is concept-dependent and some aspects of it can be applied to journalism and media practice, while MP is practical and thus context-dependent, though underpinned by theory. A further finding is that both the collaborative work and the integration project required different identity shifts from the lecturers in the JMS Department. Some were more able to make the shifts than others. The thesis shows that the knowledge recontextualisation struggles in the curriculum development processes of the Department of JMS centred around, inter alia, the setting of boundaries between the department and the media and journalism industries, between MS and MP and between MS theory and journalism theory. In addition, existing boundaries between MS and MP lecturers had to be traversed. These boundaries were circumscribed by, amongst other things, unequal power relations emanating from the higher status traditionally accorded to theoretical knowledge by universities, the tensions around the nature of journalism education and training and the differential properties and powers of the various lecturers within the department. The existence of a strong regulative discourse was found to be an important unifying mechanism in a tension-ridden context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
An analysis of emerging forms of social organisation and agency in the aftermath of 'fast track' land reform in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Murisa, Tendai
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Land reform -- Zimbabwe Right of property -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions Zimbabwe -- Social conditions -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Social life and customs Land settlement -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Group identity -- Zimbabwe Social change -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003081
- Description: The fast track land reform programme resulted in a fundamental reorganisation of rural relations in Zimbabwe, changing the landscape in an irreversible way with people from diverse backgrounds converging on former white-owned farms. This thesis tells the story of how the newly resettled land beneficiaries are organising themselves socially in response to various economic challenges. It makes a contribution towards understanding how redistributive land reforms and local government restructuring influence rural social organisation and agency. Furthermore the study examines local perceptions on the meanings of the „farm‟ and „land redistribution‟. An utterance by one war veteran “what used to be your farm is now our land and you are free to take your farm but leave our land” provides an alternative rendition to contestations of restitution versus a purely farm productionist discourse. The study, through an analysis of primary and secondary data, provides a fresh understanding of the social outcomes of fast track. It traces the evolution of land and agrarian reforms in post-independence Zimbabwe and the political and social economic context that led to „fast track‟. Through an analysis of field findings the thesis is able to define the dominant social groups that were resettled during fast track and the challenges they face in utilising the land. The findings show that the majority of the land beneficiaries were from the customary areas, with limited agricultural experiences. Local cooperation within informal networks and local farmer groups has been identified as one of the ways in which social reproduction is being organised. These groups are responsible for enhancing production capacity but they face a number of constraints. The study derives its theoretical foundation from the post 1980s debates on rural society dominated by Mafeje (1993, 2003), Rahmato (1991) and Mamdani (1996). The debates centred on how institutions of inclusion, authority and cooperation such as the lineage groups, local farmer groups and traditional authority remain relevant in the organisation of post-independent rural African society especially in a context of increased commoditisation of rural relations of production. Using theoretical insights derived from analysing the role of the lineage groups in the allocation of critical resources such as land and the influence of traditional authority (indirect rule) as a form of local government, the study examines how social organisation is emerging in areas where neither lineage nor traditional authority are not dominant. The thesis of rural cooperation through local groups as advanced by Rahmato (1991) and Moyo (2002) provides partial insights into the response mechanisms that land beneficiaries invoke in this instance. It is not necessarily an autonomous space of organisation but rather the state is actively involved through various functionaries including extension officers who invariably advance a very productionist approach. The state‟s monopoly through its local functionaries hides its political cooptation effect by emphasising organisation for production without questioning the manner in which that production is externally controlled through limited rights over land, the state‟s monopoly over inputs supply and markets for commodities. Whilst land reform has been driven by local participation through land occupations, local government reform has been technocratically determined through Ministerial directives. There is however little innovation in the form of local government that is being introduced. It expands the fusion of authority between elected Rural District Councils and unelected traditional authority functionaries. The forms of social organisation and agency that have emerged remain subordinated to the state with no links to other networks of rural producers‟ associations and urban civil society organisations. These developments form part of a longheld tradition within the Zimbabwean state where the legitimacy of local organisation and authority is usurped to service the interests of the state. Thus whilst land reform has to a certain extent accommodated the majority poor, the ensuing local government and agrarian reforms are more focused on limiting their participation in broader processes of political engagement around distribution and accumulation and their own governance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Murisa, Tendai
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Land reform -- Zimbabwe Right of property -- Zimbabwe Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions Zimbabwe -- Social conditions -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980- Zimbabwe -- Social life and customs Land settlement -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Group identity -- Zimbabwe Social change -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003081
- Description: The fast track land reform programme resulted in a fundamental reorganisation of rural relations in Zimbabwe, changing the landscape in an irreversible way with people from diverse backgrounds converging on former white-owned farms. This thesis tells the story of how the newly resettled land beneficiaries are organising themselves socially in response to various economic challenges. It makes a contribution towards understanding how redistributive land reforms and local government restructuring influence rural social organisation and agency. Furthermore the study examines local perceptions on the meanings of the „farm‟ and „land redistribution‟. An utterance by one war veteran “what used to be your farm is now our land and you are free to take your farm but leave our land” provides an alternative rendition to contestations of restitution versus a purely farm productionist discourse. The study, through an analysis of primary and secondary data, provides a fresh understanding of the social outcomes of fast track. It traces the evolution of land and agrarian reforms in post-independence Zimbabwe and the political and social economic context that led to „fast track‟. Through an analysis of field findings the thesis is able to define the dominant social groups that were resettled during fast track and the challenges they face in utilising the land. The findings show that the majority of the land beneficiaries were from the customary areas, with limited agricultural experiences. Local cooperation within informal networks and local farmer groups has been identified as one of the ways in which social reproduction is being organised. These groups are responsible for enhancing production capacity but they face a number of constraints. The study derives its theoretical foundation from the post 1980s debates on rural society dominated by Mafeje (1993, 2003), Rahmato (1991) and Mamdani (1996). The debates centred on how institutions of inclusion, authority and cooperation such as the lineage groups, local farmer groups and traditional authority remain relevant in the organisation of post-independent rural African society especially in a context of increased commoditisation of rural relations of production. Using theoretical insights derived from analysing the role of the lineage groups in the allocation of critical resources such as land and the influence of traditional authority (indirect rule) as a form of local government, the study examines how social organisation is emerging in areas where neither lineage nor traditional authority are not dominant. The thesis of rural cooperation through local groups as advanced by Rahmato (1991) and Moyo (2002) provides partial insights into the response mechanisms that land beneficiaries invoke in this instance. It is not necessarily an autonomous space of organisation but rather the state is actively involved through various functionaries including extension officers who invariably advance a very productionist approach. The state‟s monopoly through its local functionaries hides its political cooptation effect by emphasising organisation for production without questioning the manner in which that production is externally controlled through limited rights over land, the state‟s monopoly over inputs supply and markets for commodities. Whilst land reform has been driven by local participation through land occupations, local government reform has been technocratically determined through Ministerial directives. There is however little innovation in the form of local government that is being introduced. It expands the fusion of authority between elected Rural District Councils and unelected traditional authority functionaries. The forms of social organisation and agency that have emerged remain subordinated to the state with no links to other networks of rural producers‟ associations and urban civil society organisations. These developments form part of a longheld tradition within the Zimbabwean state where the legitimacy of local organisation and authority is usurped to service the interests of the state. Thus whilst land reform has to a certain extent accommodated the majority poor, the ensuing local government and agrarian reforms are more focused on limiting their participation in broader processes of political engagement around distribution and accumulation and their own governance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010