A comparison of representations of the imperative of higher education change as „transformation‟ versus „decolonisation‟ in South African public discourse
- Authors: Makgakge, Rebecca Dineo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education in mass media -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Discrimination in education -- South Africa , South Africa -- Colonial influence , Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142498 , vital:38085
- Description: The context of higher education in South Africa which has been shaped by the legacies of the old apartheid system is faced with a paramount task of the continuous process of restructuring and change. In shaping the restructuring and change of the higher education system the concept of transformation has been a constant theme for the post-apartheid government policies. However more recently we have seen the heightened prominence of the concept of change understood as decolonisation of South African higher education – as opposed to “transformation‘. This thesis was concerned with how these concepts of change, “transformation‘ and “decolonisation‘ have been used in debates surrounding higher education in South Africa. The thesis compares and contrasts the ways and context in which they are used. This study of 177 South African newspaper articles taken form independent media stables from the time 2008 to the present provides an analysis of representations of higher education change as “transformation‘ and as “decolonisation‘ evinced in the corpus. This required using both content and framing analysis as a method to analyse the corpus. Three themes emerged from the analysis that are relevant to the comparison between South African higher education institutional change represented as “transformation‘ and South African higher education institutional change represented at “decolonisation‘: the first theme concerns the differences and similarities in how the two terms are defined; the second theme concerns how the two ideas play themselves out when it comes to curriculum change and the final theme concerns the implications of seeing change as “transformation‘ and seeing change as “decolonisation‘ for changing institutional cultures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Makgakge, Rebecca Dineo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education in mass media -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Discrimination in education -- South Africa , South Africa -- Colonial influence , Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142498 , vital:38085
- Description: The context of higher education in South Africa which has been shaped by the legacies of the old apartheid system is faced with a paramount task of the continuous process of restructuring and change. In shaping the restructuring and change of the higher education system the concept of transformation has been a constant theme for the post-apartheid government policies. However more recently we have seen the heightened prominence of the concept of change understood as decolonisation of South African higher education – as opposed to “transformation‘. This thesis was concerned with how these concepts of change, “transformation‘ and “decolonisation‘ have been used in debates surrounding higher education in South Africa. The thesis compares and contrasts the ways and context in which they are used. This study of 177 South African newspaper articles taken form independent media stables from the time 2008 to the present provides an analysis of representations of higher education change as “transformation‘ and as “decolonisation‘ evinced in the corpus. This required using both content and framing analysis as a method to analyse the corpus. Three themes emerged from the analysis that are relevant to the comparison between South African higher education institutional change represented as “transformation‘ and South African higher education institutional change represented at “decolonisation‘: the first theme concerns the differences and similarities in how the two terms are defined; the second theme concerns how the two ideas play themselves out when it comes to curriculum change and the final theme concerns the implications of seeing change as “transformation‘ and seeing change as “decolonisation‘ for changing institutional cultures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring socialities on Black Twitter: an ethnographic study of everyday concerns of South African users in 2018 and 2019
- Authors: Adebayo, Binwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Twitter (Firm) , Social media South Africa , Social media and society South Africa , Black people and mass media South Africa , Language and the Internet South Africa , Mass media and culture South Africa , Race in mass media , Ethnicity in mass media , Mass media and minorities South Africa , Mass media Social aspects South Africa , Sex differences in mass media , Social media Political aspects South Africa , South Africa Social conditions , Finance In mass media , Intersectionality (Sociology) South Africa , Black Twitter
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140575 , vital:37900
