From ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’ to ‘without perfect health, there is nothing’: discourses of healthy lifestyle in the construction of young adult identities in urban South Africa
- Authors: De Jong, Michelle
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Health , Cleanliness , Social structure -- Health aspects , Health behavior , Social medicine
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64940 , vital:28638
- Description: This research explores popular constructions of “healthiness” as individual lifestyle choices in the context of contemporary South African consumer culture, and how these constructions relate to formations of subjectivity. This is a qualitative study conducted within a social constructionist, theoretical framework. Data was collected using in-depth, semi structured interviews and are analysed using a Foucauldian inspired version of discourse analysis. A critical stance is taken towards the assumption in these discourses that their version of healthiness is always and unquestionably positive. Special attention is paid to the lifestyle and marketing media discourses appropriated in understandings of personal health through self-management, and of the optimization of health in the pursuit of well-being. The ways in which different discourses of healthiness facilitate the construction of specific identities are considered in order to untangle some of the problems created by the moralism underpinning popular consumer health discourse. How constructions of healthiness and aspirant healthy lifestyles support, and are supported by, the ideologies and practices of neoliberal capitalism are also explored. From this perspective, healthiness as lifestyle consumption choices can be seen as an ideological apparatus that produces the subjects necessary to reproduce the social order (Althusser, 2001), functioning not only positively amongst the social classes with the leisure and economic resources to pursue these options, but also negatively as victim-blaming of those who are excluded. The argument here is not that health is bad or that people should not be bothered with activities aimed at promoting good health, but that in a context where the concept of health is idealised as always positive and beneficial, the potentially harmful consequences of some of the health discourses we make use of may be occluded. This idealisation of health or ‘healthism’ may also function to divert attention away from some of the challenges to health that are not the direct result of personal behaviours and are unlikely to be remedied through individually focussed interventions, for example, inequality and inadequate access to basic resources. Six discourses which were used to construct understandings of health are analysed. These include Happiness, Freedom, Control, Care, Balance and Goodness. The ways in which these discourses played a role in constructing the kinds of subject positions which were made available to participants, and the possible implications this has, are explored in depth.
- Full Text:
- Authors: De Jong, Michelle
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Health , Cleanliness , Social structure -- Health aspects , Health behavior , Social medicine
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64940 , vital:28638
- Description: This research explores popular constructions of “healthiness” as individual lifestyle choices in the context of contemporary South African consumer culture, and how these constructions relate to formations of subjectivity. This is a qualitative study conducted within a social constructionist, theoretical framework. Data was collected using in-depth, semi structured interviews and are analysed using a Foucauldian inspired version of discourse analysis. A critical stance is taken towards the assumption in these discourses that their version of healthiness is always and unquestionably positive. Special attention is paid to the lifestyle and marketing media discourses appropriated in understandings of personal health through self-management, and of the optimization of health in the pursuit of well-being. The ways in which different discourses of healthiness facilitate the construction of specific identities are considered in order to untangle some of the problems created by the moralism underpinning popular consumer health discourse. How constructions of healthiness and aspirant healthy lifestyles support, and are supported by, the ideologies and practices of neoliberal capitalism are also explored. From this perspective, healthiness as lifestyle consumption choices can be seen as an ideological apparatus that produces the subjects necessary to reproduce the social order (Althusser, 2001), functioning not only positively amongst the social classes with the leisure and economic resources to pursue these options, but also negatively as victim-blaming of those who are excluded. The argument here is not that health is bad or that people should not be bothered with activities aimed at promoting good health, but that in a context where the concept of health is idealised as always positive and beneficial, the potentially harmful consequences of some of the health discourses we make use of may be occluded. This idealisation of health or ‘healthism’ may also function to divert attention away from some of the challenges to health that are not the direct result of personal behaviours and are unlikely to be remedied through individually focussed interventions, for example, inequality and inadequate access to basic resources. Six discourses which were used to construct understandings of health are analysed. These include Happiness, Freedom, Control, Care, Balance and Goodness. The ways in which these discourses played a role in constructing the kinds of subject positions which were made available to participants, and the possible implications this has, are explored in depth.
