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"A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy

"A lean-led-evaluation" of infrastructure development improvement programme in South Africa

  • Authors: Monyane, Thabiso Godfrey
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Construction industry -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/44535 , vital:38131
  • Description: A doctoral study was embarked upon with the intentions of addressing cost management problems encountered on Infrastructure Delivery Projects in South Africa. Given that poor cost performance constitute hindrance to the realization of project goals, it is imperative to eliminate it from project delivery. The prevalence of cost overrun in public sector projects is a call to all stakeholders to address cost management issues in the construction industry. The predominance of cost overruns in public sector construction projects in South Africa has been observed. With the decline of the current economic conditions in South Africa, project performance is a great concern that needs attention. In addition, ineffective initiatives to curb the abuse of the procurement processes are directly affecting the outcomes of construction projects, and if these status quo remains, the sector will continue to have a bad image and continued waste of taxpayers’ money will not cease until the public sector remove non-value adding activities in their operations. Study adopted a mixed methods designed that collected both textual and statistical data. Semistructured interviews were undertaken to determine the outcomes of current project management practices in South Africa. In terms of performance of projects, the status quo paints a disconsolate picture. Findings reveal protracted processes, and the use of unqualified and inexperienced contribute to poor performance of public sector projects. Poor performance continues to dominate the construction sector, especially in the public sector. Interviews data were contrasted with evidence from project-related documents. Based on the data, the study produces a vignette of existing cost management frameworks applied to such projects. Encompassing various stages of the project delivery lifecycle, this vignette will enable an identification of the challenges afflicting cost management on projects. Accordingly, this study identified Lean opportunities from existing cost management practices. Such opportunities will enable identification of effective cost management during project delivery. There appears a need for collaborative cost management practices. Lean tools mentioned for improvement include the 5Whys, the big room, target value design, and the integration of design and construction. A collaborative cost management framework was developed through relevant theories to improve the cost management process of public sector projects.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

"Abject dictatorship of the flesh" : corporeality in the fiction of Patrick White

"But what story?": a narrative-discursive analysis of "white" Afrikaners' accounts of male involvement in parenthood decision-making

  • Authors: Morison, Tracy
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Family planning -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects Family size Birth intervals Men -- South Africa -- Attitudes Men -- South Africa -- Psychology Couples -- South Africa -- Psychology Afrikaners -- Attitudes
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3025 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002534
  • Description: Despite the increased focus on men in reproductive research, little is known about male involvement in the initial decision/s regarding parenthood (i.e., to become a parent or not) and the subsequent decision-making that may ensue (e.g., choices about timing or spacing of births). In particular, the parenthood decision-making of “White”, heterosexual men from the middle class has been understudied, as indicated in the existing literature. In South Africa, this oversight has been exacerbated by the tendency for researchers to concentrate on “problematic” men, to the exclusion of the “boring, normal case”. I argue that this silence in the literature is a result of the taken for granted nature of parenthood in the “normal” heterosexual life course. In this study, I have turned the spotlight onto the norm of “Whiteness” and heterosexuality by studying those who have previously been overlooked by researchers. I focus on “White” Afrikaans men’s involvement in parenthood decision-making. My aim was to explore how constructions of gender inform male involvement in decision-making, especially within the South African context where social transformation has challenged traditional conceptions of male selfhood giving rise to new and contested masculine identities and new discourses of manhood and fatherhood. In an effort to ensure that women’s voices are not marginalised in the research, as is often the case in studies of men and masculinity, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews about male involvement in decision-making with both “White” Afrikaans women and men. There were 23 participants in total, who all identified as heterosexual and middle-class. The participants were divided into two age cohorts (21 – 30 years and >40 years), which were then differentiated according to gender, reproductive status, and relationship status. Treating the interviews as jointly produced narratives, I analysed them by means of a performativity/performance lens. This dual analytic lens focuses on how particular narrative performances are simultaneously shaped by the interview setting and the broader discursive context. The lens was fashioned by synthesising Butler’s theory of performativity with Taylor’s narrative-discursive method. This synthesis (1) allows for Butler’s notion of “performativity” to be supplemented with that of “performance”; (2) provides a concrete analytical strategy in the form of positioning analysis; and (3) draws attention to both the micro politics of the interview conversation and the operation of power on the macro level, including the possibility of making “gender trouble”. The findings of the study suggest that the participants experienced difficulty narrating about male involvement in parenthood decision-making, owing to the taken for granted nature of parenthood for heterosexual adults. This was evident in participants’ sidelining of issues of “deciding” and “planning” and their alternate construal of childbearing as a non-choice, which, significantly served to bolster hetero-patriarchal norms. A central rhetorical tool for accomplishing these purposes was found in the construction of the “sacralised” child. In discursively manoeuvring around the central problematic, the participants ultimately produced a “silence” in the data that repeats the one in the research literature.
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  • Date Issued: 2011

