Economically important cephalopods of southern Angola, with a focus on the artisanal jig fishery
- Vázquez Morán, Chénelle Lesley
- Authors: Vázquez Morán, Chénelle Lesley
- Date: 2023-03-31
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422529 , vital:71955 , DOI 10.21504/10962/422529
- Description: The global decline in marine finfish stocks has been met with a concomitant expansion of fisheries for cephalopods. Despite the increase in the exploitation and commercialization of cephalopods, there is a dearth of scientific information for over 90% of the extant species and this is even more marked in the developing world. Angolan capture fisheries production noted a tenfold increase in cephalopod landings between 1994 and 2003. One of the important fisheries is a cephalopod directed jig fishery that targets the squid Loligo reynaudii and the cuttlefish Sepia vermiculata in southern Angola, however, there is a complete lack of socio-ecological information available for this fishery. Hence the aim of this thesis was to provide basic biological and demographic information on L. reynaudii and S. vermiculata distributed off the coast of southern Angola, assess the importance and dependence of local artisanal fishers on these two species and examine the current management strategies and policies in the region This study found that the artisanal cephalopod jig fishery is critical for the livelihoods of the coastal communities of southern Angola, particularly due to the limited alternative income generating opportunities available. The cephalopod jig fishery is highly labour intensive, with fishers spending a considerable amount of time per day, drifting over known fishing grounds. Catch composition of the artisanal jig fishery indicated that squid is the dominant species within the fishery, in terms of numerical abundance and weight. The productivity and progression of the fishery is hampered by a number of ecological, socio-economic and governance constraints, as highlighted by socio-economic surveys conducted with local squid fishers. Such constraints include, but are not limited to declining catches, increased negative interactions with seals, increased inter-sector competition, lack of infrastructure, poor quality fishing equipment as well as a lack of communication and support from government officials. To examine aspects of the biology and demography of L. reynaudii, whole specimens were collected monthly, from the two primary fishing areas in southern Angola; Namibe and Tombua, during two main sampling periods, June 2008 – May 2009 (Period 1) and June 2014 – May 2015 (Period 2). Male L. reynaudii were found to be significantly larger in size and weight than females, however both the average and maximum dorsal mantle length (DML) decreased between sampling periods. Length-at-50% maturity was larger for male L. reynaudii (170.47 mm DML – 1st period, 165.44 mm DML – 2nd period) than female L. reynaudii (114.71 mm DML – 1st period, 109.43 mm DML – 2nd period). Gonadosomatic indices (GSI) varied significantly during month and season for both sexes. Peak GSI coincided with a low catches in the artisanal jig fishery suggesting that the population may undergo a spawning migration away from fishing grounds, during late spring and summer. The theory of a seasonal spawning migration is further supported in this study by the low abundance of juvenile and sub-adult L, reynaudii collected during the study, along with the inability to detect egg beds in known fishing grounds. Stomach content analysis indicated that teleosts were the most important dietary item (66.3% F of the stomach contents). Trachurus capensis and Engraulis encrasicolus are both highly abundant small pelagic fishes in the cold nutrient rich waters of the Benguela Current and dominated the diet of sampled squid during autumn and winter months. It is likely that the prevalence of large, adult squid off the coast of Angola, as observed within the current study, may be ascribed to the suitable environmental conditions and the abundance of suitable prey. The results from the current study indicate that the southern Angolan subpopulation reveals similarities to that of the West Coast subpopulation of squid in South Africa, with regards to demographics and reproductive characteristics. It is likely that the population in southern Angola is an extension of the South African subpopulation of L. reynaudii on the western extremities. To examine the basic population biology and ecology of S. vermiculata off southern Angola whole specimens were collected from the fishery between December 2014 and April 2015. Morphological results indicate clear sexual dimorphism in soft part characteristics, cuttlebone and beak morphometry. Length-at-50% maturity was smaller in male S. vermiculata (217.53 mm DML) than female S. vermiculata (231.13 mm DML), although these differences were not significant. Stomach content analysis indicated that S. vermiculata predominantly fed on teleost species which were found within 64.5% of stomachs. Teleosts were more dominant in the diet of male S. vermiculata (78.6% F) than female S. vermiculata (53.0% F), which ate a more varied diet including crustaceans (41.2% F) and cephalopods (17.7% F). Availability and abundance of cuttlefish in Namibe indicates that the species may undergo a spatio-temporal shift in distribution, with majority of the artisanal catches of S. vermiculata occurring during summer months. The results from the current study highlights the fisheries potential of L. reynaudii and S. vermiculata and the dependence of artisanal fishers in southern Angola on cephalopods, and more specifically squid. The development of sustainable fisheries management strategies for the artisanal cephalopod jig fishery is critical, particularly as the global exploitation of cephalopods continues to increase with declining finfish populations. Failure to implement management strategies may remove this critical economic safety net for vulnerable coastal communities which have little alternative livelihood opportunities. Ongoing ecological research, a co-management approach and an increased consideration of local ecological knowledge will assist in designing appropriate management plans for the southern Angolan cephalopod jig fishery. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vázquez Morán, Chénelle Lesley
- Date: 2023-03-31
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422529 , vital:71955 , DOI 10.21504/10962/422529
- Description: The global decline in marine finfish stocks has been met with a concomitant expansion of fisheries for cephalopods. Despite the increase in the exploitation and commercialization of cephalopods, there is a dearth of scientific information for over 90% of the extant species and this is even more marked in the developing world. Angolan capture fisheries production noted a tenfold increase in cephalopod landings between 1994 and 2003. One of the important fisheries is a cephalopod directed jig fishery that targets the squid Loligo reynaudii and the cuttlefish Sepia vermiculata in southern Angola, however, there is a complete lack of socio-ecological information available for this fishery. Hence the aim of this thesis was to provide basic biological and demographic information on L. reynaudii and S. vermiculata distributed off the coast of southern Angola, assess the importance and dependence of local artisanal fishers on these two species and examine the current management strategies and policies in the region This study found that the artisanal cephalopod jig fishery is critical for the livelihoods of the coastal communities of southern Angola, particularly due to the limited alternative income generating opportunities available. The cephalopod jig fishery is highly labour intensive, with fishers spending a considerable amount of time per day, drifting over known fishing grounds. Catch composition of the artisanal jig fishery indicated that squid is the dominant species within the fishery, in terms of numerical abundance and weight. The productivity and progression of the fishery is hampered by a number of ecological, socio-economic and governance constraints, as highlighted by socio-economic surveys conducted with local squid fishers. Such constraints include, but are not limited to declining catches, increased negative interactions with seals, increased inter-sector competition, lack of infrastructure, poor quality fishing equipment as well as a lack of communication and support from government officials. To examine aspects of the biology and demography of L. reynaudii, whole specimens were collected monthly, from the two primary fishing areas in southern Angola; Namibe and Tombua, during two main sampling periods, June 2008 – May 2009 (Period 1) and June 2014 – May 2015 (Period 2). Male L. reynaudii were found to be significantly larger in size and weight than females, however both the average and maximum dorsal mantle length (DML) decreased between sampling periods. Length-at-50% maturity was larger for male L. reynaudii (170.47 mm DML – 1st period, 165.44 mm DML – 2nd period) than female L. reynaudii (114.71 mm DML – 1st period, 109.43 mm DML – 2nd period). Gonadosomatic indices (GSI) varied significantly during month and season for both sexes. Peak GSI coincided with a low catches in the artisanal jig fishery suggesting that the population may undergo a spawning migration away from fishing grounds, during late spring and summer. The theory of a seasonal spawning migration is further supported in this study by the low abundance of juvenile and sub-adult L, reynaudii collected during the study, along with the inability to detect egg beds in known fishing grounds. Stomach content analysis indicated that teleosts were the most important dietary item (66.3% F of the stomach contents). Trachurus capensis and Engraulis encrasicolus are both highly abundant small pelagic fishes in the cold nutrient rich waters of the Benguela Current and dominated the diet of sampled squid during autumn and winter months. It is likely that the prevalence of large, adult squid off the coast of Angola, as observed within the current study, may be ascribed to the suitable environmental conditions and the abundance of suitable prey. The results from the current study indicate that the southern Angolan subpopulation reveals similarities to that of the West Coast subpopulation of squid in South Africa, with regards to demographics and reproductive characteristics. It is likely that the population in southern Angola is an extension of the South African subpopulation of L. reynaudii on the western extremities. To examine the basic population biology and ecology of S. vermiculata off southern Angola whole specimens were collected from the fishery between December 2014 and April 2015. Morphological results indicate clear sexual dimorphism in soft part characteristics, cuttlebone and beak morphometry. Length-at-50% maturity was smaller in male S. vermiculata (217.53 mm DML) than female S. vermiculata (231.13 mm DML), although these differences were not significant. Stomach content analysis indicated that S. vermiculata predominantly fed on teleost species which were found within 64.5% of stomachs. Teleosts were more dominant in the diet of male S. vermiculata (78.6% F) than female S. vermiculata (53.0% F), which ate a more varied diet including crustaceans (41.2% F) and cephalopods (17.7% F). Availability and abundance of cuttlefish in Namibe indicates that the species may undergo a spatio-temporal shift in distribution, with majority of the artisanal catches of S. vermiculata occurring during summer months. The results from the current study highlights the fisheries potential of L. reynaudii and S. vermiculata and the dependence of artisanal fishers in southern Angola on cephalopods, and more specifically squid. The development of sustainable fisheries management strategies for the artisanal cephalopod jig fishery is critical, particularly as the global exploitation of cephalopods continues to increase with declining finfish populations. Failure to implement management strategies may remove this critical economic safety net for vulnerable coastal communities which have little alternative livelihood opportunities. Ongoing ecological research, a co-management approach and an increased consideration of local ecological knowledge will assist in designing appropriate management plans for the southern Angolan cephalopod jig fishery. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 2023