- Full Text:
Strength training and cardiovascular risk post-menses, with particular emphasis on the plasma lipoproteins: a controlled trial
- Authors: Viljoen, Janet Erica
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Weight training for women -- Physiological aspects , Exercise for women -- Physiological aspects , Middle-aged women -- Health and hygiene , Cardiovascular system -- Diseases , Hypercholesteremia , Blood lipoproteins
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5155 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013578
- Description: Introduction: Cardiovascular disease affects a greater proportion of females than it does males, and is responsible for an estimated 52 percent of female deaths per annum, globally. Due to the loss of oestrogen associated with the menopause, post-menopausal females are at elevated risk for hypercholesterolaemia which is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It has not yet been conclusively established whether resistance training can be used to ameliorate hypercholesterolaemia. Aim: This randomized controlled trial investigated what effect 12 weeks of progressive resistance training would have on plasma lipoproteins in a sample of post-menopausal females. Methods: Caucasian women (n=30 intervention and n=18 control) between the ages of 55 and 65 years who were not taking hormone replacement therapy were recruited. Participants did not smoke, were sedentary, were not taking any form of cholesterol-lowering medication, had at least one cholesterol abnormality at baseline but were otherwise healthy and able to participate in a strength training programme. Following extensive medical pre-screening, information dissemination and voluntary consent, the sample was divided into two groups. The exercise sample undertook 12 weeks of resistance training on five days of the week. The control group received no intervention. Measurements were obtained at baseline and every four weeks thereafter and included measures of strength, biochemistry (oestradiol, testosterone, full blood lipid profile, glycated haemoglobin and sex hormone binding globulin), anthropometry, morphology and self-reports (dietary intake, energy expenditure and the profile of mood states questionnaire). Results: There was no change to low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride content or total cholesterol as a result of the intervention. Back, chest and leg strength increased significantly (p<0.01) (increases of 51 percent, 35 percent and 43 percent respectively from baseline); waist circumference dropped (p<0.01) by 5 percent overall and diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly (-9 percent, p<0.01) in the exercise cohort but no change was noted in the matched control. Dietary intake, energy expenditure and body mass remained unchanged in both samples. Morphology (sum of skinfolds, estimated body fat content and girth measures) did not change and nor did other biochemical measures (HbA1c and sex hormone binding globulin) or hormone levels (oestradiol and testosterone). Despite the lack of overall change, an important finding was noted in individual results where a clear indication of ‘responders’ and ‘non-responders’ emerged. Conclusion: Overall mean results suggest that 12 weeks resistance training undertaken five days of the week was ineffective in reducing hypercholesterolaemia in this sample. Despite there being no identifying characteristics determined in this sample, evidence of responders and non-responders to the intervention indicates that reliance on mean data may not be sufficient when analysing data from exercise interventions. Therefore, while progressive resistance training had a positive effect on strength, waist circumference and diastolic blood pressure, it did not positively influence the plasma lipoproteins in this cohort of post-menopausal women. , Maiden name: Kelly, Janet Erica
- Full Text:
- Authors: Viljoen, Janet Erica
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Weight training for women -- Physiological aspects , Exercise for women -- Physiological aspects , Middle-aged women -- Health and hygiene , Cardiovascular system -- Diseases , Hypercholesteremia , Blood lipoproteins
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5155 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013578
- Description: Introduction: Cardiovascular disease affects a greater proportion of females than it does males, and is responsible for an estimated 52 percent of female deaths per annum, globally. Due to the loss of oestrogen associated with the menopause, post-menopausal females are at elevated risk for hypercholesterolaemia which is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It has not yet been conclusively established whether resistance training can be used to ameliorate hypercholesterolaemia. Aim: This randomized controlled trial investigated what effect 12 weeks of progressive resistance training would have on plasma lipoproteins in a sample of post-menopausal females. Methods: Caucasian women (n=30 intervention and n=18 control) between the ages of 55 and 65 years who were not taking hormone replacement therapy were recruited. Participants did not smoke, were sedentary, were not taking any form of cholesterol-lowering medication, had at least one cholesterol abnormality at baseline but were otherwise healthy and able to participate in a strength training programme. Following extensive medical pre-screening, information dissemination and voluntary consent, the sample was divided into two groups. The exercise sample undertook 12 weeks of resistance training on five days of the week. The control group received no intervention. Measurements were obtained at baseline and every four weeks thereafter and included measures of strength, biochemistry (oestradiol, testosterone, full blood lipid profile, glycated haemoglobin and sex hormone binding globulin), anthropometry, morphology and self-reports (dietary intake, energy expenditure and the profile of mood states questionnaire). Results: There was no change to low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride content or total cholesterol as a result of the intervention. Back, chest and leg strength increased significantly (p<0.01) (increases of 51 percent, 35 percent and 43 percent respectively from baseline); waist