"Complexes of carbohydrates with magnesium-ions" : "the isolation of an oligosaccharide containing L-galactose from the polysaccharide of Aeodes orbitosa" : "horizontal cellulose colum chromatography of sugars"

  • Authors: Van der Linde, Michael John
  • Date: 1974
  • Subjects: Magenesium , Ions , Carbohydrates , Oligosaccharides , Polysaccharides , Chromatographic analysis
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:4504 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013282
  • Description: Sugar complexes with anions and cations are reviewed. Evidence is presented for the formation of a complex of stoichiometry 1:1 in aqueous solution between methyl-α-Dglucopyranoside and magnesium perchlorate. The complex may be detected by the method of continuous variations. Measurements of changes in the proton chemical shifts of the glucoside in dauterium oxide, indicate that the complex is probably formed between the vicinal hydroxyl groups at C-2 and C-3 of the pyranoside ring and the hydrated cation. At elevation temperatures there is evidence for the presence of a complex of stoichiometry 2:1. Experiments conducted on cellulose indicate the possible formation of cellulose - magnesium-ion complexes . These complexes provide an explanation for the "protective action" of mEgnesium compounds on the cellulose portion of pulp during alkali-oxygen bleaching.
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  • Date Issued: 1974

"Glory is temporary, brain injury may be forever" : a neuropsychological study on the cumulative effects of sports-related concussive brain injury amongst Grade 12 school boy athletes

  • Authors: Whitefield, Victoria Jane
  • Date: 2007
  • Subjects: Sports injuries Sports injuries -- Psychological aspects Brain damage Brain -- Concussion Neuropsychological tests Head -- Wounds and injuries -- Complications Head -- Wounds and injuries
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DSc
  • Identifier: vital:3104 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004471
  • Description: The study investigated the long-term neuropsychological effects of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) due to participation in a contact sport amongst South African final year male high school athletes (N=189). The sample was divided by sports affiliation (Contact n = 115; Non-Contact n = 74) and concussion history (2+ Concussion n = 43; 0 Concussion n = 108). Comparative subgroups were statistically equivalent for age, education and estimated IQ (P > 0.05), with the Contact sport groups having markedly higher incidences of concussion than controls (p < 0.000). Measures included the ImPACT Verbal and Visual Memory, Visuomotor Speed and Reaction Time Composites, Digit Symbol Substitution and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall (immediate and delayed), the ImPACT Symptom Scale and a Post-concussion Symptom (PCS) questionnaire. Independent t-tests on cognitive measures at pre-and post-season revealed a predominant trend of Contact and 2+ Concussion groups performing worse, although only ImPACT Reaction Time at pre-season reached significance (p = 0.014). PCS comparisons revealed an overwhelming tendency of enhanced symptoms for Contact and 2+ Concussion groups with total scores being significantly different in most instances at pre-and post-season. Fatigue and aggression were the symptoms most pervasively high for the Contact and 2+ Concussion groups. Dependent t-test analyses at pre- versus post-season, revealed significant practice effects for the Contact group, not in evidence for controls on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall-Delayed. Overall the results imply the possible presence of lingering neurocognitive and symptomatic concussion sequelae amongst South African final year high school participants of a contact sport. The indications gain potency when understood against the background of (i) Brain Reserve Capacity threshold theory, and (ii) the known risk of Type II error in group MTBI research, that might result in under-emphasis of subtle effects and miscalculation of cost-benefit risks. Clinical implications, and the need for prospective case-based research to ratify the results of this predominantly cross-sectional study, are discussed.
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  • Date Issued: 2007

"I felt that I deserved it" : an Investigation into HIV-related PTSD, traumatic life events, and the personal experiences of living with HIV : a mixed-method study