- Full Text:
Which Black Lives matter? : a decolonial interrogation of xenophobia on Black South African Twitter
- Authors: McBrown, Anima
- Date: 2023-03-30
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/408930 , vital:70538
- Description: Thesis embargoed. To be released in 2025. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: McBrown, Anima
- Date: 2023-03-30
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/408930 , vital:70538
- Description: Thesis embargoed. To be released in 2025. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2023
- Full Text:
A critical analysis of Professor Andrew Tracey’s contribution to African music pedagogy and the field of applied ethnomusicology
- Authors: Moyo, Vuyelwa O'Lacy
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Tracey, Andrew T N , Ethnomusicology , Music Instruction and study Africa , Mbira Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406829 , vital:70311
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is based on my interest and experience in forms of African music, ethnomusicology, and studying mbira with Professor Emeritus Andrew Tracey. When I arrived in South Africa in 2019 to join Rhodes University’s Applied Ethnomusicology programme, I chose to study the mbira with Tracey as the idea of learning more about Zimbabwe through music was important to the formation of my identity. Through the lens of embodied learning and a practice-based approach in this research, I evaluate how Tracey’s numerous contributions to African music pedagogy have improved prospects for African music scholars and students in terms of contributing to the goals of applied ethnomusicology. The primary purpose of this thesis is to respond to the absence of serious scrutiny of existing pedagogical approaches to African music at universities across South Africa. The contribution this research makes will be valuable to African music programmes across the continent as well as to practitioners of African traditional instruments, such as the marimba, mbira, timbila xylophones, nyanga pan pipes, and valimba xylophones. The thesis comprises five chapters. The first presents an introduction to the research, and its goals, procedures and approaches, along with an outline of the subsequent chapters. Tracey’s biography is covered in the second chapter. A consideration of the state of African music teaching in other African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe; the history of African music; and the state of African music pedagogy in tertiary institutions in South Africa constitutes the third chapter. Chapter 4 comprises an analysis of Tracey’s articles and data gathered from interviews, as well as my personal reflections as Tracey’s student. The final chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters, the study’s findings, and suggestions for further research. A multidisciplinary approach was used for this thesis. The results finds that Tracey’s articles had six common themes which he wrote about and are a contribution to African music pedagogy. These themes are the history of instruments, the structure of the instrument, the learning/playing technique, structure of the instrument, transcription and dance steps. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Moyo, Vuyelwa O'Lacy
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Tracey, Andrew T N , Ethnomusicology , Music Instruction and study Africa , Mbira Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406829 , vital:70311
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is based on my interest and experience in forms of African music, ethnomusicology, and studying mbira with Professor Emeritus Andrew Tracey. When I arrived in South Africa in 2019 to join Rhodes University’s Applied Ethnomusicology programme, I chose to study the mbira with Tracey as the idea of learning more about Zimbabwe through music was important to the formation of my identity. Through the lens of embodied learning and a practice-based approach in this research, I evaluate how Tracey’s numerous contributions to African music pedagogy have improved prospects for African music scholars and students in terms of contributing to the goals of applied ethnomusicology. The primary purpose of this thesis is to respond to the absence of serious scrutiny of existing pedagogical approaches to African music at universities across South Africa. The contribution this research makes will be valuable to African music programmes across the continent as well as to practitioners of African traditional instruments, such as the marimba, mbira, timbila xylophones, nyanga pan pipes, and valimba xylophones. The thesis comprises five chapters. The first presents an introduction to the research, and its goals, procedures and approaches, along with an outline of the subsequent chapters. Tracey’s biography is covered in the second chapter. A consideration of the state of African music teaching in other African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe; the history of African music; and the state of African music pedagogy in tertiary institutions in South Africa constitutes the third chapter. Chapter 4 comprises an analysis of Tracey’s articles and data gathered from interviews, as well as my personal reflections as Tracey’s student. The final chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters, the study’s findings, and suggestions for further research. A multidisciplinary approach was used for this thesis. The results finds that Tracey’s articles had six common themes which he wrote about and are a contribution to African music pedagogy. These themes are the history of instruments, the structure of the instrument, the learning/playing technique, structure of the instrument, transcription and dance steps. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
- Full Text:
Assessment of cytotoxic artemisinin and its derivatives as DNA damaging inducing agents in triple-negative breast cancer cells
- Authors: Mkhwanazi, Ntando
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Breast Cancer , Artemisinin , DNA damage , Antineoplastic agents , Breast Cancer Treatment
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/362960 , vital:65378
- Description: In developing countries, including South Africa, breast cancer is the primary cause of cancer-related deaths among women. TNBC (triple-negative breast cancer) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype that is more prevalent in women of African descent. This subtype lacks the key receptors, namely the estrogen receptor (ER-), progesterone receptor (PR-), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2-) that are the basis of successful targeted therapies for other subtypes of the disease. To date, there are no effective, standardized targeted therapies for TNBC. Artemisinin is an anti-malarial drug and numerous derivatives of the compound have been developed to improve the potency and solubility of the parent compound. Artemisinin and its derivatives have gained attention as potential anti-cancer agents; however, such studies have not yet progressed to clinical trials and the precise mechanism of action of these compounds is yet to be fully explained. In this study, artemisinin, and its known derivative artesunate, as well as a novel derivative, WHN11, were investigated as DNA damage-inducing agents in TNBC. WHN11 was found to be the most potent of the three compounds, displaying an IC50 of 3.20 μM against HCC70 cells, artemisinin displayed an IC50 of 214.70 μM and artesunate displayed an IC50 of 25.48 μM. The compounds were less toxic to the MCF12A non-cancerous cells, with IC50 values 298.30, 87.53, and 8.35 μM for artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11, respectively, and displayed selectivity indices of 1.39, 3.44 and 2.61 μM for artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11, respectively. In silico and in vitro studies revealed that the artemisinin compounds bind to DNA through the minor groove. While all three compounds were able to bind to DNA, a comet assay revealed that only artemisinin and artesunate, and not WHN11, were able to cause DNA damage compared to the vehicle control, DMSO. Finally, a topoisomerase I (TOPO I) enzyme assay demonstrated that while the compounds appeared to display a degree of inhibition of TOPO I, as evidenced by a downward shift in the plasmid band on the agarose gel, they were not able to fully inhibit the enzyme to return the plasmid to the supercoiled conformation. In addition, combination studies revealed that artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11 acted synergistically in combination with camptothecin, but displayed either an additive (artemisinin) or antagonistic (artesunate and WHN11) relationship when used in combination with etoposide. In conclusion, artemisinin, its known derivative artesunate, and novel and highly toxic derivative WHN11, all bind to DNA via the minor groove, however only artemisinin and artesunate, and not WHN11, cause DNA damage, indicating a potentially different mechanism of action of the three artemisinins. All three compounds act synergistically with camptothecin, which suggests interference with topoisomerase activity, partially supported by slight inhibition of TOPO I activity, and could indicate either direct inhibition of the enzyme or interference with enzyme function by competitive binding to the DNA. Further studies could help explore alternate DNA damage assays, to validate these findings, and the effect of the compounds on TOPO II activity could also be assessed. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mkhwanazi, Ntando
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Breast Cancer , Artemisinin , DNA damage , Antineoplastic agents , Breast Cancer Treatment
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/362960 , vital:65378
- Description: In developing countries, including South Africa, breast cancer is the primary cause of cancer-related deaths among women. TNBC (triple-negative breast cancer) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype that is more prevalent in women of African descent. This subtype lacks the key receptors, namely the estrogen receptor (ER-), progesterone receptor (PR-), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2-) that are the basis of successful targeted therapies for other subtypes of the disease. To date, there are no effective, standardized targeted therapies for TNBC. Artemisinin is an anti-malarial drug and numerous derivatives of the compound have been developed to improve the potency and solubility of the parent compound. Artemisinin and its derivatives have gained attention as potential anti-cancer agents; however, such studies have not yet progressed to clinical trials and the precise mechanism of action of these compounds is yet to be fully explained. In this study, artemisinin, and its known derivative artesunate, as well as a novel derivative, WHN11, were investigated as DNA damage-inducing agents in TNBC. WHN11 was found to be the most potent of the three compounds, displaying an IC50 of 3.20 μM against HCC70 cells, artemisinin displayed an IC50 of 214.70 μM and artesunate displayed an IC50 of 25.48 μM. The compounds were less toxic to the MCF12A non-cancerous cells, with IC50 values 298.30, 87.53, and 8.35 μM for artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11, respectively, and displayed selectivity indices of 1.39, 3.44 and 2.61 μM for artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11, respectively. In silico and in vitro studies revealed that the artemisinin compounds bind to DNA through the minor groove. While all three compounds were able to bind to DNA, a comet assay revealed that only artemisinin and artesunate, and not WHN11, were able to cause DNA damage compared to the vehicle control, DMSO. Finally, a topoisomerase I (TOPO I) enzyme assay demonstrated that while the compounds appeared to display a degree of inhibition of TOPO I, as evidenced by a downward shift in the plasmid band on the agarose gel, they were not able to fully inhibit the enzyme to return the plasmid to the supercoiled conformation. In addition, combination studies revealed that artemisinin, artesunate, and WHN11 acted synergistically in combination with camptothecin, but displayed either an additive (artemisinin) or antagonistic (artesunate and WHN11) relationship when used in combination with etoposide. In conclusion, artemisinin, its known derivative artesunate, and novel and highly toxic derivative WHN11, all bind to DNA via the minor groove, however only artemisinin and artesunate, and not WHN11, cause DNA damage, indicating a potentially different mechanism of action of the three artemisinins. All three compounds act synergistically with camptothecin, which suggests interference with topoisomerase activity, partially supported by slight inhibition of TOPO I activity, and could indicate either direct inhibition of the enzyme or interference with enzyme function by competitive binding to the DNA. Further studies could help explore alternate DNA damage assays, to validate these findings, and the effect of the compounds on TOPO II activity could also be assessed. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