- Description: In this thesis, I examine the phenomenon of Black Twitter, as it exists in South Africa. Drawing on its socio-cultural and linguistic elements, I analyse the kinds of socialities which are constituted on the platform. In the study, I do this by focusing on the key issues which drive the space by evaluating the key everyday concerns as expressed by its users. As such, the overarching lens focuses on three elements: Firstly, the idea of socialities and the way in which they manifest in online spaces; a focus on the everyday as an important site for social inquiry; and lastly the issue of ‘blackness’, in terms of the way it is used and understood in the South African Black Twitter context. Historically, the Black Twitter space has been linked almost exclusively to its broad base of African American users, who are significant both in terms of their numbers, and their impact on online social culture. However, in this study I engage with the ways in which Black Twitter has been adopted, co-opted and used by young South Africans. As a bona fide ‘member’ of South African Black Twitter, my approach to the study was cyberethnographic. Drawing on my access to the space, my knowledge of many of its members and dynamics, I engaged in participant observation as my primary methodology. My discussion focuses on three areas of everyday concerns, namely: gender and sexuality; race and politics; finances and the economy. These three areas emerge both as prominent sites of discussion, but also give the best insight into the ways in which young South Africans are grappling with these issues. My analysis focuses on how everyday concerns are handled on the platform, and I focus on the deployment of solidarity, formal language, platform-based language and the invocation of blackness. I argue in my conclusion that while the structure of the broad Black Twitter space reflects a leaning towards a digital public sphere, that the process and construction of Black Twitter’s ideas and content are approached via an incomplete, fluid convivial approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Adebayo, Binwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Twitter (Firm) , Social media South Africa , Social media and society South Africa , Black people and mass media South Africa , Language and the Internet South Africa , Mass media and culture South Africa , Race in mass media , Ethnicity in mass media , Mass media and minorities South Africa , Mass media Social aspects South Africa , Sex differences in mass media , Social media Political aspects South Africa , South Africa Social conditions , Finance In mass media , Intersectionality (Sociology) South Africa , Black Twitter
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140575 , vital:37900
- Description: In this thesis, I examine the phenomenon of Black Twitter, as it exists in South Africa. Drawing on its socio-cultural and linguistic elements, I analyse the kinds of socialities which are constituted on the platform. In the study, I do this by focusing on the key issues which drive the space by evaluating the key everyday concerns as expressed by its users. As such, the overarching lens focuses on three elements: Firstly, the idea of socialities and the way in which they manifest in online spaces; a focus on the everyday as an important site for social inquiry; and lastly the issue of ‘blackness’, in terms of the way it is used and understood in the South African Black Twitter context. Historically, the Black Twitter space has been linked almost exclusively to its broad base of African American users, who are significant both in terms of their numbers, and their impact on online social culture. However, in this study I engage with the ways in which Black Twitter has been adopted, co-opted and used by young South Africans. As a bona fide ‘member’ of South African Black Twitter, my approach to the study was cyberethnographic. Drawing on my access to the space, my knowledge of many of its members and dynamics, I engaged in participant observation as my primary methodology. My discussion focuses on three areas of everyday concerns, namely: gender and sexuality; race and politics; finances and the economy. These three areas emerge both as prominent sites of discussion, but also give the best insight into the ways in which young South Africans are grappling with these issues. My analysis focuses on how everyday concerns are handled on the platform, and I focus on the deployment of solidarity, formal language, platform-based language and the invocation of blackness. I argue in my conclusion that while the structure of the broad Black Twitter space reflects a leaning towards a digital public sphere, that the process and construction of Black Twitter’s ideas and content are approached via an incomplete, fluid convivial approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“How can you build a nation without telling its stories?”: Transgressive, Testimonial Fiction in Post-TRC South Africa
- Authors: Collett, Keenan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) , Violence in literature , South Africa -- In literature , AIDS (Disease) in literature , Duiker, K Sello -- Thirteen cents , Moele, Kgebetli -- The book of the dead , Staggie, Jason -- Risk
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147092 , vital:38592
- Description: Transgressive fiction refers to works of literature that are fundamentally concerned with the provocation of their reader. This effect is typically accomplished by authors crafting novels that feature upsetting content: extreme violence, taboo sex acts, and drug abuse – often narrated by protagonists who are either the recipients or enactors of violence and trauma. Given their rootedness in familiar social settings, these works of fiction manage to relay critiques of their particular societies. Over the past three decades, transgressive fiction has amassed a small critical reception with focus predominantly directed toward texts from the United States and the United Kingdom. In an attempt to build on existing scholarship, this thesis explores recent and disturbing works of South African literature in order to gauge whether the markers of transgressive fiction are as easily applicable in a new national setting. K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead and Jason Staggie’s Risk form the basis of the discussion. Each novel exposes a concern with social developments within a ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa, and codes its respective critique in narratives concerned with the violation of consent, as depicted in profoundly unsettling ways. The spread of publication dates across the three novels also allows for an examination of morphing social critique from 2000-2013.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Collett, Keenan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) , Violence in literature , South Africa -- In literature , AIDS (Disease) in literature , Duiker, K Sello -- Thirteen cents , Moele, Kgebetli -- The book of the dead , Staggie, Jason -- Risk
