The violence of language : contemporary hate speech and the suitability of legal measures regulating hate speech in South Africa
- Authors: Janse van Rensburg, Leanne
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Hate speech -- South Africa , Hate speech -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Racism in language , Freedom of speech -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
- Identifier: vital:3663 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001866 , Hate speech -- South Africa , Hate speech -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Racism in language , Freedom of speech -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis unites law and social science so as to give a comprehensive account of the phenomenon of racial hate speech in South Africa as an obstacle to transformation. Hate speech is presented as a form of violent language and an affront to the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, equality and dignity. To establish the nature of hate speech, the fluid quality of language is explored so as to show how language can be manipulated, on the one hand, as a means to harm, and employed, on the other hand, as a tool to heal and reconcile. This double gesture is illustrated through the South African linguistic experience of past hate and segregation and the current transformation agenda. It is through this prism that hate speech regulation is discussed as an uneasy fit in a country where freedom of expression is constitutionally protected and where language plays an important role in bringing about reconciliation, and yet words are still being employed to divide and dehumanise. This reality necessitates a clearly articulated stance on the regulation of language. The thesis accordingly interrogates the current legal standards in relation to hate speech with reference to international law that binds South Africa and the constitutional standard set for the regulation of language and the prohibition of hate speech. Thereafter, the current and proposed legislative prohibitions on hate speech, the residual common law provisions governing expression and the regulation of language in the media are outlined and analysed. These legal frameworks are explored in terms of their content and their application in various fora so as to ascertain what the South African approach to hate speech prohibition is, whether it is consistent and, ultimately if it is indeed suitable to the South African experience and the realities of language. This thesis concludes that contemporary hate speech measures lack a coherent understanding of what hate speech entails and a general inconsistency in approach as well as application is found in the treatment of hate speech complaints in South Africa. This is explained through the fallibility of language as a medium to regulate expression and solutions are offered to not only taper current and proposed hate speech provisions but to also consider alternative forms of resolving hate speech complaints
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Janse van Rensburg, Leanne
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Hate speech -- South Africa , Hate speech -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Racism in language , Freedom of speech -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
- Identifier: vital:3663 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001866 , Hate speech -- South Africa , Hate speech -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Racism in language , Freedom of speech -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis unites law and social science so as to give a comprehensive account of the phenomenon of racial hate speech in South Africa as an obstacle to transformation. Hate speech is presented as a form of violent language and an affront to the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, equality and dignity. To establish the nature of hate speech, the fluid quality of language is explored so as to show how language can be manipulated, on the one hand, as a means to harm, and employed, on the other hand, as a tool to heal and reconcile. This double gesture is illustrated through the South African linguistic experience of past hate and segregation and the current transformation agenda. It is through this prism that hate speech regulation is discussed as an uneasy fit in a country where freedom of expression is constitutionally protected and where language plays an important role in bringing about reconciliation, and yet words are still being employed to divide and dehumanise. This reality necessitates a clearly articulated stance on the regulation of language. The thesis accordingly interrogates the current legal standards in relation to hate speech with reference to international law that binds South Africa and the constitutional standard set for the regulation of language and the prohibition of hate speech. Thereafter, the current and proposed legislative prohibitions on hate speech, the residual common law provisions governing expression and the regulation of language in the media are outlined and analysed. These legal frameworks are explored in terms of their content and their application in various fora so as to ascertain what the South African approach to hate speech prohibition is, whether it is consistent and, ultimately if it is indeed suitable to the South African experience and the realities of language. This thesis concludes that contemporary hate speech measures lack a coherent understanding of what hate speech entails and a general inconsistency in approach as well as application is found in the treatment of hate speech complaints in South Africa. This is explained through the fallibility of language as a medium to regulate expression and solutions are offered to not only taper current and proposed hate speech provisions but to also consider alternative forms of resolving hate speech complaints
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
The social construction of 'capacity building': a grounded theory study of organisation development consultants' accounts
- Authors: Eagar, Ryan
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Organizational change -- South Africa , Business consultants -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:2969 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002478 , Organizational change -- South Africa , Business consultants -- South Africa
