Aspects of the biology and life history of largespot pompano, Trachinotus botla, in South Africa
- Authors: Parker, Daniel M , Booth, Anthony J
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123798 , vital:35499 , https://doi.10.1071/MF14029
- Description: Trachinotus botla is an important recreational surf zone-dependent fish species distributed in the Indo-west Pacific from South Africa to Australia. In South Africa it is restricted to the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast. Biological investigations revealed that it is a fast growing species that attains a maximum age of, 7 years. Males and females sexually matured in their third year. It has a protracted summer spawning season with evidence of serial spawning behaviour. T. botla is an opportunistic predator with a generalist diet, with fish feeding on a wide variety of prey items particularly those that are temporally ‘superabundant’. Small fish fed predominantly on copepods and terrestrial insects, whereas larger fish consumed bivalves and crabs. Teleosts, primarily engraulids, were important components to the diet of fish of all sizes. An ontogenetic dietary shift was observed just after sexual maturity (300-mm fork length) that is possibly linked to a change in habitat preference with larger fish foraging on deeper reefs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Fish utilization of surf-zones. Are they changing? A case study of the sheltered, warm-temperate King’s Beach
- Authors: Rishworth, Gavin M , Strydom, Nadine A , Potts, Warren M
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124504 , vital:35619 , https://doi.org/10.1080/15627020.2014.11407616
- Description: Surf-zone fish communities and their shifts over time are generally poorly understood. The aim of this study was to compare the current surf-zone fish assemblage at King’s Beach, South Africa, to a similar study conducted three decades ago, before the collapse of many exploited shore fishes in the region. Beach seine nets (mesh sizes of 10 and 50 mm) were used to target juvenile and adult fishes bimonthly from February to August 2011 over the high tide around sunset. A total of 14 species were recorded in both the 30mand 100mseine nets. The catch in these seine nets was dominated by Pomadasys olivaceus and Liza richardsonii, and this was significantly different to three decades ago, when P. olivaceus, Sarpa salpa and Diplodus capensis dominated the catch. Important linefish species belonging to the Sparidae and Sciaenidae families were significantly smaller and less abundant in this study. Two sparids, S. salpa and Lithognathus mormyrus, which made a large contribution to the surf-zone catch three decades ago were absent during this study. Reasons for the significant shifts in the surf-zone fish community, including overexploitation of the linefish and potential habitat modification, are discussed.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Human harvesting impacts on managed areas: ecological effects of socially-compatible shellfish reserves
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Flores, Carola F , Broitman, Bernardo R
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124664 , vital:35644 , https://doi.10.1007/s11160-014-9376-4
- Description: We examined how human harvesting impacts on managed areas affect the abundance and size distribution of the edible mangrove shellfish Anadara granosa and Polymesoda spp. in the Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. We tested two hypotheses: (1) in areas permanently and temporally closed to human exploitation, abundance and size distribution of these shellfish species is significantly greater than in sites open to exploitation and (2) moderate human disturbance of shell beds, particularly of Polymesoda spp., increases their abundance. Firstly, we studied perceptions of environmental states and processes coupled to foraging and management interventions to assess sociocultural influences on harvesting practices and ascertain the types of management regime that people would consider in a context where poaching and interloping are common practices. Secondly, we compared shellfish abundance and shell size from areas that were permanently protected, temporally reserved for communal harvest, and permanently open for exploitation. Thirdly, drawing from women’s local knowledge, we measured the abundance of Polymesoda spp. in relation to mud compactness in quadrats across the three management regimes. Results showed that both species were significantly more abundant in permanent and temporally closed sites than in open sites. In the mud compactness study, however, while shell abundance was greater in moderately compacted quadrats, there was no statistical relationship between mud compactness and shell abundance within or across the three management regimes. Results suggest that even under the strong impacts of poaching, temporally closed areas have more clams than open areas and are as effective as areas that are permanently closed nominally. The results also suggest that human harvesting regimes can influence the effectiveness of local management decisions and thus are important when designing community-based conservation programs in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Impact of marine inundation after a period of drought on the lakeshore vegetation of Lake St Lucia, South Africa: resilience of estuarine vegetation
- Authors: Sieben, E J J , Ellery, William F N , Dullo, B W , Grootjans, A P
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144443 , vital:38346 , DOI: 10.2989/16085914.2015.1032208
- Description: The shore of Lake St Lucia in the vicinity of Catalina Bay, in the southern part of the lake, receives freshwater input as surface and groundwater seepage from the adjacent elevated coastal plain. Vegetation, water quality and landform were recorded on the lakeshore and on the dry lakebed near one of these seepage zones. This was done along a gradient perpendicular to the lakeshore and along the lakeshore away from the fluvial source of freshwater input. A number of plant communities were found along a gradient of water salinity from the shoreline (fresh water) towards the centre of the lake, and also away from the fluvial input of water (increasingly saline). Species richness decreased with increasing salinity. The first study was conducted in 2006 after a prolonged drought associated with low lake levels and closure of the mouth, and repeated again in 2010 three years after breaching of the estuarine mouth by a tropical cyclone at sea, which caused inundation of the partly dry lakebed with sea water. The vegetation of the lakeshore after these major disturbances was remarkably similar in the two time periods, suggesting rapid recovery near freshwater seepage zones, following an influx of sea water.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Incipient genetic isolation of a temperate migratory coastal sciaenid fish (Argyrosomus inodorus) within the Benguela Cold Current system