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147092 , vital:38592
- Description: Transgressive fiction refers to works of literature that are fundamentally concerned with the provocation of their reader. This effect is typically accomplished by authors crafting novels that feature upsetting content: extreme violence, taboo sex acts, and drug abuse – often narrated by protagonists who are either the recipients or enactors of violence and trauma. Given their rootedness in familiar social settings, these works of fiction manage to relay critiques of their particular societies. Over the past three decades, transgressive fiction has amassed a small critical reception with focus predominantly directed toward texts from the United States and the United Kingdom. In an attempt to build on existing scholarship, this thesis explores recent and disturbing works of South African literature in order to gauge whether the markers of transgressive fiction are as easily applicable in a new national setting. K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead and Jason Staggie’s Risk form the basis of the discussion. Each novel exposes a concern with social developments within a ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa, and codes its respective critique in narratives concerned with the violation of consent, as depicted in profoundly unsettling ways. The spread of publication dates across the three novels also allows for an examination of morphing social critique from 2000-2013.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The efficacy of learnerships for people with disabilities in the Western Cape
- Authors: Merrill, Tamara
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: People with disabilities -- Employment -- South Africa -- Western Cape , People with disabilities -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Western Cape , Discrimination against people with disabilities
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9033 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1663 , People with disabilities -- Employment -- South Africa -- Western Cape , People with disabilities -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Western Cape , Discrimination against people with disabilities
- Description: Despite efforts to promote increased employment, people with disabilities are considerably underrepresented in the workplace. As a flagship model of skills development, the researcher conducted a longitudinal study of learners with disabilities and Learnership stakeholders to identify successes, challenges and long-term outcomes of a Western Cape Learnership. The research relies heavily upon the experiences of the Learnership stakeholders, particularly learners with disabilities, to articulate how experiences are impacted by the model design as well as societal factors. What is revealed is a social and political context whereby the artefacts of the past amalgamate with present actions of redress, which impact strategies to better prepare learners with disabilities to integrate into the formal economy. The findings examine the impacts of Learnership design and implementation; interconnectedness between disability, race and poverty; influence of government and policy; and overall efficacy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Merrill, Tamara
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: People with disabilities -- Employment -- South Africa -- Western Cape , People with disabilities -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Western Cape , Discrimination against people with disabilities
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9033 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1663 , People with disabilities -- Employment -- South Africa -- Western Cape , People with disabilities -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Western Cape , Discrimination against people with disabilities
- Description: Despite efforts to promote increased employment, people with disabilities are considerably underrepresented in the workplace. As a flagship model of skills development, the researcher conducted a longitudinal study of learners with disabilities and Learnership stakeholders to identify successes, challenges and long-term outcomes of a Western Cape Learnership. The research relies heavily upon the experiences of the Learnership stakeholders, particularly learners with disabilities, to articulate how experiences are impacted by the model design as well as societal factors. What is revealed is a social and political context whereby the artefacts of the past amalgamate with present actions of redress, which impact strategies to better prepare learners with disabilities to integrate into the formal economy. The findings examine the impacts of Learnership design and implementation; interconnectedness between disability, race and poverty; influence of government and policy; and overall efficacy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Towards a broader application of decision-making paradigms: a case study of the establishment of ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG)
- Authors: Domson-Lindsay, Albert
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 , Liberia -- politics and government -- 1980- , Ecomog , Economic community of west african states
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2771 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002981 , Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 , Liberia -- politics and government -- 1980- , Ecomog , Economic community of west african states
