The use of quantitative analysis and Hansen solubility parameter predictions for the selection of excipients for lipid nanocarriers to be loaded with water soluble and insoluble compounds
- Makoni, Pedzisai A, Ranchhod, Janeeta, Khamanga, Sandile M, Walker, Roderick B
- Authors: Makoni, Pedzisai A , Ranchhod, Janeeta , Khamanga, Sandile M , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183376 , vital:43981 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsps.2020.01.010"
- Description: The aim of these studies was to determine the miscibility of different API with lipid excipients to predict drug loading and encapsulation properties for the production of solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers. Five API exhibiting different physicochemical characteristics, viz., clarithromycin, efavirenz, minocycline hydrochloride, mometasone furoate, and didanosine were used and six solid lipids in addition to four liquid lipids were investigated. Determination of solid and liquid lipids with the best solubilization potential for each API were performed using a traditional shake-flask method and/or a modification thereof. Hansen solubility parameters of the API and different solid and liquid lipids were estimated from their chemical structure using Hiroshi Yamamoto’s molecular breaking method of Hansen Solubility Parameters in Practice software. Experimental results were in close agreement with solubility parameter predictions for systems with ΔδT larger than 4.0 MPa1/2. A combination of Hansen solubility parameters with experimental drug-lipid miscibility tests can be successfully applied to predict lipids with the best solubilizing potential for different API prior to manufacture of solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Makoni, Pedzisai A , Ranchhod, Janeeta , Khamanga, Sandile M , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183376 , vital:43981 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsps.2020.01.010"
- Description: The aim of these studies was to determine the miscibility of different API with lipid excipients to predict drug loading and encapsulation properties for the production of solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers. Five API exhibiting different physicochemical characteristics, viz., clarithromycin, efavirenz, minocycline hydrochloride, mometasone furoate, and didanosine were used and six solid lipids in addition to four liquid lipids were investigated. Determination of solid and liquid lipids with the best solubilization potential for each API were performed using a traditional shake-flask method and/or a modification thereof. Hansen solubility parameters of the API and different solid and liquid lipids were estimated from their chemical structure using Hiroshi Yamamoto’s molecular breaking method of Hansen Solubility Parameters in Practice software. Experimental results were in close agreement with solubility parameter predictions for systems with ΔδT larger than 4.0 MPa1/2. A combination of Hansen solubility parameters with experimental drug-lipid miscibility tests can be successfully applied to predict lipids with the best solubilizing potential for different API prior to manufacture of solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers.
- Full Text:
Theoretical and photodynamic therapy characteristics of heteroatom doped detonation nanodiamonds linked to asymmetrical phthalocyanine for eradication of breast cancer cells
- Matshitse, Refilwe, Tshiwawa, Tendamudzimu, Managa, Muthumuni, Nwaji, Njemuwa, Lobb, Kevin A, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Matshitse, Refilwe , Tshiwawa, Tendamudzimu , Managa, Muthumuni , Nwaji, Njemuwa , Lobb, Kevin A , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186089 , vital:44462 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2020.117465"
- Description: An amide mono substituted benzothiozole phthalocyanine: zinc(II) 3-(4-((3,17,23-tris(4-(benzo [d]thiazol-2-yl)phenoxy)-9-yl)oxy) phenyl)amide phthalocyanine (NH2BzPc) was covalently linked to undoped and heteroatom doped detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs): B@DNDs, P@DNDs, S@DNDs, N@DNDs, and SandN@DNDs There is a drastic decrease in highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) – lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy gaps for nanoconjugates compared to DNDs alone. B@DNDs-NH2BzPc, SandN@DNDs-NH2BzPc, and P@DNDs-NH2BzPc showed superior photodynamic therapy (PDT) effects. DNDs-NH2BzPc also had a small HOMO-LUMO gap, but did not show improved PDT activity compared to the Pc alone, suggesting doping of DNDs is important. This study shows improved PDT effect on Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 breast cancer lines at 7.63%, 7.62% and 6.5% cell viability for P@DNDs-NH2BzPc, SandN@DNDs-NH2BzPc and B@DNDs-NH2BzPc, respectively.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Matshitse, Refilwe , Tshiwawa, Tendamudzimu , Managa, Muthumuni , Nwaji, Njemuwa , Lobb, Kevin A , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186089 , vital:44462 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2020.117465"
- Description: An amide mono substituted benzothiozole phthalocyanine: zinc(II) 3-(4-((3,17,23-tris(4-(benzo [d]thiazol-2-yl)phenoxy)-9-yl)oxy) phenyl)amide phthalocyanine (NH2BzPc) was covalently linked to undoped and heteroatom doped detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs): B@DNDs, P@DNDs, S@DNDs, N@DNDs, and SandN@DNDs There is a drastic decrease in highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) – lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy gaps for nanoconjugates compared to DNDs alone. B@DNDs-NH2BzPc, SandN@DNDs-NH2BzPc, and P@DNDs-NH2BzPc showed superior photodynamic therapy (PDT) effects. DNDs-NH2BzPc also had a small HOMO-LUMO gap, but did not show improved PDT activity compared to the Pc alone, suggesting doping of DNDs is important. This study shows improved PDT effect on Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 breast cancer lines at 7.63%, 7.62% and 6.5% cell viability for P@DNDs-NH2BzPc, SandN@DNDs-NH2BzPc and B@DNDs-NH2BzPc, respectively.