Characterisation of two novel ferrocenyl benzoxazines as in vitro triple-negative breast cancer inhibitors
- Authors: Mhlanga, Richwell
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365689 , vital:65776
- Description: Thesis access embargoed. Expected released date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mhlanga, Richwell
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365689 , vital:65776
- Description: Thesis access embargoed. Expected released date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
Conceptualising mental distress from an African psychology paradigm: using an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the views of traditional healers
- Nabo-Bazana, Sandisiwe Sifanelwe
- Authors: Nabo-Bazana, Sandisiwe Sifanelwe
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Healers South Africa , Traditional healer , Mental distress , Black psychology , Afrocentrism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406213 , vital:70249
- Description: With South Africa's long history of colonialism and racial oppression, there are still services in the country that many South Africans cannot relate to, including psychology. Research shows that many South Africans experience and are affected by mental distress due to several factors, including poverty, unemployment, and traumatic experiences. Managing and treating such distress has always been challenging for most South Africans. Some debates question the relevance of psychological services from the West in a South African context. This study explores other approaches to psychology that look beyond the Biopsychosocial model when dealing with certain types of disorders in an African context. African psychology, or the Afrocentric approach, looks at what is beneath the surface, not just the presenting problem. Mainstream psychology strives to be universal and applicable to all. However, African psychology disagrees with this notion. African psychology perceives human beings as strongly influenced by social and cultural influences. The focus of this approach includes the spiritual realm and the attached meanings. There is evidence for the need to merge Traditional and Western medicine. The research methodology for this study is qualitative, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. IPA allows for a critical engagement with the ways in which participants construct their reality. The researcher carried out semi-structured interviews to enable participants, all traditional healers (3 female and 2 male), to narrate their experiences dealing with mentally distressed clients. The accounts of these traditional healers were analysed focusing on people who have experienced mental distress. From the analysis and synthesis of the themes, findings illustrate how traditional healers conceptualise and construct mental distress from an African Psychology paradigm. An emerging core theme was the importance of the divine call and its influence on the chosen treatments. More studies are needed to illustrate the potential for collaboration between African Traditional healing and EuroAmerican healing practices, to provide holistic services to people in need. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nabo-Bazana, Sandisiwe Sifanelwe
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Healers South Africa , Traditional healer , Mental distress , Black psychology , Afrocentrism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406213 , vital:70249
- Description: With South Africa's long history of colonialism and racial oppression, there are still services in the country that many South Africans cannot relate to, including psychology. Research shows that many South Africans experience and are affected by mental distress due to several factors, including poverty, unemployment, and traumatic experiences. Managing and treating such distress has always been challenging for most South Africans. Some debates question the relevance of psychological services from the West in a South African context. This study explores other approaches to psychology that look beyond the Biopsychosocial model when dealing with certain types of disorders in an African context. African psychology, or the Afrocentric approach, looks at what is beneath the surface, not just the presenting problem. Mainstream psychology strives to be universal and applicable to all. However, African psychology disagrees with this notion. African psychology perceives human beings as strongly influenced by social and cultural influences. The focus of this approach includes the spiritual realm and the attached meanings. There is evidence for the need to merge Traditional and Western medicine. The research methodology for this study is qualitative, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. IPA allows for a critical engagement with the ways in which participants construct their reality. The researcher carried out semi-structured interviews to enable participants, all traditional healers (3 female and 2 male), to narrate their experiences dealing with mentally distressed clients. The accounts of these traditional healers were analysed focusing on people who have experienced mental distress. From the analysis and synthesis of the themes, findings illustrate how traditional healers conceptualise and construct mental distress from an African Psychology paradigm. An emerging core theme was the importance of the divine call and its influence on the chosen treatments. More studies are needed to illustrate the potential for collaboration between African Traditional healing and EuroAmerican healing practices, to provide holistic services to people in need. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2022
- Full Text:
Development and optimisation of a qPCR assay for the enumeration of Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus (CrleGV) used for commercial applications
- Authors: Mela, Thuthula
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus , Cryptophlebia leucotreta , Late expression factor 8 (LEF-8) , Late expression factor 9 , Dark field microscopy , Genomic DNA , Polymerase chain reaction , Plasmids
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/362949 , vital:65377
- Description: The citrus industry contributes significantly to the South African agricultural sector. Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is highly important to the South African citrus industry as it is classified as a phytosanitary pest by most international markets. Thaumatotibia leucotreta has caused an estimated annual loss of up to R100 million to the industry. In order to control T. leucotreta in South Africa, an integrated pest management (IPM) programme has been used. One of the components of this programme is Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus (CrleGV), which has been formulated to a registered biopesticide namely Cryptogran and has been successfully applied in the field for over 15 years. To use CrleGV as biopesticides, quantification of the viral particles is required to perform bioassays for field trials and formulation, among other applications. Darkfield microscopy is a traditional method used for the quantification of CrleGV; however, the method is characterised as being subjective, tedious, labour intensive, and time-consuming. This study aims to develop and optimise a qPCR technique to accurately quantify CrleGV-SA OBs using plasmid DNA for downstream applications. Firstly, lef-8, lef-9, and granulin conserved genes from CrleGV-SA and CrleGV-CV3 genome sequences were analysed by performing multiple alignments to evaluate the degree of identity between these genes. This was done to design two sets of oligonucleotides (internal and external) from regions with the highest identity. Subsequently, in silico testing was done to evaluate the designed oligonucleotides to determine whether they specifically bind to the selected target regions. Secondly, three sets of DNA plasmids (pJET1.2-Gran, pJET1.2-lef-9, and pJET1.2-lef-8) were constructed, each containing a target region for either granulin, lef-9, and lef-8 genes for use as standards in a downstream qPCR assay. This was achieved by first extracting gDNA from CrleGV-SA OBs and using the gDNA as a template to PCR amplify the target regions of the selected gene regions with the designed oligonucleotides. Subsequently, the PCR amplified regions were then directly ligated into the pJET1.2/blunt vector, and the plasmids were confirmed by colony PCR, restriction enzyme digestion, and Sanger sequencing. Thirdly, two different methods of CrleGV-SA gDNA extraction were compared to determine which method has the best yields in terms of concentration. The extraction methods compared were the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit according to manufacturer’s instructions (Method 1a), pre-treatment with Na2CO3 prior to using the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit (Method 1b), pre- treatment with Na2CO3, and neutralisation with Tris-HCl prior to gDNA extraction using the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit (Method 1c) and the CTAB method (Method 2). The gDNA concentration and purity for all samples were determined using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer. Method 1c (Na2CO3 and Tris-HCl pre-treated plus Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit) was the most efficient at extracting genomic DNA compared with the other methods, resulting in the highest DNA concentration in short processing time. Fourthly, plasmid standards were evaluated for use in the qPCR assay. This was done as it was important to consider the efficacy of the oligonucleotides; including the ability of the oligonucleotides to anneal to the appropriate segment of DNA without extensive formation of oligonucleotides dimers, non-specific annealing, or formation of secondary structure. In addition, it was done to ensure that highly accurate standard curves were generated. The standard curves were to be utilised in the downstream qPCR assay to determine the quantity of test samples by interpolation, reading from the values within the standard curve. Lastly, darkfield microscopy and qPCR methods of enumeration were compared to verify their accuracy and determine the most consistent and comparable method. This was achieved by quantifying the purified, crude-purified, and viral formulated CrleGV-SA suspensions using these methods. Subsequently, a statistical analysis was conducted to compare the results produced by the two enumeration methods. The obtained results showed that the granulin, lef- 8 and lef-9 qPCR values did not significantly differ from the darkfield microscopy results. The findings of this study revealed that the two assays, lef-8 qPCR and lef-9 qPCR, were more robust, sensitive, and efficient for the quantification of CrleGV-SA. Thus, this study has successfully developed a qPCR assay that is comparable with the traditional darkfield microscopy counting technique. This is the first study to use the qPCR technique to enumerate CrleGV-SA using plasmid standards. The developed qPCR assay is reliable, rapid, and cost- effective and has a great potential to be used as an alternative method to darkfield microscopy in the laboratory and commercial settings. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mela, Thuthula