- Description: The thesis in the main, looks at the decision-making process which underlined the Economic Community of West African States' attempt to end the Liberian crisis. It examines the establishment of ECOMOG to intervene in the Liberian civil crisis and the various pacific attempts to resolve the Liberian question. It does so through the medium of decision - making theory and some of the conceptual models that have flowed out of it. The thesis' focus on the decisional process of a regional body marks an attempt to broaden the scope of application of decision - making paradigms, which are usually employed to analyse decisions of national governments. The imperative for analysing the decisional process of ECOWAS in its quest to find solution to the Liberian problem has in part been dictated by the novelty of the ECOMOG concept. It marks the first major attempt of a sub - regional economic organization to successfully find solution to a civil conflict, as a result, there are numerous lessons to be gleaned from its failures and successes. Its relevance in the African context, with its intractable conflicts cannot be overemphasized. It has also been motivated by the fact that more works need to be produced on the decision-making processes of governments and regional bodies within the continent. The thesis argues that, both rational and "irrational" elements infused the decisional process of ECOW AS in its bid to solve the Liberian Crisis. Among other things, Policy-makers were influenced in their choice of decision by rational calculations based on national interest. It examines the clash of interests which characterized the establishment ofECOMOG as an tntervention force, the impasse this fostered and how it was eventually resolved. It postulates that exteljIlal actors influenced the decision process and that policy :Qiakers were aided to make the decisions they made by other organs in the decisional chain. The "irrational" component of the process, among other things, could be seen from the fact that the Liberian question was solved in " bits and pieces". Besides, blunders were committed through defective decision - making mechanism. The thesis concludes by offering suggestions to improve the quality of ECOW AS decision-making process with regard to conflict resolution and how to achieve regional consensus.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Domson-Lindsay, Albert
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 , Liberia -- politics and government -- 1980- , Ecomog , Economic community of west african states
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2771 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002981 , Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 , Liberia -- politics and government -- 1980- , Ecomog , Economic community of west african states
- Description: The thesis in the main, looks at the decision-making process which underlined the Economic Community of West African States' attempt to end the Liberian crisis. It examines the establishment of ECOMOG to intervene in the Liberian civil crisis and the various pacific attempts to resolve the Liberian question. It does so through the medium of decision - making theory and some of the conceptual models that have flowed out of it. The thesis' focus on the decisional process of a regional body marks an attempt to broaden the scope of application of decision - making paradigms, which are usually employed to analyse decisions of national governments. The imperative for analysing the decisional process of ECOWAS in its quest to find solution to the Liberian problem has in part been dictated by the novelty of the ECOMOG concept. It marks the first major attempt of a sub - regional economic organization to successfully find solution to a civil conflict, as a result, there are numerous lessons to be gleaned from its failures and successes. Its relevance in the African context, with its intractable conflicts cannot be overemphasized. It has also been motivated by the fact that more works need to be produced on the decision-making processes of governments and regional bodies within the continent. The thesis argues that, both rational and "irrational" elements infused the decisional process of ECOW AS in its bid to solve the Liberian Crisis. Among other things, Policy-makers were influenced in their choice of decision by rational calculations based on national interest. It examines the clash of interests which characterized the establishment ofECOMOG as an tntervention force, the impasse this fostered and how it was eventually resolved. It postulates that exteljIlal actors influenced the decision process and that policy :Qiakers were aided to make the decisions they made by other organs in the decisional chain. The "irrational" component of the process, among other things, could be seen from the fact that the Liberian question was solved in " bits and pieces". Besides, blunders were committed through defective decision - making mechanism. The thesis concludes by offering suggestions to improve the quality of ECOW AS decision-making process with regard to conflict resolution and how to achieve regional consensus.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
Human rights: an investigation into the importance of second generation rights
- Authors: Bentley, Kristina Anne
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Human rights -- Philosophy , Human rights
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2759 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002969 , Human rights -- Philosophy , Human rights