circumference dropped (p<0.01) by 5 percent overall and diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly (-9 percent, p<0.01) in the exercise cohort but no change was noted in the matched control. Dietary intake, energy expenditure and body mass remained unchanged in both samples. Morphology (sum of skinfolds, estimated body fat content and girth measures) did not change and nor did other biochemical measures (HbA1c and sex hormone binding globulin) or hormone levels (oestradiol and testosterone). Despite the lack of overall change, an important finding was noted in individual results where a clear indication of ‘responders’ and ‘non-responders’ emerged. Conclusion: Overall mean results suggest that 12 weeks resistance training undertaken five days of the week was ineffective in reducing hypercholesterolaemia in this sample. Despite there being no identifying characteristics determined in this sample, evidence of responders and non-responders to the intervention indicates that reliance on mean data may not be sufficient when analysing data from exercise interventions. Therefore, while progressive resistance training had a positive effect on strength, waist circumference and diastolic blood pressure, it did not positively influence the plasma lipoproteins in this cohort of post-menopausal women. , Maiden name: Kelly, Janet Erica
- Full Text:
Learning about water through the African catchment game : the refinement of a role playing simulation game
- Authors: Fraenkel, Linda Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Water -- South Africa -- Management -- Simulation methods Water -- Management -- Study and teaching Rain and rainfall -- South Africa -- Simulation methods Simulation games in education Role playing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:4842 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005518
- Description: This research has undertaken two key mandates. One was to develop modifications to the African Catchment Game (ACG), a role playing simulation game, in order to simulate rainfall and water management processes representative of the southern African context. The other was to understand what, if any, learning associated with water management issues had taken place as a result of playing the ACG. The modification process took the form of an action research process. The initial modifications were trialed with South African students as part of their undergraduate Geography course offered at Rhodes University, South Africa. Subsequent modifications were implemented over a five month period with three diverse participant groups, namely Finnish, American and South African participants. An interpretive research orientation was employed in order to analyse both the qualitative and quantitative data that was generated. Pre- and Post-Game Questionnaires were used in order to identify the learning and understanding which the participants constructed as a result of playing the ACG. The Chi-Square Test was also applied to each of the pre- and post- questions to establish statistical significance. Subsequent analysis of these questions identified and traced patters and trends associated with learning and understanding across the three game runs. This research study draws on social constructivism and experiential learning as the dominant education theory that underpins it. Results revealed that for all three game runs learning took place. Participants identified dominant themes and environmental dimensions both before and after playing the ACG. The analysis of these responses indicated a deeper awareness of water as a contributing factor for sustainable economic development while the game runs enabled the researcher to adjust the water availability within each game run until rainfall and water management processes representative of a southern African context were successfully simulated in the last game run.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Fraenkel, Linda Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Water -- South Africa -- Management -- Simulation methods Water -- Management -- Study and teaching Rain and rainfall -- South Africa -- Simulation methods Simulation games in education Role playing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:4842 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005518
- Description: This research has undertaken two key mandates. One was to develop modifications to the African Catchment Game (ACG), a role playing simulation game, in order to simulate rainfall and water management processes representative of the southern African context. The other was to understand what, if any, learning associated with water management issues had taken place as a result of playing the ACG. The modification process took the form of an action research process. The initial modifications were trialed with South African students as part of their undergraduate Geography course offered at Rhodes University, South Africa. Subsequent modifications were implemented over a five month period with three diverse participant groups, namely Finnish, American and South African participants. An interpretive research orientation was employed in order to analyse both the qualitative and quantitative data that was generated. Pre- and Post-Game Questionnaires were used in order to identify the learning and understanding which the participants constructed as a result of playing the ACG. The Chi-Square Test was also applied to each of the pre- and post- questions to establish statistical significance. Subsequent analysis of these questions identified and traced patters and trends associated with learning and understanding across the three game runs. This research study draws on social constructivism and experiential learning as the dominant education theory that underpins it. Results revealed that for all three game runs learning took place. Participants identified dominant themes and environmental dimensions both before and after playing the ACG. The analysis of these responses indicated a deeper awareness of water as a contributing factor for sustainable economic development while the game runs enabled the researcher to adjust the water availability within each game run until rainfall and water management processes representative of a southern African context were successfully simulated in the last game run.