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus , Cryptophlebia leucotreta , Late expression factor 8 (LEF-8) , Late expression factor 9 , Dark field microscopy , Genomic DNA , Polymerase chain reaction , Plasmids
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/362949 , vital:65377
- Description: The citrus industry contributes significantly to the South African agricultural sector. Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is highly important to the South African citrus industry as it is classified as a phytosanitary pest by most international markets. Thaumatotibia leucotreta has caused an estimated annual loss of up to R100 million to the industry. In order to control T. leucotreta in South Africa, an integrated pest management (IPM) programme has been used. One of the components of this programme is Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus (CrleGV), which has been formulated to a registered biopesticide namely Cryptogran and has been successfully applied in the field for over 15 years. To use CrleGV as biopesticides, quantification of the viral particles is required to perform bioassays for field trials and formulation, among other applications. Darkfield microscopy is a traditional method used for the quantification of CrleGV; however, the method is characterised as being subjective, tedious, labour intensive, and time-consuming. This study aims to develop and optimise a qPCR technique to accurately quantify CrleGV-SA OBs using plasmid DNA for downstream applications. Firstly, lef-8, lef-9, and granulin conserved genes from CrleGV-SA and CrleGV-CV3 genome sequences were analysed by performing multiple alignments to evaluate the degree of identity between these genes. This was done to design two sets of oligonucleotides (internal and external) from regions with the highest identity. Subsequently, in silico testing was done to evaluate the designed oligonucleotides to determine whether they specifically bind to the selected target regions. Secondly, three sets of DNA plasmids (pJET1.2-Gran, pJET1.2-lef-9, and pJET1.2-lef-8) were constructed, each containing a target region for either granulin, lef-9, and lef-8 genes for use as standards in a downstream qPCR assay. This was achieved by first extracting gDNA from CrleGV-SA OBs and using the gDNA as a template to PCR amplify the target regions of the selected gene regions with the designed oligonucleotides. Subsequently, the PCR amplified regions were then directly ligated into the pJET1.2/blunt vector, and the plasmids were confirmed by colony PCR, restriction enzyme digestion, and Sanger sequencing. Thirdly, two different methods of CrleGV-SA gDNA extraction were compared to determine which method has the best yields in terms of concentration. The extraction methods compared were the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit according to manufacturer’s instructions (Method 1a), pre-treatment with Na2CO3 prior to using the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit (Method 1b), pre- treatment with Na2CO3, and neutralisation with Tris-HCl prior to gDNA extraction using the Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit (Method 1c) and the CTAB method (Method 2). The gDNA concentration and purity for all samples were determined using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer. Method 1c (Na2CO3 and Tris-HCl pre-treated plus Quick-DNA Miniprep Plus kit) was the most efficient at extracting genomic DNA compared with the other methods, resulting in the highest DNA concentration in short processing time. Fourthly, plasmid standards were evaluated for use in the qPCR assay. This was done as it was important to consider the efficacy of the oligonucleotides; including the ability of the oligonucleotides to anneal to the appropriate segment of DNA without extensive formation of oligonucleotides dimers, non-specific annealing, or formation of secondary structure. In addition, it was done to ensure that highly accurate standard curves were generated. The standard curves were to be utilised in the downstream qPCR assay to determine the quantity of test samples by interpolation, reading from the values within the standard curve. Lastly, darkfield microscopy and qPCR methods of enumeration were compared to verify their accuracy and determine the most consistent and comparable method. This was achieved by quantifying the purified, crude-purified, and viral formulated CrleGV-SA suspensions using these methods. Subsequently, a statistical analysis was conducted to compare the results produced by the two enumeration methods. The obtained results showed that the granulin, lef- 8 and lef-9 qPCR values did not significantly differ from the darkfield microscopy results. The findings of this study revealed that the two assays, lef-8 qPCR and lef-9 qPCR, were more robust, sensitive, and efficient for the quantification of CrleGV-SA. Thus, this study has successfully developed a qPCR assay that is comparable with the traditional darkfield microscopy counting technique. This is the first study to use the qPCR technique to enumerate CrleGV-SA using plasmid standards. The developed qPCR assay is reliable, rapid, and cost- effective and has a great potential to be used as an alternative method to darkfield microscopy in the laboratory and commercial settings. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
Development of biosensor systems for the detection of anti-cancer drugs and prostate cancer
- Authors: Mwanza, Daniel
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365929 , vital:65803
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mwanza, Daniel
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365929 , vital:65803
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2022
- Full Text:
Dual and targeted photodynamic therapy ablation of bacterial and cancer cells using phthalocyanines and porphyrins in the presence of carbon-based nanomaterials
- Authors: Openda, Yolande Ikala
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Phthalocyanines , Porphyrins , Active oxygen , Biofilms , Breast Cancer Treatment , Nanostructured materials , Combination therapy , Photochemotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365945 , vital:65804 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962//365946
- Description: Phthalocyanines (Pcs) and porphyrins bearing substituents that possess antibacterial/anticancer properties are used as photosensitizers (PS) for the first time in the work. For targeting specificity and improved photoactivity, the PSs were afterward functionalized with carbon nanomaterials such as graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs) via covalent conjugation (amide or ester bonds) or by non-covalent conjugation (π-π stacking and electrostatic interactions). Furthermore, the PSs-DNDs nanoconjugates were conjugated to either chitosan-capped silver nanoparticles (CSAg) via amide bonds or to the bare silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using the silver- nitrogen affinity. The as-synthesized nanoconjugates were also fully characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic methods together with thermal analysis. The potential photocytotoxicity of the complexes alone and their nanoconjugates against S. aureus and/or E. coli planktonic and biofilm cultures has been evaluated in vitro. Compared to the non- quaternized PSs, the cationic analogs exhibited a higher photodynamic inactivation against the planktonic cells with log10 reduction values above 9 in the viable count using a concentration of ca. 1.25 μM following 30 min exposure to light (Light dose: 943 J/cm2 for Pcs and 250 mW/cm2 for porphyrins). Whereas, at a concentration of ca. 100 μM the cationic PSs showed complete eradication of biofilms upon 30 min exposure to light. As a result of conjugation to carbon-based nanomaterials and silver nanoparticles, the compounds proved to be more effective as they exhibited stronger antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities on the multi-drug resistant bacteria strains due to synergetic effect, compared to PSs alone. This suggests that the newly prepared nanohybrids (PS concentration ca. 100 μM) could be used as potential antimicrobial agents in the treatment of biofilm-related infections. The target nanoconjugates showed all the advantages of two different groups existing on a single entity. In light of the potential advantages of combined chemotherapy and photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT), this work reports for the first time the use of PACT-ciprofloxacin (CIP) dual therapy using selected indium quaternized PSs which showed higher photoactivity with complete eradication of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria biofilms at concentrations of 8 μM of PS versus 2 μg/mL of the antibiotic following 15 min irradiation time (light dose: 471 J/cm2 for Pcs and fluence: 250 mW/cm2 for porphyrins) on S. aureus. Whereas the total killing of E. coli was obtained when combining 8 or 16 μM of PS combined with 4 μg/mL of CIP. The combined treatment resulted in the complete eradication of the matured biofilms with the highest log10 reduction values of 7.05 and 7.20 on S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Used as a model, positively charged dimethylamino-chalcone Pcs also exhibited interesting photodynamic therapy (PDT) activity against MCF-7 cancer cells giving IC50 values of 17.9 and 7.4 μM, respectively following 15 min irradiation. Additionally, the TD-B3LYP/LanL2DZ calculations were run on the dimethylaminophenyl- porphyrins to compare the singlet excitation energies of quaternized and non-quaternized porphyrins in vacuo. the study shows excellent agreement between time-dependent density- functional theory (TD-DFT) exciting energies and the experimental S1>S0 excitation energies. The small deviation observed between the calculated and experimental spectra arises from the solvent effect. The excitation energies observed in these UV-Vis spectra mostly originated from electron promotion between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) for the less intense band and the HOMO-1 for the most intense band of the ground states to the lower unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the excited states. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Openda, Yolande Ikala
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Phthalocyanines , Porphyrins , Active oxygen , Biofilms , Breast Cancer Treatment , Nanostructured materials , Combination therapy , Photochemotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365945 , vital:65804 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962//365946
