Extreme weather events in the Sneeuberg, Karoo, South Africa: a case study of the floods of 9 and 12 February 2011
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Rowntree, Kate M
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6672 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004468
- Description: Two destructive flood events occurred in rapid succession in the semi-arid Sneeuberg Mountains of the Karoo, South Africa in February 2011. The temporal and spatial characteristics of these two extreme events are examined in this paper through analysis of data from an unusually dense, and reliable, network of farm rain gauges. These analyses add to our understanding derived from existing rain gauge information. Comparisons are then made with patterns from a range of modeled products derived from remote sensed information: the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). We found that the first flood event was widespread and precipitation was related strongly to altitude. The second was highly localised, with no relationship to altitude. Both had very sharply peaked rainfall intensities. These findings are of significance to the studies of flooding and landscape change in the area as such events have become more pronounced over the past 50 yr and it is likely that this trend will accelerate. The modeled patterns are derived largely from remote sensing and we found that they are reliable for drawing out monthly and annual variations but they make noticeable underestimates. They are poor estimates, however, both for the spatial distribution of precipitation, and the short term trends as they struggle to estimate the impact of topography and other local forcing factors. This finding corroborates information derived from other analyses at broader spatial scales using more widely spread, established rain gauge stations. Ten percent of southern Africa has been classified as mountainous and these areas provide much of our water resources so our findings are significant to water managers throughout this and similar mountainous regions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Futures studies for the southern African region : ‘from Africa’ not ‘on Africa’
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Rowntree, Kate M , Kaskinen, J
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6668 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006685
- Description: Futures studies is well established in the Nordic region and its history can be readily charted, but in Africa it barely exists in an institutional form and its evolution and impact is little known or understood. The first two sections of our paper briefly examine the history of futures studies, spending most attention on the African experience. We go on to show that the Higher Education landscape in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is very different to that in the Nordic region. Recent futures reports present forecasts and scenarios that show a differentiated Higher Education landscape in the SADC; there are few Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and even the most optimistic forecasts show that the region as a whole will not meet the international enrollment norm of 30% by 2050. The last part of the paper examines our experience of collaboration with Finland and its well developed linkages between state and Universities. One outcome of three years of collaboration from 2007 to 2009 between two SANORD members, the Finland Futures Research Centre (now a part of the University of Turku) and Rhodes University, was a proposal to develop a multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional futures studies program intended to help Africa find its own voice in futures studies. The final part of our presentation reflects on the unsuccessful experiences that we have had to date in finding funding. We conclude by asking whether our experience can be seen as highlighting some of the challenges SANORD may be positioned to overcome if the SADC region’s HEIs are to achieve the Knowledge Village scenario and begin to match their Nordic counterparts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Exploring risk related to future climates through role-playing games: the African catchment game
- Authors: Rowntree, Kate M , Fraenkel, Linda A , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6671 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006807
- Description: Risk is the result of two interacting components: hazard and vulnerability. Climatic hazards are related to extrinsic factors such as drought or severe storms. Vul- nerability is the result of intrinsic factors that often arise from the socio-political- economic context. The interplay of risk and vulnerability is difficult to predict. Although computer models have been widely used to forecast climate related risk, albeit with con- siderable uncertainty, they can never capture sufficiently the vulnerability of human sys- tems to these hazards. Role-playing games can be used more realistically to simulate pos- sible outcomes of different climate change scenarios, and allow players to reflect on their significance. The authors have developed the African Catchment Game to simulate a wa- ter scarce African country. Risk can be modelled mechanistically by changing the nature of the annual rainfall input. Vulnerability can in part be modelled by changing the start- ing parameters (such as access to land and resources) and, secondly, through the unpredictable response of players to game dynamics. Players’ reflections demonstrate that through the game they become more aware of the concept of risk and the complex response of individuals and societies that determine their vulnerability to climatic hazards. This paper reflects on the potential for developing the game further as a tool for participatory learning around climate change, based on the authors’ experience of playing the game with participants from South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Learning about sustainability through experiencing complex, adverse conditions typical of the South : reflections from the African Catchment Games played in Finland 2008
- Authors: Fraenkel, Linda A , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6666 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006678