- Authors: Henriques, Romina , Potts, Warren M , Sauer, Warwick H H , Shaw, Paul W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124710 , vital:35652 , https://doi.10.1080/17451000.2014.952309
- Description: The Benguela Cold Current system, located in the south-eastern Atlantic, features cold sea surface temperatures, bounded to the north and south by tropical currents (the Angola and Agulhas Currents, respectively) and a perennial upwelling cell off central Namibia that divides the region into two sub-systems with different characteristics (Shannon 1985; Hutchings et al. 2009). The colder sea surface temperatures of the Benguela Current have been considered an important biogeographic barrier, isolating tropical and warm-temperate fauna of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans (Avise 2000; Floeter et al. 2008). However, recent studies revealed that other oceanographic features, such as the perennial upwelling cell, may also play an important role in shaping the population structure of warm temperate fish populations within the Benguela system, as complete disruption of gene flow was documented both in Lichia amia (Linnaeus, 1758) and Atractoscion aequidens (Cuvier, 1830) (Henriques et al. 2012, 2014). Little is known, however, regarding the influence of the Benguela system on genetic population connectivity of cold-water-tolerant species.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Journalism students’ motivations and expectations of their work in comparative perspective:
- Authors: Hanusch, Folker , Mellado, Claudia , Boshoff, Priscilla A , Humanes, María Luisa , De León, Salvador , Pereira, Fabio , Márquez Ramírez, Mireya , Roses, Sergio , Subervi, Federico , Wyss, Vinzenz , Yez, Lyuba
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143425 , vital:38245 , DOI: 10.1177/1077695814554295
- Description: Based on a survey of 4,393 journalism students in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, this study provides much-needed comparative evidence about students’ motivations for becoming journalists, their future job plans, and expectations. Findings show not only an almost universal decline in students’ desire to work in journalism by the end of their program but also important national differences in terms of the journalistic fields in which they want to work, as well as their job expectations. The results reinforce the need to take into account national contexts when examining journalism education across the globe.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Planning for the future: mapping anticipated environmental and social impacts in a nascent tourism destination
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Diedrich, Amy , Currier, Kitty
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145415 , vital:38436 , DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1020582
- Description: Tourism is a significant driver of social and ecological change in developing countries, particularly in small-island states, which are susceptible to tourism impacts due to their particular social and environmental characteristics. In this article we present a participatory mapping approach to obtaining spatially explicit local perceptions of future environmental and social change resulting from tourism development, as well as addressing the different community conflicts that may arise through the introduction of tourism in the future in a Solomon Islands community. The results show that spatial conflicts within a community over territory and associated resources are likely to occur when designing natural resource management and tourism development plans. This knowledge can help us increase the future sustainability of tourism in nascent small-islands destinations, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Roviana, which have experienced very little tourism development and will likely experience more in the near future.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Plasmodium falciparum Hop: detailed analysis on complex formation with Hsp70 and Hsp90
- Authors: Hatherley, Rowan , Clitheroe, Crystal-Leigh , Faya, Ngonidzashe , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125708 , vital:35810 , https://doi.10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.11.103
- Description: The heat shock organizing protein (Hop) is important in modulating the activity and co-interaction of two chaperones: heat shock protein 70 and 90 (Hsp70 and Hsp90). Recent research suggested that Plasmodium falciparum Hop (PfHop), PfHsp70 and PfHsp90 form a complex in the trophozoite infective stage. However, there has been little computational research on the malarial Hop protein in complex with other malarial Hsps. Using in silico characterization of the protein, this work showed that individual domains of Hop are evolving at different rates within the protein. Differences between human Hop (HsHop) and PfHop were identified by motif analysis. Homology modeling of PfHop and HsHop in complex with their own cytosolic Hsp90 and Hsp70 C-terminal peptide partners indicated excellent conservation of the Hop concave TPR sites bound to the C-terminal motifs of partner proteins. Further, we analyzed additional binding sites between Hop and Hsp90, and showed, for the first time, that they are distinctly less conserved between human and malaria parasite. These sites are located on the convex surface of Hop TPR2, and involved in interactions with the Hsp90 middle domain. Since the convex sites are less conserved than the concave sites, it makes their potential for malarial inhibitor design extremely attractive (as opposed to the concave sites which have been the focus of previous efforts).