- Description: Phthalocyanines (Pcs) and porphyrins bearing substituents that possess antibacterial/anticancer properties are used as photosensitizers (PS) for the first time in the work. For targeting specificity and improved photoactivity, the PSs were afterward functionalized with carbon nanomaterials such as graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs) via covalent conjugation (amide or ester bonds) or by non-covalent conjugation (π-π stacking and electrostatic interactions). Furthermore, the PSs-DNDs nanoconjugates were conjugated to either chitosan-capped silver nanoparticles (CSAg) via amide bonds or to the bare silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using the silver- nitrogen affinity. The as-synthesized nanoconjugates were also fully characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic methods together with thermal analysis. The potential photocytotoxicity of the complexes alone and their nanoconjugates against S. aureus and/or E. coli planktonic and biofilm cultures has been evaluated in vitro. Compared to the non- quaternized PSs, the cationic analogs exhibited a higher photodynamic inactivation against the planktonic cells with log10 reduction values above 9 in the viable count using a concentration of ca. 1.25 μM following 30 min exposure to light (Light dose: 943 J/cm2 for Pcs and 250 mW/cm2 for porphyrins). Whereas, at a concentration of ca. 100 μM the cationic PSs showed complete eradication of biofilms upon 30 min exposure to light. As a result of conjugation to carbon-based nanomaterials and silver nanoparticles, the compounds proved to be more effective as they exhibited stronger antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities on the multi-drug resistant bacteria strains due to synergetic effect, compared to PSs alone. This suggests that the newly prepared nanohybrids (PS concentration ca. 100 μM) could be used as potential antimicrobial agents in the treatment of biofilm-related infections. The target nanoconjugates showed all the advantages of two different groups existing on a single entity. In light of the potential advantages of combined chemotherapy and photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT), this work reports for the first time the use of PACT-ciprofloxacin (CIP) dual therapy using selected indium quaternized PSs which showed higher photoactivity with complete eradication of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria biofilms at concentrations of 8 μM of PS versus 2 μg/mL of the antibiotic following 15 min irradiation time (light dose: 471 J/cm2 for Pcs and fluence: 250 mW/cm2 for porphyrins) on S. aureus. Whereas the total killing of E. coli was obtained when combining 8 or 16 μM of PS combined with 4 μg/mL of CIP. The combined treatment resulted in the complete eradication of the matured biofilms with the highest log10 reduction values of 7.05 and 7.20 on S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Used as a model, positively charged dimethylamino-chalcone Pcs also exhibited interesting photodynamic therapy (PDT) activity against MCF-7 cancer cells giving IC50 values of 17.9 and 7.4 μM, respectively following 15 min irradiation. Additionally, the TD-B3LYP/LanL2DZ calculations were run on the dimethylaminophenyl- porphyrins to compare the singlet excitation energies of quaternized and non-quaternized porphyrins in vacuo. the study shows excellent agreement between time-dependent density- functional theory (TD-DFT) exciting energies and the experimental S1>S0 excitation energies. The small deviation observed between the calculated and experimental spectra arises from the solvent effect. The excitation energies observed in these UV-Vis spectra mostly originated from electron promotion between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) for the less intense band and the HOMO-1 for the most intense band of the ground states to the lower unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the excited states. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2022
- Full Text:
Linking Hop and LANA1 in the KSHV life cycle
- Authors: Ruck, Jamie-Lee
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365291 , vital:65724
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Possible release date set for early 2025. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ruck, Jamie-Lee
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365291 , vital:65724
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Possible release date set for early 2025. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
Mechanistic analysis of two cytotoxic thiazolidinones as novel inhibitors of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- Authors: Vukea, Nyeleti
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365734 , vital:65780
- Description: Thesis embargoes. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vukea, Nyeleti
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365734 , vital:65780
- Description: Thesis embargoes. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
Regulation of Oct4 expression during cell stress
- Authors: Samson, William John
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365712 , vital:65778
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Samson, William John
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/365712 , vital:65778
- Description: Thesis embargoed. Expected release date early 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
The development, formulation and characterization of an optimized metronidazole loaded solid lipid nanoparticle formulation for ocular drug delivery
- Authors: Sikhondze, Simise Siphelele
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/403014 , vital:69914
- Description: Thesis embargoed. To be released early 2026. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Sikhondze, Simise Siphelele
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/403014 , vital:69914
- Description: Thesis embargoed. To be released early 2026. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2023
- Full Text:
The transformative potential of intersecting arts-based inquiry and environmental learning in urban South Africa: a focus on socio-ecological water pedagogies
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
Towards the Common Good: An expansive post-abyssal (Re)stor(y)ing of the epistemic cultures of the citizen sciences
- Authors: Vallabh, Priya
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Science Citizen participation , Decolonization , Social epistemology , Hegemony , Common good , Traditional ecological knowledge , Ethnoscience
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290671 , vital:56773 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290671
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformatiThe citizen sciences convene complex and reflexive ecologies of knowledges in response to a range of social-ecological risks. Their epistemic cultures seem to be assembled in ways which increase potential mobilisation of the common knowledges being produced, thereby producing knowledges in forms that are more strongly aligned with a range of implementation strategies. However, much of such processes of knowledge production have been ‘cleaned out’ of official accounts through scientifically hegemonic systems of legitimation, deepening hegemonically-entrenched systems of epistemic, contributory and distributive injustices, and undermining the potential for stronger enactments of participatory and radical democracies. The engagement of sociologies of absences and emergences in this study evidence these epistemic insights, thereby evidencing an expansive post-abyssal (re)stor(y)ing of the citizen sciences. Through this research, I consider knowledge production as ‘commoning', towards the constitution of the common good. To date, most accounts of knowledge production within citizen science projects primarily focus on scientific processes of knowledge production and legitimation. Such accounts neglect the ecologies of diverse knowledges through which knowledge is being collaboratively produced, the forms of learning that occur, or the ways in which such ecologies are mobilised in response to specific socialecological risks. To better understand the ways in which citizen science projects build risk-responsive common knowledge, I bring a focus to the diversity of epistemic cultures convened, speaking to this gap. My primary research question is: How do the epistemic cultures within citizen science projects enable commoning in response to social-ecological risk? To begin, I establish a particular vantage point from which the remainder of the thesis is launched, one which centres as the primary interest of knowledge production, an interest in social-ecological justice and the constitution of the common good. From this vantage point, knowledge co-production and learning can be viewed as acts of commoning, which themselves constitute common goods. I draw on the work of Karin Knorr Cetina to conceptualise and frame notions of epistemic cultures and their epistemic features. Expanding notions of epistemic cultures from a post-abyssal perspective, I draw on the work of Bruno Latour and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Latour’s distinctions between the production of ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ provide a way to challenge hegemonic systems of scientific knowledge production, while preserving the potential emergence of multiplicity in the context of evolving risk, thereby enabling a greater degree of situated reflexivity. Santos argues for the reclamation of all ways of knowing, including but not limited to scientific ways of knowing the world. He argues that other forms of knowledge are produced as nonexistent, and that they might be reclaimed through engaging sociologies of absences and emergences. Both authors enable a stronger analysis of knowledge production in terms of its ability to intervene into context in response to manifest risks. These three theoretical approaches are convened into an analytical framework for the study. To enact sociologies of absences and emergences, I engage two forms of immanent critique, complemented by an epistemic mapping of 50 South African citizen science projects, and an analysis of three illustrative case studies. The first critique is one of produced nonexistence, through which I consider three aspects of the general knowledge cultures within which the epistemic cultures of citizen science projects are situated. This critique makes evident the ways in which the ontological and related conceptual structures of hegemonic scientific knowledge production actively produce as nonexistent, other onto-epistemic contributions to knowledge production in response to social-ecological risks. The second critique reviews the field of peer-reviewed literature through a reading of presence and absence, with a focus on the articulation of epistemic cultures. Predictably, a key finding is that this form of scientific reporting primarily foregrounds legitimated scientifically processed knowledge, while once again producing as nonexistent, other forms of knowledges. However, there is evidence of increasing accounts of citizen science which recognise both a diversity of knowledge contributions, and epistemic, contributory and distributive justice issues as regards hegemonic forms of reporting. The epistemic mapping evidences a highly diversified field of citizen sciences, whose epistemic cultures are convened to produce distinct forms of scientifically-informed knowledges in response to diverse contexts, scales and notions of risk. The three illustrative case studies engage sociologies of absences and emergences, with particular focus on articulating the ecologies of knowledges evidenced in project documentation, including both official and unofficial accounts of epistemic activity. This analysis highlights the significant contributions of diverse forms of knowledges, including scientific, situated, embodied, governance, indigenous, spiritual and relational knowledges, and the ways in which these knowledge are convened to respond to specific configurations of risk. It once again highlights issues of epistemic, contributory and distributive justice, and makes evident the need for stronger integrity in processes of producing and reporting common knowledges. The case studies also illustrate the increased effectiveness of leveraging an ecology of knowledges (in contrast to a monoculture of scientific knowledge) in response to situated risks, including how such ecologies have a tendency to be generative and enable multiple forms of intervention into structures and applied contexts of intervention. In response to the collective research findings, a think-piece on rigour-as-integrity is offered as a contribution to commoning, in response to social-ecological risk. The piece draws together a postabyssal system of rigour intended to strengthen knowledge production in ways which actively centre forms of justice and commoning. ve potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vallabh, Priya
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Science Citizen participation , Decolonization , Social epistemology , Hegemony , Common good , Traditional ecological knowledge , Ethnoscience
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290671 , vital:56773 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290671