- Full Text:
Think Piece. Working for Living: Popular Education as/at Work for Social-ecological Justice
- Burt, Jane C, James, Anna, Walters, Shirley, Von Kotze, Astrid
- Authors: Burt, Jane C , James, Anna , Walters, Shirley , Von Kotze, Astrid
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/388150 , vital:68310 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/165826"
- Description: Drawing on the working lives of popular educators who are striving for socioeconomic and socio-ecological justice, we demonstrate how popular education is a form of care work which is feminised, often undervalued and unrecognised as highly skilled work. It is relational work that aims to forge solidarity with communities and the environment. Given the state of the planet, the radical transformations that are needed, and the future projection of ‘work’ as including the care economy in large measure, we argue that popular education is a generative site for further exploration of research into work and learning. However, to move popular education as work from the margins means to rethink the current economic system of value. Addressing the contradiction that undervalues work for life/living, popular education engages transformative action motivated by a deep sense of solidarity and a focus on imagining alternatives as an act of hope.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Burt, Jane C , James, Anna , Walters, Shirley , Von Kotze, Astrid
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/388150 , vital:68310 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/165826"
- Description: Drawing on the working lives of popular educators who are striving for socioeconomic and socio-ecological justice, we demonstrate how popular education is a form of care work which is feminised, often undervalued and unrecognised as highly skilled work. It is relational work that aims to forge solidarity with communities and the environment. Given the state of the planet, the radical transformations that are needed, and the future projection of ‘work’ as including the care economy in large measure, we argue that popular education is a generative site for further exploration of research into work and learning. However, to move popular education as work from the margins means to rethink the current economic system of value. Addressing the contradiction that undervalues work for life/living, popular education engages transformative action motivated by a deep sense of solidarity and a focus on imagining alternatives as an act of hope.
- Full Text:
Think Piece: Learning, Living and Leading into Transgression–A reflection on decolonial praxis in a neoliberal world
- Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu M, McGarry, Dylan K, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu M , McGarry, Dylan K , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182406 , vital:43827 , xlink:href="10.4314/sajee.v36i1.14"
- Description: Three scholar activists from South Africa reflect on what it means to transgress the limits of a neoliberal world and its crisis times, particularly considering transgressions in the service of a decolonial future. The authors explore three questions: i) What kind of learning can help us transgress the status quo? ii) How do we extend this learning into a commitment to actively living in transgressive ways? iii) What does it mean to lead in ways that re-generate a transgressive ethic in a neoliberal world? In a dialogical conversation format, the authors outline nine different but interconnected perspectives on learning, living and leading into transgression, with the aim of concurrently revealing the multiple layers of work that a decolonial future depends on, while demonstrating the ambitions of a pluriversal decolonial future through their writing. The intertwined narrative is not conclusive, as the processes marked out in brief are experiences that still need to be fully practised in new relations in times to come within academia-in-society-and-the-world with human and more-than-human actors. However, they do offer a generative set of questions, concepts and metaphors to give courage to boundary-dwelling scholar activists attempting transgressive research. These reflections seek to regenerate the transgressive ‘decolonial gestures’ (decolonialfutures.net) that we can undertake in a neo-liberal world, as an important part of environment and sustainability education practices. It draws out what an embodied practice of transgressive learning can entail when we become discerning of hegemonic discourses that reproduce the status quo. We pay homage to those decolonial scholars in the field of environment and sustainability education as we traverse this terrain, recognising their imagination and the transgressive movement that has come before us, but importantly we seek to also open pathways for those yet to come.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu M , McGarry, Dylan K , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182406 , vital:43827 , xlink:href="10.4314/sajee.v36i1.14"
- Description: Three scholar activists from South Africa reflect on what it means to transgress the limits of a neoliberal world and its crisis times, particularly considering transgressions in the service of a decolonial future. The authors explore three questions: i) What kind of learning can help us transgress the status quo? ii) How do we extend this learning into a commitment to actively living in transgressive ways? iii) What does it mean to lead in ways that re-generate a transgressive ethic in a neoliberal world? In a dialogical conversation format, the authors outline nine different but interconnected perspectives on learning, living and leading into transgression, with the aim of concurrently revealing the multiple layers of work that a decolonial future depends on, while demonstrating the ambitions of a pluriversal decolonial future through their writing. The intertwined narrative is not conclusive, as the processes marked out in brief are experiences that still need to be fully practised in new relations in times to come within academia-in-society-and-the-world with human and more-than-human actors. However, they do offer a generative set of questions, concepts and metaphors to give courage to boundary-dwelling scholar activists attempting transgressive research. These reflections seek to regenerate the transgressive ‘decolonial gestures’ (decolonialfutures.net) that we can undertake in a neo-liberal world, as an important part of environment and sustainability education practices. It draws out what an embodied practice of transgressive learning can entail when we become discerning of hegemonic discourses that reproduce the status quo. We pay homage to those decolonial scholars in the field of environment and sustainability education as we traverse this terrain, recognising their imagination and the transgressive movement that has come before us, but importantly we seek to also open pathways for those yet to come.