- Description: The primary aim of this thesis is to explore, through organisation development (OD) consultants' accounts, the meaning of 'capacity building' in the South African development context. The need for theory development in this area is apparent from two interrelated vantage points. Firstly, while 'capacity building' is an increasingly espoused development approach, it is seen to be a confusing and ill-defined concept, for which there exists no adequate theory. Secondly, there is an growing call within the OD field to perfonn 'recOIlllaissance' (Weick,1990) on OD as it is being practised in different socio-historical and organisational contexts, so as to discern future trends for this discipline. Due to the lack of documented debate which grounds OD issues in the South African development sector, OD practitioners' 'capacity building' interventions were seen to provide suitably unchartered terrain for this study. Given that theory generation was intended, the general epistemological principles provided by Glaser and Strauss's (1967) 'grounded theory' methodology were adopted. As a way of avoiding some of the criticisms and limitations of this approach, this thesis followed later conceptualisations of this method, in particular its reframing within the social constructionist idiom. In accordance with this perspective, this study directed attention to the ways in which OD consultants, in a non-governmental organisational (NGO) sector known as 'intermediary' NGOs, accounted for their 'capacity building' role in this development context. The results, based on in-depth interviews with ten OD consultants, indicate that 'capacity building' is an elusive and inchoate concept with more than one meaning for the participants. Their narrative account variously constructs 'capacity building' as value-driven OD process facilitation; funder and market regulated service provision; and people-driven product delivery. As a result of this multi-vocal construction, the participants' accounts reveal that OD consultancy in this sector is primarily concerned with 'managing the tensions' of the consultants' ambiguous and contradictory roles. By examining how the tensions articulated by the consultants inhere in their relationship to the environment in which they operate, this thesis firstly explores how the contradiction and anlbiguity attached to this concept can be traced to different stakeholder expectations of 'capacity building'. Secondly, it exanlines how these different stakeholder discourses conflict with each other and with an OD perspective. Thirdly, through an explication of the core category of 'managing tensions', it explores the image of OD consulting as a 'shifting and inconstant balancing act'. Fourthly, it shows how there exist wider contextual forces operating in the development sector which serve to throw these consultants 'off balance' and into delimited and 'received' service provision roles which run counter to their raison d'etre. Finally, the research examines new ways of approaching the 'capacity building' question and of understanding the nature of OD consultancy. It concludes with an attempt to respond to a conceptual aporia in OD literature by examining possible alternative images and metaphors for the role of the OD consultant.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
- Authors: Eagar, Ryan
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Organizational change -- South Africa , Business consultants -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:2969 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002478 , Organizational change -- South Africa , Business consultants -- South Africa
- Description: The primary aim of this thesis is to explore, through organisation development (OD) consultants' accounts, the meaning of 'capacity building' in the South African development context. The need for theory development in this area is apparent from two interrelated vantage points. Firstly, while 'capacity building' is an increasingly espoused development approach, it is seen to be a confusing and ill-defined concept, for which there exists no adequate theory. Secondly, there is an growing call within the OD field to perfonn 'recOIlllaissance' (Weick,1990) on OD as it is being practised in different socio-historical and organisational contexts, so as to discern future trends for this discipline. Due to the lack of documented debate which grounds OD issues in the South African development sector, OD practitioners' 'capacity building' interventions were seen to provide suitably unchartered terrain for this study. Given that theory generation was intended, the general epistemological principles provided by Glaser and Strauss's (1967) 'grounded theory' methodology were adopted. As a way of avoiding some of the criticisms and limitations of this approach, this thesis followed later conceptualisations of this method, in particular its reframing within the social constructionist idiom. In accordance with this perspective, this study directed attention to the ways in which OD consultants, in a non-governmental organisational (NGO) sector known as 'intermediary' NGOs, accounted for their 'capacity building' role in this development context. The results, based on in-depth interviews with ten OD consultants, indicate that 'capacity building' is an elusive and inchoate concept with more than one meaning for the participants. Their narrative account variously constructs 'capacity building' as value-driven OD process facilitation; funder and market regulated service provision; and people-driven product delivery. As a result of this multi-vocal construction, the participants' accounts reveal that OD consultancy in this sector is primarily concerned with 'managing the tensions' of the consultants' ambiguous and contradictory roles. By examining how the tensions articulated by the consultants inhere in their relationship to the environment in which they operate, this thesis firstly explores how the contradiction and anlbiguity attached to this concept can be traced to different stakeholder expectations of 'capacity building'. Secondly, it exanlines how these different stakeholder discourses conflict with each other and with an OD perspective. Thirdly, through an explication of the core category of 'managing tensions', it explores the image of OD consulting as a 'shifting and inconstant balancing act'. Fourthly, it shows how there exist wider contextual forces operating in the development sector which serve to throw these consultants 'off balance' and into delimited and 'received' service provision roles which run counter to their raison d'etre. Finally, the research examines new ways of approaching the 'capacity building' question and of understanding the nature of OD consultancy. It concludes with an attempt to respond to a conceptual aporia in OD literature by examining possible alternative images and metaphors for the role of the OD consultant.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
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