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformatiThe citizen sciences convene complex and reflexive ecologies of knowledges in response to a range of social-ecological risks. Their epistemic cultures seem to be assembled in ways which increase potential mobilisation of the common knowledges being produced, thereby producing knowledges in forms that are more strongly aligned with a range of implementation strategies. However, much of such processes of knowledge production have been ‘cleaned out’ of official accounts through scientifically hegemonic systems of legitimation, deepening hegemonically-entrenched systems of epistemic, contributory and distributive injustices, and undermining the potential for stronger enactments of participatory and radical democracies. The engagement of sociologies of absences and emergences in this study evidence these epistemic insights, thereby evidencing an expansive post-abyssal (re)stor(y)ing of the citizen sciences. Through this research, I consider knowledge production as ‘commoning', towards the constitution of the common good. To date, most accounts of knowledge production within citizen science projects primarily focus on scientific processes of knowledge production and legitimation. Such accounts neglect the ecologies of diverse knowledges through which knowledge is being collaboratively produced, the forms of learning that occur, or the ways in which such ecologies are mobilised in response to specific socialecological risks. To better understand the ways in which citizen science projects build risk-responsive common knowledge, I bring a focus to the diversity of epistemic cultures convened, speaking to this gap. My primary research question is: How do the epistemic cultures within citizen science projects enable commoning in response to social-ecological risk? To begin, I establish a particular vantage point from which the remainder of the thesis is launched, one which centres as the primary interest of knowledge production, an interest in social-ecological justice and the constitution of the common good. From this vantage point, knowledge co-production and learning can be viewed as acts of commoning, which themselves constitute common goods. I draw on the work of Karin Knorr Cetina to conceptualise and frame notions of epistemic cultures and their epistemic features. Expanding notions of epistemic cultures from a post-abyssal perspective, I draw on the work of Bruno Latour and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Latour’s distinctions between the production of ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ provide a way to challenge hegemonic systems of scientific knowledge production, while preserving the potential emergence of multiplicity in the context of evolving risk, thereby enabling a greater degree of situated reflexivity. Santos argues for the reclamation of all ways of knowing, including but not limited to scientific ways of knowing the world. He argues that other forms of knowledge are produced as nonexistent, and that they might be reclaimed through engaging sociologies of absences and emergences. Both authors enable a stronger analysis of knowledge production in terms of its ability to intervene into context in response to manifest risks. These three theoretical approaches are convened into an analytical framework for the study. To enact sociologies of absences and emergences, I engage two forms of immanent critique, complemented by an epistemic mapping of 50 South African citizen science projects, and an analysis of three illustrative case studies. The first critique is one of produced nonexistence, through which I consider three aspects of the general knowledge cultures within which the epistemic cultures of citizen science projects are situated. This critique makes evident the ways in which the ontological and related conceptual structures of hegemonic scientific knowledge production actively produce as nonexistent, other onto-epistemic contributions to knowledge production in response to social-ecological risks. The second critique reviews the field of peer-reviewed literature through a reading of presence and absence, with a focus on the articulation of epistemic cultures. Predictably, a key finding is that this form of scientific reporting primarily foregrounds legitimated scientifically processed knowledge, while once again producing as nonexistent, other forms of knowledges. However, there is evidence of increasing accounts of citizen science which recognise both a diversity of knowledge contributions, and epistemic, contributory and distributive justice issues as regards hegemonic forms of reporting. The epistemic mapping evidences a highly diversified field of citizen sciences, whose epistemic cultures are convened to produce distinct forms of scientifically-informed knowledges in response to diverse contexts, scales and notions of risk. The three illustrative case studies engage sociologies of absences and emergences, with particular focus on articulating the ecologies of knowledges evidenced in project documentation, including both official and unofficial accounts of epistemic activity. This analysis highlights the significant contributions of diverse forms of knowledges, including scientific, situated, embodied, governance, indigenous, spiritual and relational knowledges, and the ways in which these knowledge are convened to respond to specific configurations of risk. It once again highlights issues of epistemic, contributory and distributive justice, and makes evident the need for stronger integrity in processes of producing and reporting common knowledges. The case studies also illustrate the increased effectiveness of leveraging an ecology of knowledges (in contrast to a monoculture of scientific knowledge) in response to situated risks, including how such ecologies have a tendency to be generative and enable multiple forms of intervention into structures and applied contexts of intervention. In response to the collective research findings, a think-piece on rigour-as-integrity is offered as a contribution to commoning, in response to social-ecological risk. The piece draws together a postabyssal system of rigour intended to strengthen knowledge production in ways which actively centre forms of justice and commoning. ve potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
A framework for the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation: case studies from South Africa
- Authors: Browne, Michelle
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Wetland restoration South Africa , Wetland management South Africa , Ecosystem management South Africa , Ecosystem services South Africa , Ecosystem management Economic aspects South Africa , Wetland restoration Cost effectiveness South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263560 , vital:53638 , DOI 10.21504/10962/263561
- Description: Wetlands are recognised as having the potential to contribute long-term benefits to society; wetland rehabilitation is undertaken to recover these benefits in response to widespread wetland degradation. Increasingly, there have been calls to value the benefits of wetland rehabilitation to justify further investment. Such is the case in South Africa. Furthermore, recent global agendas and targets for ecosystem restoration, such as the declaration of the Decade of Restoration 2021-2030, suggest increasing pressure on governments to implement rehabilitation and imply a concomitant increase in decision-making regarding where and how to rehabilitate. In response to these information needs, this thesis explores the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation through a narrative review of the foundational theory of values and valuation, a quantitative review of applied wetland rehabilitation economic valuation studies, and the evaluation of five wetland rehabilitation projects from South Africa. Projects were selected as case studies to represent various rehabilitation goals and explore different contexts (urban-rural; beneficiary groups), the timing of the evaluation (ex ante, ex post) and value types and valuation methods. The final chapter of the thesis integrates the case study experiences with the findings of the theoretical research components to propose a framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilitation, which can be applied in South Africa, and more generally, to further demonstrate the values of wetland rehabilitation, and as a tool to guide wetland rehabilitation decision-making. While initially grounded in mainstream economics, the research led into a number of fields including philosophy, social-ecological systems and social-ecological relations thinking, several environmental science areas and livelihood and human well-being frameworks. A deeper look into economic theory and history revealed an evolution of thinking on the meaning of ‘value’ and view of ‘nature’ and numerous critiques of standard neoclassical economics. From the insights gained and the case study experiences, this thesis argues that the neoclassical economic perspective, especially combined with a monetary metric, is too restrictive, and arguably too abstract in its assumptions of human behaviour and reliance on mathematical models, as an overarching framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilition. This is not to suggest that standard economic valuation concepts and methods cannot be useful, as the research case studies illustrated, but rather that wetland valuation must be approached from a value pluralism perspective. To this end, the proposed framework offers a way to think beyond, or in addition to, standard economic approaches in articulating the values of wetland rehabilitation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Browne, Michelle
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Wetland restoration South Africa , Wetland management South Africa , Ecosystem management South Africa , Ecosystem services South Africa , Ecosystem management Economic aspects South Africa , Wetland restoration Cost effectiveness South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263560 , vital:53638 , DOI 10.21504/10962/263561
- Description: Wetlands are recognised as having the potential to contribute long-term benefits to society; wetland rehabilitation is undertaken to recover these benefits in response to widespread wetland degradation. Increasingly, there have been calls to value the benefits of wetland rehabilitation to justify further investment. Such is the case in South Africa. Furthermore, recent global agendas and targets for ecosystem restoration, such as the declaration of the Decade of Restoration 2021-2030, suggest increasing pressure on governments to implement rehabilitation and imply a concomitant increase in decision-making regarding where and how to rehabilitate. In response to these information needs, this thesis explores the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation through a narrative review of the foundational theory of values and valuation, a quantitative review of applied wetland rehabilitation economic valuation studies, and the evaluation of five wetland rehabilitation projects from South Africa. Projects were selected as case studies to represent various rehabilitation goals and explore different contexts (urban-rural; beneficiary groups), the timing of the evaluation (ex ante, ex post) and value types and valuation methods. The final chapter of the thesis integrates the case study experiences with the findings of the theoretical research components to propose a framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilitation, which can be applied in South Africa, and more generally, to further demonstrate the values of wetland rehabilitation, and as a tool to guide wetland rehabilitation decision-making. While initially grounded in mainstream economics, the research led into a number of fields including philosophy, social-ecological systems and social-ecological relations thinking, several environmental science areas and livelihood and human well-being frameworks. A deeper look into economic theory and history revealed an evolution of thinking on the meaning of ‘value’ and view of ‘nature’ and numerous critiques of standard neoclassical economics. From the insights gained and the case study experiences, this thesis argues that the neoclassical economic perspective, especially combined with a monetary metric, is too restrictive, and arguably too abstract in its assumptions of human behaviour and reliance on mathematical models, as an overarching framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilition. This is not to suggest that standard economic valuation concepts and methods cannot be useful, as the research case studies illustrated, but rather that wetland valuation must be approached from a value pluralism perspective. To this end, the proposed framework offers a way to think beyond, or in addition to, standard economic approaches in articulating the values of wetland rehabilitation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