- Full Text:
Transforming environmental health practitioners’ knowledge-sharing practices through inter-agency formative intervention workshops
- Masilela, Priscilla, Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Authors: Masilela, Priscilla , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/372809 , vital:66624 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2020.1717458"
- Description: Home-based care facilities provide basic healthcare services to people too sick or frail to access formal clinics and hospitals. These facilities produce ‘healthcare risk waste’ which must be managed responsibly, and it is the work of Environmental Health Practitioners working within municipalities to ensure that the waste produced by home-based care facilities is managed in line with legislation. This paper presents a case study of a twenty-seven-month expansive learning intervention in a South African municipality that sought to transform its healthcare risk waste management practices. Limited knowledge and inadequate knowledge-sharing practices were identified as the main hindrances to effective waste management. The practitioner-researcher facilitated a series of inter-agency, formative intervention workshops with municipal employees and Community Health Workers using the Developmental Work Research methodology. These workshops strengthened both groups of practitioners’ knowledge of the ‘who, how, what, why and when’ that underpins effective healthcare risk waste management, and enabled ‘boundary crossing’ for practitioners to work across their specialist areas towards co-defining and analysing problems and constructing new solutions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Masilela, Priscilla , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/372809 , vital:66624 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2020.1717458"
- Description: Home-based care facilities provide basic healthcare services to people too sick or frail to access formal clinics and hospitals. These facilities produce ‘healthcare risk waste’ which must be managed responsibly, and it is the work of Environmental Health Practitioners working within municipalities to ensure that the waste produced by home-based care facilities is managed in line with legislation. This paper presents a case study of a twenty-seven-month expansive learning intervention in a South African municipality that sought to transform its healthcare risk waste management practices. Limited knowledge and inadequate knowledge-sharing practices were identified as the main hindrances to effective waste management. The practitioner-researcher facilitated a series of inter-agency, formative intervention workshops with municipal employees and Community Health Workers using the Developmental Work Research methodology. These workshops strengthened both groups of practitioners’ knowledge of the ‘who, how, what, why and when’ that underpins effective healthcare risk waste management, and enabled ‘boundary crossing’ for practitioners to work across their specialist areas towards co-defining and analysing problems and constructing new solutions.