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- Date Issued: 2015
Rise and fall of apartheid: photography and the bureaucracy of everyday life
- Authors: Simbao, Ruth Kerkham, 1969-
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125910 , vital:35831 , https://doi.10.1080/02533952.2014.998052
- Description: The exhibition catalogue Rise and Fall of Apartheid is a valuable collection of photographic images that create, according to Enwezor, “a critical visualization and interrogation of […] [apartheid’s] normative symbols, signs and representation” (18). The catalogue focuses on African subjects as “agents of their own emancipation” (18), and contextualises South Africa’s anticipation of the end of apartheid within broader global changes in the late 1980s. Essays by Okwui Enwezor, Michael Godby, Achille Mbembe, Darren Newbury, Colin Richards, Patricia Hayes, Andries Walter Olifant, Rory Bester and Khwezi Gule are included in the catalogue, and are interspersed between photographic images that are grouped in chronological clusters: 1948–1959; 1960–1969; 1970–1979; 1980–1989; and 1990–1995.
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- Date Issued: 2015
'Joining the academic life': South African students who succeed at university despite not meeting standard entry requirements
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Idahosa, Grace E
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141745 , vital:38001 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC159177
- Description: At present the Swedish points system is one of the main determinants of an applicant either being granted or refused entry into many South African higher education institutions (HEIs). Using a grounded theory approach, this article interprets the experiences of participants whose school performance and therefore university 'entry points' were lower than the expected norm. Despite not meeting standard university entry requirements, these students succeeded at university, completing their degrees in the minimum time available and going on to higher degrees. The journey of these participants - from low entry points to academic success - suggests that points based on school performance are not necessarily the best way of identifying students' potential to succeed in the contemporary South African educational context. If their entry points were not a good indication of their ability to thrive at university, the article asks, what is it about these participants that accounts for their success? And what implications does this have for South African practice, not only with regard to admissions policies but also in relation to the responsibilities of HEIs to students once they are admitted?
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- Date Issued: 2014
'On the fringes of society’ and ‘out of the closest’: a response to ‘Sexual/Textual Politics
- Authors: Spencer, Lynda G
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139034 , vital:37698 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2014.983324
- Description: Gibson Ncube’s ‘Sexual/Textual Politics: Rethinking gender and sexuality in gay Moroccan literature’ focuses on an emerging body of gay literature that is developing within the larger framework of Moroccan literature. Ncube attempts to illustrate how the contemporary narratives of Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa portray the quotidian experiences of minority sexualities who strive to exist in the hegemonic heteropatriarchies of Moroccan societies. These narratives challenge and destabilise the heteronormative ideals of Arab-Muslim communities and endeavour to offer alternative ways of thinking about marginalised sexualities in the public space. This analysis draws on the feminist underpinnings of Maria Pia Lara to argue that private gay narratives have the potential to re-imagine the public domain.