- Description: The African Catchment Game is an innovative role playing game which was played twice in Finland in 2008 as part of the CIMO funded collaboration between Finland Futures Research Centre and Rhodes University. It simulates a "real imaginary country" and enables participants to explore and experience how southern countries may or may not develop scenarios of sustainable resource extraction and consumption. New processes modelling climatic variability, water management and consumption were introduced for these two game runs. This imaginary country has roles for an urban/industrial sector, the informal sector, trading intermediaries, overseas trade, a government comprised of a president and two ministers, peasant and commercial farmers. Chapman's original game, Green Revolution Game/Exaction, is based on systems and complexity theories from the 1970s and 1980s. Our modifications to Chapman’s game are underpinned by theories of Complex Adaptive Systems and educational approaches based on constructivist, active/experiential learning models. The paper presents an analysis of the two Finnish games from the perspectives of the participants and the game managers. Participants’ information came from pre and post game questionnaires and the focus group discussions that were part of the debriefing pro-cess. These two methods enabled us to examine the local and network processes which de-veloped during the games. Global scale processes of production, consumption, resource utilization, trading and water provision was collected by the game managers as part of their management processes throughout each game run. Our analysis shows that the par-ticipants’ understanding altered and deepened as a result of playing the game. The nature of the game, as a Complex Adaptive System, and the constructivist learning approach through which the game is experienced means that lessons of a more universal nature cannot be extrapolated.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Overcoming marginalisation? Open Access research repositories at a South African and a Swedish University
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Wihlborg, E , Lawrence, D
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6667 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006680
- Description: Open Access Research Repositories have developed very rapidly since c2000 as a global phenomenon in their number, their location, the number and type of resources available in them. The creation of institutional repositories has been affected by different motives. They can serve as collections of a University's research output with the intention of making it 'freely' available. We ask here, just what patterns of access can be analysed, what trends do we see when examining our two institutions? Alternatively they can be seen as ways to raise the research profile of individuals and institutions and citation records. We do not see Open Access Research as being a neutral, value free technological innovation with clear outcomes. Our perspective draws from the fields of socio-technical and complex adaptive systems and so we anticipate that although the future impacts of Open Access research can be discerned they cannot be mechanistically predicted.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Gowin's Knowledge Vee and the integration of philosophy and methodology : a case study
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6682 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006677
- Description: Universities with a strong research tradition commonly have courses or modules examining the tradition’s philosophies and methodologies to prepare their students to undertake research programmes. Recently, however, authors have called for wider debate concerning how we teach these courses and this paper is intended, in part, to make a contribution to this debate. The Research Philosophy and Methodology module examined here makes an intriguing case study because of a number of distinctive characteristics. The teaching philosophy of the module is social constructivist and it uses Gowin’s Knowledge Vee as its main heuristic device. This facilitates the construction of knowledge about philosophy and methodology in an integrated manner. The module has also been designed for both physical and human geography students at the introductory post-graduate level. There is, therefore, a second element of integration in the curriculum. Lastly, the module is predominantly web-based, being taken by distance students through the exchange agreement between Rhodes University, South Africa, and the University of Trollhättan-Uddevalla, Sweden. Evidence from reflective exercises shows that the learners’ understanding of research and the research process has deepened considerably through using Gowin’s Vee. Furthermore, using the Knowledge Vee in the web-based context has facilitated the integrative aspects of the module.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Role playing African development : an international comparison
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Assmo, P , Kjellgren, H
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6665 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006676
- Description: The African Development Game is a role playing simulation developed to demonstrate the difficulties six African countries face in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. The game has been played in three different countries, South Africa, Sweden and Finland, to examine its utility as a learning tool for students who are unfamiliar both with the Millennium Development Goals and the problems of African development. Analysis of the games played in South Africa and Sweden. is based on a comparison of student reflections supplemented by participant observation and spreadsheet information of economic performances. Marked differences in the types of learning and success in repaying debt were observed between the two groups of students. They all commented, however, on the effectiveness of the role play as a learning tool.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Active learning for understanding land degradation : African Catchment Game and Riskmap
- Authors: Rowntree, Kate M , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6669 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006793