- Full Text:
Understanding individual, family and community perspectives on delaying early birth among adolescent girls
- Samandari, Ghazaleh, Sarker, Bidhan Krishna, Grant, Carolyn, Talukder, Aloka, Mahfuz, Sadia Nishat, Brent, Lily, Nitu, Syeda N.A., Aziz, Humaira, Gullo, Sara
- Authors: Samandari, Ghazaleh , Sarker, Bidhan Krishna , Grant, Carolyn , Talukder, Aloka , Mahfuz, Sadia Nishat , Brent, Lily , Nitu, Syeda N.A. , Aziz, Humaira , Gullo, Sara
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/281153 , vital:55697 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01044-z"
- Description: Background: Pregnancy among adolescent girls in Bangladesh is high, with 66% of women under the age of 18 reporting a first birth; this issue is particularly acute in the northern region of Bangladesh, an area that is especially impoverished and where girls are at heightened risk. Using formative research, CARE USA examined the underlying social, individual and structural factors influencing married girls’ early first birth and participation in alternative opportunities (such as education or economic pursuits) in Bangladesh. Methods: In July of 2017, researchers conducted in-depth interviews of community members in two sub-districts of northern Bangladesh (Kurigram Sadar and Rajarhat). Participants (n = 127) included adolescent girls (both married and unmarredi), husbands of adolescent girls, influential adults in the girls’ lives, community leaders, and health providers. All interviews were transcribed, coded and organized using Dedoose software. Results: Participants recognize the health benefits of delaying first birth, but stigma around infertility and contraceptive use, pressure from mothers-in-law and health provider bias interfere with a girl’s ability to delay childbearing. Girls’ social isolation, lack of mobility or autonomy, and inability to envision alternatives to early motherhood compound the issue; provider bias may also prevent access to methods. While participants agree that pursuit of education and economic opportunities are important, better futures for girls do not necessarily supersede their marital obligations of childrearing and domestic chores. Conclusions: Findings indicate the need for a multi-level approach to delaying early birth and stimulating girls’ participation in economic and educational pursuits. Interventions must mitigate barriers to reproductive health care; train adolescent girls on viable economic activities; and provide educational opportunities for girls. Effective programs should also address contextual issues by including immediate members of the girls’ families, particularly the husband and mother-in-law.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Samandari, Ghazaleh , Sarker, Bidhan Krishna , Grant, Carolyn , Talukder, Aloka , Mahfuz, Sadia Nishat , Brent, Lily , Nitu, Syeda N.A. , Aziz, Humaira , Gullo, Sara
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/281153 , vital:55697 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01044-z"
- Description: Background: Pregnancy among adolescent girls in Bangladesh is high, with 66% of women under the age of 18 reporting a first birth; this issue is particularly acute in the northern region of Bangladesh, an area that is especially impoverished and where girls are at heightened risk. Using formative research, CARE USA examined the underlying social, individual and structural factors influencing married girls’ early first birth and participation in alternative opportunities (such as education or economic pursuits) in Bangladesh. Methods: In July of 2017, researchers conducted in-depth interviews of community members in two sub-districts of northern Bangladesh (Kurigram Sadar and Rajarhat). Participants (n = 127) included adolescent girls (both married and unmarredi), husbands of adolescent girls, influential adults in the girls’ lives, community leaders, and health providers. All interviews were transcribed, coded and organized using Dedoose software. Results: Participants recognize the health benefits of delaying first birth, but stigma around infertility and contraceptive use, pressure from mothers-in-law and health provider bias interfere with a girl’s ability to delay childbearing. Girls’ social isolation, lack of mobility or autonomy, and inability to envision alternatives to early motherhood compound the issue; provider bias may also prevent access to methods. While participants agree that pursuit of education and economic opportunities are important, better futures for girls do not necessarily supersede their marital obligations of childrearing and domestic chores. Conclusions: Findings indicate the need for a multi-level approach to delaying early birth and stimulating girls’ participation in economic and educational pursuits. Interventions must mitigate barriers to reproductive health care; train adolescent girls on viable economic activities; and provide educational opportunities for girls. Effective programs should also address contextual issues by including immediate members of the girls’ families, particularly the husband and mother-in-law.
- Full Text:
Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: A methodology for cross-case analysis
- Cockburn, Jessica J, Schoon, Michael, Cundill, Georgina, Robinson, Cathy, Aburto, Jamie A, Alexander, Steve M, Baggio, Jacopo A, Barnaud, Cecile, Chapman, Mollie, Llorente, Marina G, Garcia-Lopez, Gustavo A, Hill, Rosemary, Speranza, Chinwe I, Lee, Jean, Meek, Chanda L, Rosenberg, Eureta, Schultz, Lisen, Thondhlana, Gladman
- Authors: Cockburn, Jessica J , Schoon, Michael , Cundill, Georgina , Robinson, Cathy , Aburto, Jamie A , Alexander, Steve M , Baggio, Jacopo A , Barnaud, Cecile , Chapman, Mollie , Llorente, Marina G , Garcia-Lopez, Gustavo A , Hill, Rosemary , Speranza, Chinwe I , Lee, Jean , Meek, Chanda L , Rosenberg, Eureta , Schultz, Lisen , Thondhlana, Gladman
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370725 , vital:66371 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11527-250307"