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- Date Issued: 2014
'We must start with our own children’: reflectively researching intergenerational leadership for social justice, education, and sustainability
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437207 , vital:73353 , ISBN 978-9086862528 , https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-802-5_1
- Description: This paper was prepared today, 13 December 2013, for this book on ‘Intergenerational learning and transformative leader-ship for sustainable futures’, to be released in November 2014 at a World Conference to mark the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN-DESD) in Nago-ya, Japan. The UNDESD was born in Johannesburg in 2002; it was an outcome of the Johannesburg Implementation Plan formulated by world leaders at the World Summit on Sustaina-ble Development, hosted by the South African government, building on the earlier Rio Earth Summit. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela attended the opening of the World Summit on Sus-tainable Development soon after he left office as the first dem-ocratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa. He passed away a week ago today, on 5 December 2013, at the age of 95. His life story is well known. I write here about his words ‘We must start with our own children’.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A comparative photophysicochemical study of mono substituted phthalocyanines grafted onto silica nanoparticles
- Authors: Fashina, Adebayo , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193844 , vital:45399 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1142/S1088424614500138"
- Description: In this study, we report on the covalent linking of carboxylic acid functionalized silica nanoparticles with zinc phthalocyanine mono-substituted non-peripherally and peripherally with either a 4-amino phenoxy (1, peripheral and 2, non-peripheral) or an amino group (3 peripheral). The grafting is achieved via the formation of an amide bond between the carboxylic acid of the silica nanoparticles and the amino group of the phthalocyanine complexes. The hybrid nanoparticles retained the amorphous nature of silica nanoparticles after conjugation. A slight decrease in fluorescence and a general improvement in triplet quantum yields compared to free Pcs were observed. Triplet lifetimes for 2-SiNPs and 3-SiNPs also improved when compared to the free phthalocyanine. The changes in singlet oxygen quantum yields upon conjugation were minimal.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A critical analysis of the tax consequences of debt reductons, in the context of insolvency, death and the liquidaton of a deceased estate
- Authors: Simango, Samuel
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54464 , vital:26567
- Description: The present research was conducted in an effort to address certain problems and a legal anomaly that is specifically related to the tax treatment of reduced debts stemming from the death or insolvency of natural persons in South Africa. At the beginning of 2013 the National Treasury enacted certain amendments to the debt reduction provisions of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 with the intention of streamlining the tax treatment of reduced debts and granting debt relief to financially distressed debtors. In spite of these recent amendments to the provisions of the Income Tax Act, there are certain problems and a legal anomaly which still currently relate to the tax consequences of reduced debts in South Africa. These problems and the legal anomaly are based on the failure of the recent amendments to successfully address debt reduction which arises in the context of the death and/or insolvency of natural persons. The objective of this research was therefore to analyse the tax consequences of reduced debts arising in the context of the death and the insolvency of natural persons and to explain how the problems and legal anomaly associated with these tax consequences can be rectified. The research design was qualitative within the framework of an interpretive paradigm. A mixed methodology approach was followed as identified in the Arthurs Report (1983), namely the interdisciplinary and the doctrinal methodologies. This approach encompassed two legal research methods namely the expository and legal reform research methods. The research explained the underlying nature of the tax consequences of reduced debts arising in the context of the death and the insolvency of natural persons and formulated specific reform measures aimed at remedying the problems and the legal anomaly that currently exist. Two amendments were proposed. It was proposed that the tax liability which arises when debts are reduced through the wills of deceased persons and the reduction of debts stemming from the insolvency of natural persons should be expressly excluded from falling within the ambit of the provisions which give rise to tax consequences whenever debt reduction takes place.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A Flexible Approach for the Application of Immersive Audio to an Installation Performance:
- Authors: Gurdan, Robby , Foss, Richard
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426732 , vital:72387 , https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/28/4a/94/1113bd7074ad90/US8862755.pdf /
- Description: An apparatus for modifying a command message (CMD) received from a source apparatus to control a target device parameter of a target apparatus within a digital multimedia network, wherein a hierarchical parameter address (HPA) or a parameter value contained in said command message (CMD) is changed according to at least one change script to provide a modified command message (CMD′).