- Description: Land degradation is the result of the intersection of a complex set of biophysical and socio-economic factors. The capacity of an individual or community to address land degradation is likewise constrained. While it is quite possible for professionals and learners to grasp the main issues around land degradation from a theoretical perspective, internalizing the reality of what it means to be the resource degrader is more difficult. We have developed two active learning methods that aim to address this problem. The first is the African Catchment Game, a role-playing game based on Graham Chapman’s Green Revolution Game, adapted for the southern Africa context and incorporating a land degradation component. In this game participants play out the complex dynamics of rural-urban-global linkages against a background of environmental hazards. The second is based on Save the Children Fund’s RiskMap computer simulation that models risk in terms of rural livelihoods for different income groups. Ethiopia is used as the example. This paper evaluates the two active learning techniques as tools for exploring the relationships between land degradation and poverty through an evaluation of participants’ experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
On the fast track to land degradation? A case study of the impact of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Kadoma District, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Rowntree, Kate M , Chigumira, Easther C
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6663 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006668
- Description: The Fast Track Land Reform Programme is the defining instrument for Zimbabwe’s future development prospects. In the three year period from 2000 to 2002 300,000 families were resettled on 11 million hectares thus witnessing the end of the colonial division of land which had seen 15.5 million hectares still in European hands in 1980, the start of the post-colonial period. The process which displaced the commercial farm workers and farm owners was chaotic, violent and disorderly and so has been called jambanja. Subsequent legislation and government agricultural initiatives have attempted to impose, retroactively, technocratic order to the sweeping changes that have taken place. Our study shows that the dire macro-economic situation coupled with trends of HIV/AIDS prevalence means that developing sustainable land use practices is going to be a very difficult proposition. At the local scale, our case studies show that there have been multiple outcomes with low investment, very limited government support and resource extraction leading to land degradation and unsustainable farming practices. In some instances, however, individual households have benefitted in the short term from the process but this has only occurred where climatic and soil conditions have been particularly favourable.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Geography of African development : an alternative curriculum
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6679 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006666
- Description: The Geography of African Development module is part of a year-long Third Year level geography course on Africa that has been offered at Rhodes University since 2002. The course is an exception to the dominant trend, both locally and internationally, which has witnessed a major decline in the teaching of regional geography and area studies. This paper examines how adopting a constructivist approach to the module's curriculum enabled learners to develop geographical skills at the same time as Africanising the curriculum.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
The general election in Lesotho, May 2002: adapting to MMP
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Southall, Roger J
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6680 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006673
- Description: Voters in the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho went to the polls on 25 May 2002, in the third general election since the country returned to democracy following a long period of civilian dictatorship (1970–1986) and military rule (1986–1993). Voting in all Lesotho’s general elections has usually gone smoothly, yet in every case prior to 2002 the results have been challenged, with varying severity, by the losing parties (Weisfelder, 1999). This occurred most notably in 1970, when the ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) lost the election but overrode the result, and subsequently in 1998, when the BNP—then in opposition—was at the core of an alliance of electoral losers; in the months that followed, and with the quiet support of the security forces, the capital was so paralysed that the government called for external assistance to restore order. The result was military intervention by South Africa and Botswana (who acted on behalf of the Southern African Development Community, SADC), the restoration of power to the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), and an extended period when, backed by South African muscle, long overdue reforms of the military and police were implemented. These reforms were matched by negotiations between the parties about adopting a new electoral system. The outcome moved Lesotho away from the first-past-the-post system inherited from Britain at independence (which in 1993 and 1998 had resulted in highly imbalanced results favouring the winning party) towards a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system. Lesotho became the first country in Africa to adopt MMP at a time when discussion of electoral system change was becoming widespread throughout the continent. The issue in Lesotho in 2002 was not merely whether MMP would provide greater electoral legitimacy and political stability; subsequent events have provided a resounding ‘Yes’ (Elklit, 2002 and Southall, 2003). But there were questions about the practicality of the new system and whether voters would understand it. Was it possible to explain a new voting system to an electorate in one of Africa’s poorest countries? The main focus of this Note is to demonstrate that voters can adapt to electoral system change. Thus, it throws doubt on arguments that electoral reforms in Africa should be avoided due to a lack of sophistication among poor and largely uneducated voters. Electors in Lesotho appeared to have no great difficulty in understanding the broad principles of the new electoral system, even if the detailed mechanics of ‘mixed’ voting systems may have been beyond them.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
Between the Reds and the Greens: a geographical interpretation of the land question in South Africa
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:575 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006657