- Description: There are limited approaches available that enable researchers and practitioners to conduct multiple case study comparisons of complex cases of collaboration in natural resource management and conservation. The absence of such tools is felt despite the fact that over the past several years a great deal of literature has reviewed the state of the science regarding collaboration. Much of this work is based on case studies of collaboration and highlights the importance of contextual variables, further complicating efforts to compare outcomes across case-study areas and the likely failure of approaches based on one size fits all generalizations. We expand on the standard overview of the field by identifying some of the challenges associated with managing complex systems with multiple resources, multiple stakeholder groups with diverse knowledges/understandings, and multiple objectives across multiple scales, i.e., multifaceted collaborative initiatives. We then elucidate how a realist methodology, within a critical realist framing, can support efforts to compare multiple case studies of such multifaceted initiatives. The methodology we propose considers the importance and impact of context for the origins, purpose, and success of multifaceted collaborative natural resource management and conservation initiatives in social-ecological systems.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Cockburn, Jessica J , Schoon, Michael , Cundill, Georgina , Robinson, Cathy , Aburto, Jamie A , Alexander, Steve M , Baggio, Jacopo A , Barnaud, Cecile , Chapman, Mollie , Llorente, Marina G , Garcia-Lopez, Gustavo A , Hill, Rosemary , Speranza, Chinwe I , Lee, Jean , Meek, Chanda L , Rosenberg, Eureta , Schultz, Lisen , Thondhlana, Gladman
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370725 , vital:66371 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11527-250307"
- Description: There are limited approaches available that enable researchers and practitioners to conduct multiple case study comparisons of complex cases of collaboration in natural resource management and conservation. The absence of such tools is felt despite the fact that over the past several years a great deal of literature has reviewed the state of the science regarding collaboration. Much of this work is based on case studies of collaboration and highlights the importance of contextual variables, further complicating efforts to compare outcomes across case-study areas and the likely failure of approaches based on one size fits all generalizations. We expand on the standard overview of the field by identifying some of the challenges associated with managing complex systems with multiple resources, multiple stakeholder groups with diverse knowledges/understandings, and multiple objectives across multiple scales, i.e., multifaceted collaborative initiatives. We then elucidate how a realist methodology, within a critical realist framing, can support efforts to compare multiple case studies of such multifaceted initiatives. The methodology we propose considers the importance and impact of context for the origins, purpose, and success of multifaceted collaborative natural resource management and conservation initiatives in social-ecological systems.
- Full Text:
Urban nature: enriching belonging, wellbeing and bioculture
- Cocks, Michelle L, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433797 , vital:73001 , ISBN 9780367615918 , https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Nature-Enriching-Belonging-Wellbeing-and-Bioculture/Cocks-Shackleton/p/book/9780367615918
- Description: This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of ur-ban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, val-ues and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and glob-alisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cul-tures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This col-lection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens. The chapters cover several themes such as how engagements with nature contribute to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; the implications that diver-sity has on the provision, design and management of urban environments; and the threats inhibiting residents’ abilities to engage meaningfully with nature. The book challenges the dominant discourse, Western ideological understandings and meta-narratives of modernisation and unilineal urban transi-tions. A timely addition to the literature, Urban Nature: Enrich-ing Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture offers an alternative to Western ideological understandings of nature and values and will be of great interest to those working in human and environmental urban ecology. It will also be key reading for students in the relevant fields of anthropology, development studies, geography, social ecology and urban studies.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433797 , vital:73001 , ISBN 9780367615918 , https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Nature-Enriching-Belonging-Wellbeing-and-Bioculture/Cocks-Shackleton/p/book/9780367615918
- Description: This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of ur-ban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, val-ues and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and glob-alisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cul-tures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This col-lection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens. The chapters cover several themes such as how engagements with nature contribute to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; the implications that diver-sity has on the provision, design and management of urban environments; and the threats inhibiting residents’ abilities to engage meaningfully with nature. The book challenges the dominant discourse, Western ideological understandings and meta-narratives of modernisation and unilineal urban transi-tions. A timely addition to the literature, Urban Nature: Enrich-ing Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture offers an alternative to Western ideological understandings of nature and values and will be of great interest to those working in human and environmental urban ecology. It will also be key reading for students in the relevant fields of anthropology, development studies, geography, social ecology and urban studies.