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- Date Issued: 2014
A new approach to obesity for health journalism: fit not fat
- Authors: Dugmore, Harry
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158620 , vital:40212 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC159484
- Description: Health journalism is a complicated beat. The science is easy to get wrong, and the tone and tenor of the reporting needs careful attention. Coverage of obesity is even more fraught. Early insights from an on-going research project by the Discovery Centre for Health Journalism suggests that not only is most journalism about obesity not helping - some reporting may inadvertently be making the situation worse. This needs to change. There is too much at stake for journalism about food, fat and fitness to be anything less than impactful and effective.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A Note on the (Continued) Ability of the Yield Curve to Forecast Economic Downturns in South Africa
- Authors: Botha, Ferdi , Keeton, Gavin
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/395994 , vital:69142 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12053"
- Description: In 2002-2003, the South African yield spread falsely signalled a downswing that never materialised. This paper provides two reasons for this false signal. First, while the Reserve Bank never actually officially declared the start of a downswing, by alternative measures a downswing did actually occur. It is this severe weakness in economic activity at that time that the yield curve pointed to. Second, short-term interest rates in 2003 were higher than they should have been because of a mistake made in measuring consumer price inflation. Because South Africa had recently introduced an inflation-targeting regime, policy interest rates were, as a result of this error, kept too high for too long. This policy mistake was rectified as soon as the error in the Consumer Price Index was discovered. Thus, the yield curve in 2003 pointed to the reality that short-term interest rates were too high and risked pushing the economy into full blown recession. This is demonstrated by the fact that it was a fall in long bond interest rates that caused the yield spread to turn negative, indicating expectations that short-term interest rates would need to be cut – as indeed they were.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A promising biological control agent for the invasive alien plant, Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae), in South Africa
- Authors: Paterson, Iain D , Mdodana, Lumka A , Mpekula, Ongezwa , Mabunda, Bheki D , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416806 , vital:71387 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09583157.2014.919439"
- Description: Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae) is an invasive alien plant from Central and South America that has become a problematic environmental weed in South Africa. A potential biological control agent, the stem-wilter, Catorhintha schaffneri Brailovsky and Garcia (Coreidae), was collected in southern Brazil and imported into quarantine in South Africa. Field host range data suggested that C. schaffneri has a host range restricted to P. aculeata. No-choice nymph survival tests were then conducted on 27 test plant species in 9 families. Survival to the adult stage was only recorded on P. aculeata and the closely related Pereskia grandifolia Haw. (Cactaceae). Mortality was significantly higher on P. grandifolia with only 3% of the nymphs reaching the adult stage compared with 74% on P. aculeata indicating that P. aculeata is the primary host plant. P. grandifolia is native in South America and is of no agricultural importance in South Africa so any feeding on P. grandifolia in South Africa would have no negative environmental or economic consequences. In other tests, adult survival on P. aculeata [25.8 days (SE ± 3.74)] was significantly longer than on other test plant species [4.3 days (SE ± 0.36)] further confirming the host specificity of the species. Impact studies conducted in quarantine indicated that C. schaffneri is damaging to P. aculeata, significantly reducing the number of leaves and the shoot lengths of plants, even at relatively low insect densities. C. schaffneri is safe for release in South Africa and is likely to be a damaging and effective agent.
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- Date Issued: 2014
A reflection on the use of case studies as a methodology for social learning research in sub Saharan Africa
- Authors: Cundill, Georgina , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mukute, Mutizwa , Belay, Million , Shackleton, Sheona E , Kulundu, Iinjairu
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436636 , vital:73288 , ISBN 1573-5214 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2013.04.001
- Description: A recent review has highlighted that the methodology most commonly employed to research social learning has been the individual case study. We draw on four examples of social learning research in the environmental and sustainability sci-ences from sub-Saharan Africa to reflect on possible reasons behind the preponderance of case study research in this field, and to identify common elements that may be significant for social learning research more generally. We find that a com-mon interest in change oriented social learning, and therefore processes of change, makes case studies a necessary ap-proach because long term process analyses are required that are sensitive to social-ecological contexts. Common elements of the examples reflected upon included: a focus on initiating, tracking and/or understanding a process of change toward sustainability; long term research; an action research agenda that involves reflecting on data with research participants; and temporal, process based analysis of data coupled with in-depth theoretical analysis. This paper highlights that there is significant scope for exploratory research that compares case studies of social learning research to generate a deeper un-derstanding of social learning processes, and their relationship to human agency and societal change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
A reflection on the use of case studies as a methodology for social learning research in sub Saharan Africa
- Authors: Cundill, Georgina , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, 1965- , Mukute, Mutizwa , Ali, Million Belay , Shackleton, Sheona E , Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu M
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182832 , vital:43884 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2013.04.001"
- Description: A recent review has highlighted that the methodology most commonly employed to research social learning has been the individual case study. We draw on four examples of social learning research in the environmental and sustainability sciences from sub-Saharan Africa to reflect on possible reasons behind the preponderance of case study research in this field, and to identify common elements that may be significant for social learning research more generally. We find that a common interest in change oriented social learning, and therefore processes of change, makes case studies a necessary approach because long term process analyses are required that are sensitive to social-ecological contexts. Common elements of the examples reflected upon included: a focus on initiating, tracking and/or understanding a process of change toward sustainability; long term research; an action research agenda that involves reflecting on data with research participants; and temporal, process based analysis of data coupled with in-depth theoretical analysis. This paper highlights that there is significant scope for exploratory research that compares case studies of social learning research to generate a deeper understanding of social learning processes, and their relationship to human agency and societal change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014