- Full Text:
The functions of narrative : a study of recent novelistic nonfiction
- Authors: Carlean, Kevin John
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Reportage literature -- History and criticism , Nonfiction novel
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001827
- Description: Since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences was published in 1965, there have been many attempts to define and explain the phenomenon of the "non-fiction novel" as a unified narrative genre. Some of these attempts have been highly theoretical and scholarly, but most have been rather loose definitions referring to an extremely wide range of diverse factual narratives. Over the years, so many different works have been called "non-fiction novels" that it now seems as if the notion of such a unified genre is questionable. Surely it is not generically useful to say that such functionally distinct works as Oscar Lewis's La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty (1967) and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart ot the American Dream (1971) belong in the same narrative category. The purpose of this study is to show that many of the works routinely referred to as "non-fiction novels" perform fundamentally different narrative functions and do not belong together in a unified genre. Roman Jakobson's model of communication and his notion of the "dominant function" are used to identify three functional categories into which the narratives discussed in the study logically fall: first, there are predominantly sociological works in which the referential function is the most important element of the communication; second, there are predominantly journalistic works in which the opinions of the writer or emotive function constitute the central narrative concern; and thirdly, we have works performing a dominant novelistic or aesthetic function in the sense that the secondary meanings and themes implied are the most important elements communicated. The thesis follows the following structure. In the introductory chapter, a critique of some of the major generic theories of the "non-fiction novel" as unified genre is offered. The purpose here is not to caricature what are sometimes extremely sophisticated studies. (Indeed, in my own analysis of texts, I am often indebted to the critical insights of the scholars whose theories I question in the introduction.) My purpose is merely to show that the corpus of works each writer refers to can be divided more logically between different dominant narrative functions. The introduction ends with a more detailed explanation of the adaptation of Jakobson's notion of "the dominant" and how it relates to the functional categories identified. Chapter 2 offers analyses of a group of documentary narratives that perform a dominant sociological function but have often been referred to as "non-fiction novels." The chapter starts with an analysis of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a text widely regarded as the first real American example of the "genre." This is followed by an examination of the anthropological works of Oscar Lewis: Five Families: Mexican Case Studles in the Culture of Poverty (1959), The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (1964), Pedro Martinez: A Mexican Peasant and his Family (1964) and La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty. I conclude the chapter with an analysis of the recent sociological works of Studs Terkel: Division Street: America (1968), Hard Times: An oral History of the Great Depression (1970) and Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do (1974). In Chapter 3, the notion of subjective participation journalism is explained. This is followed by an analysis of three of the most famous and creative of the works that fall into this functional category: Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (1966), Michael Herr's Vietnam classic, Dispatches (1977), and Norman Mailer's account of a famous protest march, The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History (1968). Chapter 4 offers a discussion of three works that perform a dominant novelistic function in the realistic tradition of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. All three are based on actual murder cases, but the facts of the stories are subordinated to the novelistic themes the author wishes to abstract. They are: Meyer Levin's Compulsion (1957), Mailer's The Executioner's Song (1979) and Capote's In Cold Blood. From this outline, it may appear as if the study is loaded in favour of the sociological works discussed in Chapter 2. This is intentional because, although many critics have referred to them as "non-fiction novels", very little systematic and detailed analysis of these works as a corpus has been forthcoming. This long chapter is an attempt to redress the balance.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Carlean, Kevin John
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Reportage literature -- History and criticism , Nonfiction novel
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001827