- Full Text:
Using Translanguaging in Higher Education to Empower Students' Voices and Enable Epistemological Becoming
- Asfour, Fouad-Martin, Ndabula, Yanela, Chakona, Gamuchirai, Mason, Paul, Oluwole, David O
- Authors: Asfour, Fouad-Martin , Ndabula, Yanela , Chakona, Gamuchirai , Mason, Paul , Oluwole, David O
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425506 , vital:72251 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2020/sp31a4"
- Description: This article is based on research conducted by a group of plurilingual postgraduate students from different disciplines who facilitated writing groups at the Centre for Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes University over the past two years. It is based on self-reflective writing of language biographies and aims to raise attention about, and to open up a discussion on, the impact of social and personal language practices. We approach the role of language not only as complex interrogation of academic identity, but also as sense of embodied self, an active element in the formation of geo- and body-politics of knowledge which has been highlighted in recent literature focussing on translanguaging in education and decolonising the curricula of Higher Education. Following selfguided research, we engaged in a critical reflection on the use of home languages in education and consulted relevant literature that argues for the inclusion of translanguaging practices in Higher Education. Our research, therefore, focuses on new epistemologies afforded by a shift away from the monolingual habitus and from the concept of multilingualism towards plurilingualism and translanguaging. Our data suggests that a plurilingual approach towards teaching and learning in Higher Education can afford epistemological access to learners across faculties and disciplines in Higher Education, and we argue that the role of languages of tuition in curricula need to be strategically re-evaluated.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Asfour, Fouad-Martin , Ndabula, Yanela , Chakona, Gamuchirai , Mason, Paul , Oluwole, David O
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425506 , vital:72251 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2020/sp31a4"
- Description: This article is based on research conducted by a group of plurilingual postgraduate students from different disciplines who facilitated writing groups at the Centre for Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes University over the past two years. It is based on self-reflective writing of language biographies and aims to raise attention about, and to open up a discussion on, the impact of social and personal language practices. We approach the role of language not only as complex interrogation of academic identity, but also as sense of embodied self, an active element in the formation of geo- and body-politics of knowledge which has been highlighted in recent literature focussing on translanguaging in education and decolonising the curricula of Higher Education. Following selfguided research, we engaged in a critical reflection on the use of home languages in education and consulted relevant literature that argues for the inclusion of translanguaging practices in Higher Education. Our research, therefore, focuses on new epistemologies afforded by a shift away from the monolingual habitus and from the concept of multilingualism towards plurilingualism and translanguaging. Our data suggests that a plurilingual approach towards teaching and learning in Higher Education can afford epistemological access to learners across faculties and disciplines in Higher Education, and we argue that the role of languages of tuition in curricula need to be strategically re-evaluated.
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Vocational education and training for African development: A literature review
- McGrath, Simon, Ramsarup, Presha, Zeelen, Jacques, Wedekind, Volker, Allais, Stephanie, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Monk, David, Openjuru, George, Russon, Jo-Anna
- Authors: McGrath, Simon , Ramsarup, Presha , Zeelen, Jacques , Wedekind, Volker , Allais, Stephanie , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Monk, David , Openjuru, George , Russon, Jo-Anna
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182418 , vital:43828 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2019.1679969"
- Description: The SDGs mark the clearest global acceptance yet that the previous approach to development was unsustainable. In VET, UNESCO has responded by developing a clear account of how a transformed VET must be part of a transformative approach to development. It argues that credible, comprehensive skills systems can be built that can support individuals, communities, and organisations to generate and maintain enhanced and just livelihood opportunities. However, the major current theoretical approaches to VET are not up to this challenge. In the context of Africa, we seek to address this problem through a presentation of literatures that contribute to the theorisation of this new vision. They agree that the world is not made up of atomised individuals guided by a “hidden hand”. Rather, reality is heavily structured within political economies that have emerged out of contestations and compromises in specific historical and geographical spaces. Thus, labour markets and education and training systems have arisen, characterised by inequalities and exclusions. These specific forms profoundly influence individuals’ and communities’ views about the value of different forms of learning and working. However, they do not fully define what individuals dream, think and do. Rather, a transformed and transformative VET for Africa is possible.
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- Authors: McGrath, Simon , Ramsarup, Presha , Zeelen, Jacques , Wedekind, Volker , Allais, Stephanie , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Monk, David , Openjuru, George , Russon, Jo-Anna
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182418 , vital:43828 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2019.1679969"
- Description: The SDGs mark the clearest global acceptance yet that the previous approach to development was unsustainable. In VET, UNESCO has responded by developing a clear account of how a transformed VET must be part of a transformative approach to development. It argues that credible, comprehensive skills systems can be built that can support individuals, communities, and organisations to generate and maintain enhanced and just livelihood opportunities. However, the major current theoretical approaches to VET are not up to this challenge. In the context of Africa, we seek to address this problem through a presentation of literatures that contribute to the theorisation of this new vision. They agree that the world is not made up of atomised individuals guided by a “hidden hand”. Rather, reality is heavily structured within political economies that have emerged out of contestations and compromises in specific historical and geographical spaces. Thus, labour markets and education and training systems have arisen, characterised by inequalities and exclusions. These specific forms profoundly influence individuals’ and communities’ views about the value of different forms of learning and working. However, they do not fully define what individuals dream, think and do. Rather, a transformed and transformative VET for Africa is possible.