A retrospective study of antimicrobial prescribing practices in paediatric patients at the Mahalapye District Hospital, Central Botswana
- Authors: Nyawera, Angella
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Anti-infective agents Botswana Mahalapye , Drug resistance , Pediatrics Botswana Mahalapye , Pediatrics Formulae, receipts, prescriptions , Drugs Prescribing Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290682 , vital:56774
- Description: Background: The development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been linked to the increased and irrational use of antimicrobial medicines. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial prescribing practices in the paediatric medical ward at Mahalapye District Hospital (MDH) in Botswana and to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were being implemented at the hospital. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed methods, observational approach was taken in this study. The study site was the paediatric medical ward (PMW) at MDH. Information about the antimicrobials prescribed for paediatric patients from January 2018 to December 2018 was collected from patients’ information files and compared to national antimicrobial prescribing guidelines to determine prescribers’ adherence. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of staff at MDH to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were adopted at the hospital. Results A total of 278 patients were included in this study, 12 of these were admitted twice during the study period. In total 290 admissions were analysed, with 659 antimicrobial medicines prescribed. The most common diagnoses were pneumonia (36.9%), acute gastroenteritis (20.7%), upper respiratory tract infections (3.4%), and bronchiolitis (3.1%). The most prescribed antimicrobials were ampicillin (21.4%), gentamicin (21.2%), and cefotaxime (8.3%). Adherence to guidelines was relatively good, with 82.7% of antimicrobials prescribed for the patients in the study having been prescribed in compliance with the national prescribing guidelines. The semi-structured interviews highlighted the fact that staff knew about AMS and AMR in general, however awareness of an AMS committee at MDH varied. The AMS committee was a multidisciplinary committee, which was a subcommittee of the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee (DTC). Discussion and Conclusion The results suggest that adherence to prescribing guidelines was relatively high compared to other paediatric antimicrobial utilisation studies in African countries. Prescribing of antimicrobial medicines was consistent with other African countries. The long period of time that it takes for microbiological test results to become available means that most prescribers rely on empirical prescribing. The antimicrobial committee is a multidisciplinary committee with defined roles for its members, consistent with international guidelines for implementing an AMS committee at a hospital. , Thesis (MPharm) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nyawera, Angella
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Anti-infective agents Botswana Mahalapye , Drug resistance , Pediatrics Botswana Mahalapye , Pediatrics Formulae, receipts, prescriptions , Drugs Prescribing Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290682 , vital:56774
- Description: Background: The development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been linked to the increased and irrational use of antimicrobial medicines. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial prescribing practices in the paediatric medical ward at Mahalapye District Hospital (MDH) in Botswana and to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were being implemented at the hospital. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed methods, observational approach was taken in this study. The study site was the paediatric medical ward (PMW) at MDH. Information about the antimicrobials prescribed for paediatric patients from January 2018 to December 2018 was collected from patients’ information files and compared to national antimicrobial prescribing guidelines to determine prescribers’ adherence. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of staff at MDH to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were adopted at the hospital. Results A total of 278 patients were included in this study, 12 of these were admitted twice during the study period. In total 290 admissions were analysed, with 659 antimicrobial medicines prescribed. The most common diagnoses were pneumonia (36.9%), acute gastroenteritis (20.7%), upper respiratory tract infections (3.4%), and bronchiolitis (3.1%). The most prescribed antimicrobials were ampicillin (21.4%), gentamicin (21.2%), and cefotaxime (8.3%). Adherence to guidelines was relatively good, with 82.7% of antimicrobials prescribed for the patients in the study having been prescribed in compliance with the national prescribing guidelines. The semi-structured interviews highlighted the fact that staff knew about AMS and AMR in general, however awareness of an AMS committee at MDH varied. The AMS committee was a multidisciplinary committee, which was a subcommittee of the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee (DTC). Discussion and Conclusion The results suggest that adherence to prescribing guidelines was relatively high compared to other paediatric antimicrobial utilisation studies in African countries. Prescribing of antimicrobial medicines was consistent with other African countries. The long period of time that it takes for microbiological test results to become available means that most prescribers rely on empirical prescribing. The antimicrobial committee is a multidisciplinary committee with defined roles for its members, consistent with international guidelines for implementing an AMS committee at a hospital. , Thesis (MPharm) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2022
- Full Text:
Stock market volatility during times of crisis: a comparative analysis of the conditional volatilities of JSE stock indices during the 2007/08 global financial crisis and COVID-19
- Authors: Wang, Zixiao
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Stock exchanges , Johannesburg Stock Exchange , Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009 , COVID-19 (Disease) Economic aspects , Economic forecasting , Stock exchanges and current events , GARCH model
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/284603 , vital:56078
- Description: This research analyses the comparative behaviour of stock market volatility during two crises. The goal of this research is to determine whether assumed cyclical and defensive sectors have either retained or revealed their expected properties during both the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 by analysing sectoral volatility amid these two crises. Understanding how volatility changes amid crises helps to determine whether the volatility assumptions of diversified investment portfolios for both defensive and cyclical sectors still held given the different causes of each crisis. In turn, this knowledge can assist with risk management and portfolio allocation in stock market investments. The study can also contribute towards the enhancement of financial markets’ resistance against systemic risks through portfolio diversification, and aid government decision-making targeted at tackling the weaknesses of different economic sectors especially in times of overall economic weakness. This research makes use of the GARCH model to analyse a group of daily time series that consists of eleven sectoral indices and one benchmark index, all based on the South African stock markets. These observed series are categorised into two full sample periods, one designated to the Global Financial Crisis (January 2006 to May 2009) and the other for COVID-19 (January 2018 to May 2021). These are further divided into two sets of sub-sample periods, each made up of a pre-crisis and during-crisis. Furthermore, the dummy variables representing the occurrence of structural breaks are inserted into the full sample periods’ conditional variance equations. This is aimed at capturing the asymmetrical impact of the crises themselves on all observed series. Based on the movement of volatility persistency from pre-crisis to during-crisis for both crises, the results show that, firstly, Health Care and Consumer Goods are considered defensive Sectors. Secondly, Banks, Basic Materials, Chemicals, Telecommunications, and Financials are considered cyclical Sectors. Thirdly, Automobiles & Parts, Consumer Services, and Technology are considered indeterminable Sectors due to the inconsistent behaviour of these sectors’ volatility persistency throughout the sub-sample periods of both crises. Overall, according to the average volatility persistency, the observed series for COVID-19’s full sample period are generally less volatile than those of the GFC. However, the sub-sample periods suggest that the observed series for both pre-crisis and during-crisis periods of COVID-19 are more volatile than those same sub-samples of the Global Financial Crisis. Being able to analyse the characteristics of stock market sectors is crucial for risk management and optimal portfolio allocation of stock market investments. This can be achieved through portfolio diversification by investing in a variety of stocks, both cyclical and defensive, and adjusted over time based the needs of stock market investors. Diversified portfolios do not only serve the interests of individual investors, but can also enhance the financial markets’ overall resistance against systemic risks. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wang, Zixiao
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Stock exchanges , Johannesburg Stock Exchange , Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009 , COVID-19 (Disease) Economic aspects , Economic forecasting , Stock exchanges and current events , GARCH model
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/284603 , vital:56078