- Description: This study examines the notion of universal human rights in the context of the importance of social and economic rights for the agency and dignity of human beings. It argues that the recognition of basic rights to what is necessary for physical well-being is essential to any adequate theory of human rights, and that rights of the civil and political variety depend on the recognition of social and economic rights if they are to be exercised. Therefore the secondary status which is usually accorded to social and economic rights results in an imbalanced ideal of human rights both in theory and in practice. This study is an attempt to place second generation rights in their proper context and to argue for them as human rights of equal status and importance. It focuses on the derivation of human rights in general, and shows that second generation rights may be accommodated within this structure. It further supports this position by showing that the categorical differences which are asserted to exist between first and second generation rights are based on a mistaken conception of positive and negative rights and duties, as well as an inadequate conception of liberty. The thesis shows that all rights generate a variety of duties, both positive and negative, and that an adequate theory of rights has to be able to accommodate the inevitability of conflicts of rights at the level of their enforcement. Consequently, this study argues there is no reason to give either class of right primary importance, as both first and second generation human rights are essential to the agency and dignity of a human being, and they are thus interdependent. Furthermore, the thesis shows that human rights can be balanced at the level of the obligations which they generate without compromising the deontological nature of such rights. This thesis argues that a theory of rights which is rooted in the liberal democratic notion of rights, such as that characterised by the choice theory of rights, is inadequate. It therefore argues that a benefit theory of rights must be adopted in order to accommodate conflicts of rights when they arise. The thesis argues that as such conflicts of rights are" most common in cases involving the assertion of social and economic rights, this balancing of rights is of special significance for the enforcement of second generation rights. Furthermore, this thesis argues for a theory of minimal interdependence of first and second generation rights, in order to accommodate the notion of first and second generation rights of equal status and importance, as well as to prevent an inflation of rights claims which would compromise the balancing of rights. It is argued that a reordering of values is necessary to take account of material well-being, as well as civil freedom, as both of these generate fundamental rights of equal status and importance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Bentley, Kristina Anne
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Human rights -- Philosophy , Human rights
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2759 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002969 , Human rights -- Philosophy , Human rights
- Description: This study examines the notion of universal human rights in the context of the importance of social and economic rights for the agency and dignity of human beings. It argues that the recognition of basic rights to what is necessary for physical well-being is essential to any adequate theory of human rights, and that rights of the civil and political variety depend on the recognition of social and economic rights if they are to be exercised. Therefore the secondary status which is usually accorded to social and economic rights results in an imbalanced ideal of human rights both in theory and in practice. This study is an attempt to place second generation rights in their proper context and to argue for them as human rights of equal status and importance. It focuses on the derivation of human rights in general, and shows that second generation rights may be accommodated within this structure. It further supports this position by showing that the categorical differences which are asserted to exist between first and second generation rights are based on a mistaken conception of positive and negative rights and duties, as well as an inadequate conception of liberty. The thesis shows that all rights generate a variety of duties, both positive and negative, and that an adequate theory of rights has to be able to accommodate the inevitability of conflicts of rights at the level of their enforcement. Consequently, this study argues there is no reason to give either class of right primary importance, as both first and second generation human rights are essential to the agency and dignity of a human being, and they are thus interdependent. Furthermore, the thesis shows that human rights can be balanced at the level of the obligations which they generate without compromising the deontological nature of such rights. This thesis argues that a theory of rights which is rooted in the liberal democratic notion of rights, such as that characterised by the choice theory of rights, is inadequate. It therefore argues that a benefit theory of rights must be adopted in order to accommodate conflicts of rights when they arise. The thesis argues that as such conflicts of rights are" most common in cases involving the assertion of social and economic rights, this balancing of rights is of special significance for the enforcement of second generation rights. Furthermore, this thesis argues for a theory of minimal interdependence of first and second generation rights, in order to accommodate the notion of first and second generation rights of equal status and importance, as well as to prevent an inflation of rights claims which would compromise the balancing of rights. It is argued that a reordering of values is necessary to take account of material well-being, as well as civil freedom, as both of these generate fundamental rights of equal status and importance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
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