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Young people and environmental affordances in urban sustainable development
- Nissen, Sylvia, Prendergast, Kate, Aoyagi, Midori, Burningham, Kate, Hasan, Mohammed Mehedi, Hayward, Bronwyn, Jackson, Tim, Jha, Vimlendu, Mattar, Helio, Schudel, Ingrid J, Venn, Sue, Yoshida, Aya
- Authors: Nissen, Sylvia , Prendergast, Kate , Aoyagi, Midori , Burningham, Kate , Hasan, Mohammed Mehedi , Hayward, Bronwyn , Jackson, Tim , Jha, Vimlendu , Mattar, Helio , Schudel, Ingrid J , Venn, Sue , Yoshida, Aya
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294460 , vital:57223 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-020-00039-w"
- Description: Background: Cities are at the fore of sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century, and many, particularly in Asia and Africa, are predominantly youthful spaces. Understanding young people's experiences in urban environments is therefore important as we strive to achieve both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Two amenities identified in the urban Sustainable Development Goal 11, transport and public and green space, are specifically recognised as applying to youth. Yet, there is little analysis that explicitly considers how youth experience these amenities across the Global North and South, and no current measures for understanding progress in youth experiences of green space and transport. Results: This paper provides a comparative analysis of young people's experiences with local transport and green space in seven diverse urban communities (Christchurch, New Zealand; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lambeth/London, UK; Makhanda, South Africa; New Delhi, India; São Paulo, Brazil; and Yokohama, Japan). Our study contributes to a growing body of literature that seeks to listen to child and youth perspectives to understand their environmental experiences. We examine the 'affordances' young residents aged 12 to 24 years currently associate with green space and transport amenities. Affordances are defined here as the inter-relationships between what a local environment offers young people and their perceptions and actions. Drawing on focus groups and interviews conducted with 332 young people, we identify five affordances young people associate in relation to transport and public space across these diverse urban settings: (1) social inclusion and belonging; (2) autonomy; (3) physical comfort and security; (4) relaxation and reflection; and (5) health and fitness. Conclusions The paper contributes to growing interdisciplinary research interest in measuring affordances as a way to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in an urban context. In providing a comparative account of young people's experiences across diverse contexts, our discussion highlights how affordances in relation to transport or public and green space can help understand the multiple interconnections between the well-being of young people and sustainability. In particular, we argue that it is not merely the provision of transport or public and green space that matters, but the nuanced meaning of places and experiences as understood by local communities that needs to be recognised if we are to better support urban youth wellbeing and advance sustainable development goals.
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- Authors: Nissen, Sylvia , Prendergast, Kate , Aoyagi, Midori , Burningham, Kate , Hasan, Mohammed Mehedi , Hayward, Bronwyn , Jackson, Tim , Jha, Vimlendu , Mattar, Helio , Schudel, Ingrid J , Venn, Sue , Yoshida, Aya
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294460 , vital:57223 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-020-00039-w"
- Description: Background: Cities are at the fore of sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century, and many, particularly in Asia and Africa, are predominantly youthful spaces. Understanding young people's experiences in urban environments is therefore important as we strive to achieve both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Two amenities identified in the urban Sustainable Development Goal 11, transport and public and green space, are specifically recognised as applying to youth. Yet, there is little analysis that explicitly considers how youth experience these amenities across the Global North and South, and no current measures for understanding progress in youth experiences of green space and transport. Results: This paper provides a comparative analysis of young people's experiences with local transport and green space in seven diverse urban communities (Christchurch, New Zealand; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lambeth/London, UK; Makhanda, South Africa; New Delhi, India; São Paulo, Brazil; and Yokohama, Japan). Our study contributes to a growing body of literature that seeks to listen to child and youth perspectives to understand their environmental experiences. We examine the 'affordances' young residents aged 12 to 24 years currently associate with green space and transport amenities. Affordances are defined here as the inter-relationships between what a local environment offers young people and their perceptions and actions. Drawing on focus groups and interviews conducted with 332 young people, we identify five affordances young people associate in relation to transport and public space across these diverse urban settings: (1) social inclusion and belonging; (2) autonomy; (3) physical comfort and security; (4) relaxation and reflection; and (5) health and fitness. Conclusions The paper contributes to growing interdisciplinary research interest in measuring affordances as a way to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in an urban context. In providing a comparative account of young people's experiences across diverse contexts, our discussion highlights how affordances in relation to transport or public and green space can help understand the multiple interconnections between the well-being of young people and sustainability. In particular, we argue that it is not merely the provision of transport or public and green space that matters, but the nuanced meaning of places and experiences as understood by local communities that needs to be recognised if we are to better support urban youth wellbeing and advance sustainable development goals.