- Description: This inaugural lecture is in two parts: each related to a different nexus of the four types of scholarly activity. The first reflects on my career and is an examination of how I have developed as a teacher and learner. The key scholarly activities being discovery, integration and teaching. The second part reflects on the evolution of my research interests and leads up to an examination of the land question in South Africa. The scholarly activities in this part of the lecture are discovery, integration and application.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2003
Geography : the state of the discipline in South Africa (2000 - 2001)
- Authors: Fairhurst, U J , Davies, R J , Fox, Roddy C , Goldschagg, P , Ramutsindela, M , Bob, U , Khosa, M M
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6678 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006659
- Description: The research team presents the findings of a comprehensive investigation into the status and role of Geography as an academic discipline in South Africa. The paper begins by placing the discipline in historical and epistemological context. Extensive and intensive interviews were conducted with geographers at all South African universities and, on a smaller scale, in the workplace. Information was also gleaned from an array of documents. Comments on the characteristics of university departments, general school education, the geography research environment the geographer in the workplace are given. Emerging trends, many of which relate to recent socio-political change, show that contemporary emphasis is on applied geography, specific fields of specialisation, the accommodation of Environmental Science and Environmental Management, skills training and on curriculum development with a marked vocational orientation. As geographers continue addressing national and international environmental and social issues in their professional endeavours, they are alerted to critical concerns voiced with conviction by practising geographers. In the final analysis a positive conclusion is reached and the academic merit and status of the discipline is confirmed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2003
The land question in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya: a geographical perspective on resource endowment
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Rowntree, Kate M
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6664 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006671
- Description: In sharp contrast to the debates concerning land policy, land tenure and sustainable resource management in South Africa is any input concerning the geographical distribution of land productivity. This paper attempts to redress this imbalance by providing an empirical investigation of land potential in South Africa. In this way we intend to provide the crucial context for policy and academic studies of the land issue in South Africa. Furthermore, we will undertake our study in such a way that comparison can be made to Zimbabwe and Kenya where the land issue has been such a critical component of the post-colonial development process. Theoretically our work is contextualised within the debates surrounding the importance of geographical endowments, institutions and policies in the development process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
Lesotho's general election of 1998 : rigged or de rigeur?
- Authors: Southall, Roger J , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 1999
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6726 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006808
- Description: The official result of Lesotho's general election of 1998, which saw a 79 out of 80 seat victory for the ruling Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD), was repudiated by the opposition, notably the former ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). These latter parties were historic enemies but forged an alliance of convenience to contest the outcome of the election. By mobilising their supporters to occupy Maseru they successfully paralysed the capacity of the LCD to govern. After diplomatic preliminaries, this led to military intervention by South Africa and Botswana in September 1998 and their brokering of an agreement which restored the LCD to power, on the condition that a new election would be held within eighteen months, with the rules for that contest being discussed between the parties in the interim. That election has now been scheduled for April 2000. The article reviews the conduct and result of the general election of 1998. It concludes that the opposition's objections were largely spurious, but notes that the unbalanced nature of the LCD's victory – a product of the first-past-the-post electoral system – was a major cause of the wider crisis. It therefore proposes that any lasting settlement of political differences in Lesotho is going to require a new electoral system which will allow for a more inclusive outcome.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
Pension payouts, periodic marketing and the continuance of urban dependence in rural South Africa
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Nel, Etienne L
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6681 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006675
- Description: The former homeland areas of South Africa are characterised by extreme poverty, high levels of urban dependence, a reliance on pensions and low levels of agricultural production. This paper is based on a case-study of the Eastern Cape province and details rural realities, the importance of pensions and the constraints which face current plans to develop and expand the periodic marketing network.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1998
Bleak future for multi-party elections in Kenya
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 1996
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6683 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006681
- Description: With attention turning towards Kenya's second multi-party elections, due to be held before the end of 1997, it is imperative to look back to the flaws in the system which helped deliver President Daniel arap Moi and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) their victories in 1992. At present there is no sign of these defects being eradicated and the creation of new districts since then has demonstrated the Government's intention of enhancing an already biased structure. The underlying distribution of tribes and ethnic groups has had a fundamental impact on the electoral geography of Kenya, since they have controlled the delimitation of both the parliamentary constituencies and the administrative machinery of the whole country.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1996