- Description: Since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences was published in 1965, there have been many attempts to define and explain the phenomenon of the "non-fiction novel" as a unified narrative genre. Some of these attempts have been highly theoretical and scholarly, but most have been rather loose definitions referring to an extremely wide range of diverse factual narratives. Over the years, so many different works have been called "non-fiction novels" that it now seems as if the notion of such a unified genre is questionable. Surely it is not generically useful to say that such functionally distinct works as Oscar Lewis's La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty (1967) and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart ot the American Dream (1971) belong in the same narrative category. The purpose of this study is to show that many of the works routinely referred to as "non-fiction novels" perform fundamentally different narrative functions and do not belong together in a unified genre. Roman Jakobson's model of communication and his notion of the "dominant function" are used to identify three functional categories into which the narratives discussed in the study logically fall: first, there are predominantly sociological works in which the referential function is the most important element of the communication; second, there are predominantly journalistic works in which the opinions of the writer or emotive function constitute the central narrative concern; and thirdly, we have works performing a dominant novelistic or aesthetic function in the sense that the secondary meanings and themes implied are the most important elements communicated. The thesis follows the following structure. In the introductory chapter, a critique of some of the major generic theories of the "non-fiction novel" as unified genre is offered. The purpose here is not to caricature what are sometimes extremely sophisticated studies. (Indeed, in my own analysis of texts, I am often indebted to the critical insights of the scholars whose theories I question in the introduction.) My purpose is merely to show that the corpus of works each writer refers to can be divided more logically between different dominant narrative functions. The introduction ends with a more detailed explanation of the adaptation of Jakobson's notion of "the dominant" and how it relates to the functional categories identified. Chapter 2 offers analyses of a group of documentary narratives that perform a dominant sociological function but have often been referred to as "non-fiction novels." The chapter starts with an analysis of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a text widely regarded as the first real American example of the "genre." This is followed by an examination of the anthropological works of Oscar Lewis: Five Families: Mexican Case Studles in the Culture of Poverty (1959), The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (1964), Pedro Martinez: A Mexican Peasant and his Family (1964) and La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty. I conclude the chapter with an analysis of the recent sociological works of Studs Terkel: Division Street: America (1968), Hard Times: An oral History of the Great Depression (1970) and Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do (1974). In Chapter 3, the notion of subjective participation journalism is explained. This is followed by an analysis of three of the most famous and creative of the works that fall into this functional category: Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (1966), Michael Herr's Vietnam classic, Dispatches (1977), and Norman Mailer's account of a famous protest march, The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History (1968). Chapter 4 offers a discussion of three works that perform a dominant novelistic function in the realistic tradition of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. All three are based on actual murder cases, but the facts of the stories are subordinated to the novelistic themes the author wishes to abstract. They are: Meyer Levin's Compulsion (1957), Mailer's The Executioner's Song (1979) and Capote's In Cold Blood. From this outline, it may appear as if the study is loaded in favour of the sociological works discussed in Chapter 2. This is intentional because, although many critics have referred to them as "non-fiction novels", very little systematic and detailed analysis of these works as a corpus has been forthcoming. This long chapter is an attempt to redress the balance.
- Full Text:
Corporate financial reporting: history, development and future directions
- Prinsloo, K S (Keith Stephen)
- Authors: Prinsloo, K S (Keith Stephen)
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Corporations -- Finance , Financial statements , Accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:902 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007055 , Corporations -- Finance , Financial statements , Accounting
- Description: KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Prinsloo, K S (Keith Stephen)
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Corporations -- Finance , Financial statements , Accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:902 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007055 , Corporations -- Finance , Financial statements , Accounting
- Description: KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
Some problems and methods of measuring the growth of African negroid populations
- Myburgh, Corneles Albert Lloyd
- Authors: Myburgh, Corneles Albert Lloyd
- Date: 1955
- Subjects: Africa -- Population -- Statistics , Demography -- Africa , Population forecasting -- Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013560
- Description: A dissertation ... giving details of problems and methods of obtaining statistics of the more important demographic aspects of the African Negroid populations, that is the size of a population, its sex and age distribution, migration movements, deaths and rates of increase.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Myburgh, Corneles Albert Lloyd
- Date: 1955
- Subjects: Africa -- Population -- Statistics , Demography -- Africa , Population forecasting -- Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013560
- Description: A dissertation ... giving details of problems and methods of obtaining statistics of the more important demographic aspects of the African Negroid populations, that is the size of a population, its sex and age distribution, migration movements, deaths and rates of increase.
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