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Young pregnant women and public health
- Macleod, Catriona I, Feltham-King, Tracey
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Feltham-King, Tracey
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/298572 , vital:57717 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2019.1573313"
- Description: In this paper, we outline a critical reparative justice/care approach to adolescent reproductive health as an alternative to the standard public health response to ‘teenage pregnancy’. Joining an increasing body of critical scholarship that calls for nuance in understanding reproduction amongst young people, we draw, in this paper, on data generated from an ethnographic study conducted in antenatal care units in an Eastern Cape township in South Africa. To illustrate the approach we propose, we home in on five case studies that highlight the variability of young women’s lives, the multiple injustices they experience, and the agency they demonstrate in negotiating their way through pregnancy and birth. Injustices evident in these cases centre on sexual violence, rape myths, education system failures, health system failures, shaming and stigmatising practices, socio-economic precariousness, absent male partners, and denial of services. We outline how the reparative justice approach that highlights repair and support for social and health injustices at the individual and collective level as well as at the material and symbolic level may be taken up to ensure reproductive justice for young pregnant women.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Feltham-King, Tracey
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/298572 , vital:57717 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2019.1573313"
- Description: In this paper, we outline a critical reparative justice/care approach to adolescent reproductive health as an alternative to the standard public health response to ‘teenage pregnancy’. Joining an increasing body of critical scholarship that calls for nuance in understanding reproduction amongst young people, we draw, in this paper, on data generated from an ethnographic study conducted in antenatal care units in an Eastern Cape township in South Africa. To illustrate the approach we propose, we home in on five case studies that highlight the variability of young women’s lives, the multiple injustices they experience, and the agency they demonstrate in negotiating their way through pregnancy and birth. Injustices evident in these cases centre on sexual violence, rape myths, education system failures, health system failures, shaming and stigmatising practices, socio-economic precariousness, absent male partners, and denial of services. We outline how the reparative justice approach that highlights repair and support for social and health injustices at the individual and collective level as well as at the material and symbolic level may be taken up to ensure reproductive justice for young pregnant women.
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“Needs must”: Critical reflections on the implications of the Covid19 “pivot online” for equity in higher education
- Belluigi, Dina, Czerniewicz, Laura, Khoo, S, Algers, A, Buckley, L A, Prinsloo, Paul, Mgqwashu, Emmanuel, Camps, C, Brink, C, Marx, R, Wissing, Gerrit, Pallitt, Nicola
- Authors: Belluigi, Dina , Czerniewicz, Laura , Khoo, S , Algers, A , Buckley, L A , Prinsloo, Paul , Mgqwashu, Emmanuel , Camps, C , Brink, C , Marx, R , Wissing, Gerrit , Pallitt, Nicola
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439464 , vital:73599 , https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/reflections-on-covid19/needs-must
- Description: Higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe have turned to online technologies in a bid to address the unprecedented disruption to their educational function, created by physical restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators, learning professionals, administrators, managers-all have had to muster the courage and de-termination to salvage what their infrastructure and means have al-lowed. A certain shift in mind-set has occurred. Over-simplified and over-generalised perhaps, but a clear directive was given that ‘this has to be done online’, in consequence of which the stance changed from ‘this can’t be done online’ to ‘how can this be done online?’ This was the watershed moment. Even the fiercest opponents of anything tech-nology have been engaging in the shift to online.
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- Authors: Belluigi, Dina , Czerniewicz, Laura , Khoo, S , Algers, A , Buckley, L A , Prinsloo, Paul , Mgqwashu, Emmanuel , Camps, C , Brink, C , Marx, R , Wissing, Gerrit , Pallitt, Nicola
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439464 , vital:73599 , https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/reflections-on-covid19/needs-must
- Description: Higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe have turned to online technologies in a bid to address the unprecedented disruption to their educational function, created by physical restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators, learning professionals, administrators, managers-all have had to muster the courage and de-termination to salvage what their infrastructure and means have al-lowed. A certain shift in mind-set has occurred. Over-simplified and over-generalised perhaps, but a clear directive was given that ‘this has to be done online’, in consequence of which the stance changed from ‘this can’t be done online’ to ‘how can this be done online?’ This was the watershed moment. Even the fiercest opponents of anything tech-nology have been engaging in the shift to online.
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