- Description: This research analyses the comparative behaviour of stock market volatility during two crises. The goal of this research is to determine whether assumed cyclical and defensive sectors have either retained or revealed their expected properties during both the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 by analysing sectoral volatility amid these two crises. Understanding how volatility changes amid crises helps to determine whether the volatility assumptions of diversified investment portfolios for both defensive and cyclical sectors still held given the different causes of each crisis. In turn, this knowledge can assist with risk management and portfolio allocation in stock market investments. The study can also contribute towards the enhancement of financial markets’ resistance against systemic risks through portfolio diversification, and aid government decision-making targeted at tackling the weaknesses of different economic sectors especially in times of overall economic weakness. This research makes use of the GARCH model to analyse a group of daily time series that consists of eleven sectoral indices and one benchmark index, all based on the South African stock markets. These observed series are categorised into two full sample periods, one designated to the Global Financial Crisis (January 2006 to May 2009) and the other for COVID-19 (January 2018 to May 2021). These are further divided into two sets of sub-sample periods, each made up of a pre-crisis and during-crisis. Furthermore, the dummy variables representing the occurrence of structural breaks are inserted into the full sample periods’ conditional variance equations. This is aimed at capturing the asymmetrical impact of the crises themselves on all observed series. Based on the movement of volatility persistency from pre-crisis to during-crisis for both crises, the results show that, firstly, Health Care and Consumer Goods are considered defensive Sectors. Secondly, Banks, Basic Materials, Chemicals, Telecommunications, and Financials are considered cyclical Sectors. Thirdly, Automobiles & Parts, Consumer Services, and Technology are considered indeterminable Sectors due to the inconsistent behaviour of these sectors’ volatility persistency throughout the sub-sample periods of both crises. Overall, according to the average volatility persistency, the observed series for COVID-19’s full sample period are generally less volatile than those of the GFC. However, the sub-sample periods suggest that the observed series for both pre-crisis and during-crisis periods of COVID-19 are more volatile than those same sub-samples of the Global Financial Crisis. Being able to analyse the characteristics of stock market sectors is crucial for risk management and optimal portfolio allocation of stock market investments. This can be achieved through portfolio diversification by investing in a variety of stocks, both cyclical and defensive, and adjusted over time based the needs of stock market investors. Diversified portfolios do not only serve the interests of individual investors, but can also enhance the financial markets’ overall resistance against systemic risks. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
The impact of urban gardening on household food security: evidence from Makhanda East, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Bruwer, Guillaume Marcel Xavier
- Authors: Bruwer, Guillaume Marcel Xavier
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Food security South Africa Makhanda , Urban agriculture South Africa Makhanda , Urban gardening South Africa Makhanda , Sustainable development South Africa Makhanda , South Africa Economic conditions , Subsistence farming South Africa Makhanda , Economic impact analysis South Africa Makhanda , Propensity Score Matching (PSM)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263575 , vital:53640
- Description: Urban gardening in townships is a common coping strategy employed by poor inhabitants to improve food security, earn income through sales, and generate cost-savings through home consumption of fresh produce. Food security is a cornerstone of human development and welfare, and the achievement thereof remains a global challenge. The majority of academic research and policy documentation traditionally positions food insecurity as a rural phenomenon. However, recent trends point to an increase in food insecurity in urban areas, particularly in low-income areas such as townships. In South Africa, rapid urbanization has led to burgeoning townships and rapidly expanding low-income informal settlements characterised by poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity. Research concerned with the role that urban agricultural production plays in contributing to the food security of poor households is scarce and not well understood. This research, therefore, aimed to contribute to the limited research which specifically examines urban food security, and the role urban agriculture play in the achievement of household food security. The study employed collective action theory and utility theory to firstly provides an in-depth examination of the determinants of participation in urban gardening using Probit regression modeling. The second research objective was to perform an impact evaluation of participation in urban gardening on selected household food security indicators including Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS), the Household Hunger Scale (HHS) and the Coping Strategy Index (CSI) using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to obtain a sample of 60 urban gardeners and a control group of 55 non-gardening households from Extension 6, 7 and 10 townships as well as Joza Location in Makhanda East, Eastern Cape Province. Households were surveyed using a structured household food security questionnaire. A focus group discussion was held with the Linomtha Community Garden members and key informant interviews were undertaken with important stakeholders such as the local extension officers. Descriptive analysis revealed that urban gardening households (UGs) had older household heads who were less educated, and that land and water availability were the dominant constraints to increases in agricultural production. Results from the probit and average marginal effects models showed that the likelihood of participation significantly increased when household unemployment and dependency increased and that households who were engaged in off-farm economic activity were more likely to participate in urban gardening. The impact evaluation was performed using PSM and Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT). Analysis illustrated that participation in urban gardening does significantly reduce both the full CSI and Reduced CSI. Thus, participation in urban gardening improves the food security of participating households by significantly reducing the frequency of participating households (UGs) applying undesirable coping strategies such as sending children elsewhere other than the household, borrowing food from other households and reducing the number of meals eaten in a day due to food shortages. This study posits that urban gardening alone will not eradicate the rampant food insecurity and poverty which pervades in South Africa’s townships. However, urban gardening participation does contribute to the construction of a sustainable, urban livelihood by reducing the number and severity of the undesirable coping strategies that food insecure households employ by providing some nutritious produce as well improved social capital through gardening networks and supporting institutions. It is recommended that policy makers, at a national and municipal level, need to create a clearer directive for the integration of urban food production into the urban food marketplace thus increasing access to income generating channels for small-scale home, and community gardeners. Co-operation between private and public institutions for food security and urban gardeners needs to be fostered and awareness of opportunities to participate in urban gardens needs to be improved. Central to the developmental challenges that rapid increases in urbanization and food insecurity in poor urban areas, is the need for national and local governments to improve access to economic opportunities in township areas - both in urban agriculture and in other, skills intensive sectors. , Thesis (MEcon) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Bruwer, Guillaume Marcel Xavier
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Food security South Africa Makhanda , Urban agriculture South Africa Makhanda , Urban gardening South Africa Makhanda , Sustainable development South Africa Makhanda , South Africa Economic conditions , Subsistence farming South Africa Makhanda , Economic impact analysis South Africa Makhanda , Propensity Score Matching (PSM)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263575 , vital:53640
- Description: Urban gardening in townships is a common coping strategy employed by poor inhabitants to improve food security, earn income through sales, and generate cost-savings through home consumption of fresh produce. Food security is a cornerstone of human development and welfare, and the achievement thereof remains a global challenge. The majority of academic research and policy documentation traditionally positions food insecurity as a rural phenomenon. However, recent trends point to an increase in food insecurity in urban areas, particularly in low-income areas such as townships. In South Africa, rapid urbanization has led to burgeoning townships and rapidly expanding low-income informal settlements characterised by poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity. Research concerned with the role that urban agricultural production plays in contributing to the food security of poor households is scarce and not well understood. This research, therefore, aimed to contribute to the limited research which specifically examines urban food security, and the role urban agriculture play in the achievement of household food security. The study employed collective action theory and utility theory to firstly provides an in-depth examination of the determinants of participation in urban gardening using Probit regression modeling. The second research objective was to perform an impact evaluation of participation in urban gardening on selected household food security indicators including Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS), the Household Hunger Scale (HHS) and the Coping Strategy Index (CSI) using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to obtain a sample of 60 urban gardeners and a control group of 55 non-gardening households from Extension 6, 7 and 10 townships as well as Joza Location in Makhanda East, Eastern Cape Province. Households were surveyed using a structured household food security questionnaire. A focus group discussion was held with the Linomtha Community Garden members and key informant interviews were undertaken with important stakeholders such as the local extension officers. Descriptive analysis revealed that urban gardening households (UGs) had older household heads who were less educated, and that land and water availability were the dominant constraints to increases in agricultural production. Results from the probit and average marginal effects models showed that the likelihood of participation significantly increased when household unemployment and dependency increased and that households who were engaged in off-farm economic activity were more likely to participate in urban gardening. The impact evaluation was performed using PSM and Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT). Analysis illustrated that participation in urban gardening does significantly reduce both the full CSI and Reduced CSI. Thus, participation in urban gardening improves the food security of participating households by significantly reducing the frequency of participating households (UGs) applying undesirable coping strategies such as sending children elsewhere other than the household, borrowing food from other households and reducing the number of meals eaten in a day due to food shortages. This study posits that urban gardening alone will not eradicate the rampant food insecurity and poverty which pervades in South Africa’s townships. However, urban gardening participation does contribute to the construction of a sustainable, urban livelihood by reducing the number and severity of the undesirable coping strategies that food insecure households employ by providing some nutritious produce as well improved social capital through gardening networks and supporting institutions. It is recommended that policy makers, at a national and municipal level, need to create a clearer directive for the integration of urban food production into the urban food marketplace thus increasing access to income generating channels for small-scale home, and community gardeners. Co-operation between private and public institutions for food security and urban gardeners needs to be fostered and awareness of opportunities to participate in urban gardens needs to be improved. Central to the developmental challenges that rapid increases in urbanization and food insecurity in poor urban areas, is the need for national and local governments to improve access to economic opportunities in township areas - both in urban agriculture and in other, skills intensive sectors. , Thesis (MEcon) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
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