  • Authors: Boulind, Melissa Jane
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Psychological aspects -- Research -- South Africa -- Kwazulu HIV infections -- Psychological aspects -- Research -- South Africa -- Kwazulu HIV-positive persons -- South Africa -- Kwazulu -- Interviews Psychic trauma -- Research Stress (Psychology) -- Research
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3211 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012172
  • Description: There appears to be a growing body of literature focusing on PTSD and HIV-related PTSD (the diagnosis of HIV being the significant traumatic event) amongst HIV-positive samples, but only a few African studies that attempt to estimate the prevalence of PTSD amongst HIV-positive people, and even fewer that attempt to estimate the prevalence of HIV-related PTSD. The systemic review presented in this study is currently fully inclusive and is the most up-to-date available. Estimates of the prevalence of PTSD and HIV-related PTSD in South Africa range from 0.7 to 54.1% and, 4.2 to 40% respectively. The current cross-sectional study made use of a mixed-method approach to investigate traumatic life events, PTSD and HIV-related PTSD within a primary health-care centre in KwaZulu-Natal. The quantitative sample consisted of 159 adults (18-50 years) who were compliant on ARV medication. Using the CIDI-PTSD module, the adapted CIDI-PTSD module for HIV, and IES-R, findings indicated that 62% had reported some kind of traumatic event in their lifetime, with 29.6% of participants meeting the criteria for lifetime PTSD, and 40.9% meeting the criteria for lifetime HIV-related PTSD. Altogether, 57.9% of individuals met the criteria for some form of PTSD (either regular PTSD or HIV-related PTSD), and 12.6% met the criteria for both PTSD and HIV-related PTSD. Of the different categories of traumatic events, interpersonal violence has the highest rate of PTSD, followed by a diagnosis of and living with HIV, and then disaster. Furthermore, the IES-R was compared for its usefulness as a screening measure for PTSD against both the CIDI, but results suggest that it is an inferior screening measure to the PDS. The qualitative study consisted of six participants who were examined using IPA methodology informed by the Ehlers and Clark (2000) Model of trauma. Their experiences revealed experiences of stigma, a number of negative appraisals, negative emotions and coping behaviours. Some of the latter might serve as compensatory mechanisms to avoid negative judgements. Hypervigilance seems to be a feature of ARV-compliance that might confer added vulnerability to PTSD and other anxiety disorders.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

"On se Débrouille": Congolese migrants' search for survival and success in Muizenberg, Cape Town

  • Authors: Owen, Joy N
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Foreign workers, Congolese -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Muizenberg Social capital (Sociology) Immigrants -- Social networks -- South Africa -- Muizenberg South Africa -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:2094 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002657
  • Description: Situated in a Congolese transnational 'community' in Muizenberg, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, the thesis focuses on the lives of three middle class Congolese male informants. Their contingent acquaintance with a South African white Christian man gave them access to valuable social capital; social capital that positioned them advantageously to date and eventually marry European white women and thereby further their culturally-defmed economic/material career goals. To demonstrate the socio-economic trajectory of the three, I compare their social positioning with other Congolese men and women resident in Muizenberg. I show how these men and women, like my three main informants, activate their Congolese 'habitus' to secure access to social networks and the social capital therein. The difference between these Congolese men and women and my three main informants, however, is their strategic use of contingency, and the instrumental capitalisation of their cultural capital through the creation of a client-patron relationship with a South African in order to further their life goals. The thesis reorientates the migration literature on African migration from a focus on the implications of migrant remittances to the home country, to a focus on individual migrants' agency in the host country and the cultural influence of the society of origin. While I acknowledge that my research participants are part of a transnational social field, the focus on one locality and the relatively longitudinal approach of the study grounds the analysis both in the day-to-day lives of these migrants and in their migrant careers in and beyond Muizenberg and South Africa. With this orientation, the thesis is able to reveal that some Congolese migrants are comfortable to create a holding place for themselves in South Africa, while others - ever aware of the Congolese ambition to travel overseas - migrate beyond South African borders. For these Congolese migrants, South Africa is then a transit space. Fundamentally, all of my research participants give expression to Mobutu's edict of on se debrouille (literally, 'one fends for oneself), but some are more able to achieve the ultimate aspiration of settling in the First World -lola.
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  • Date Issued: 2011

"Speak American"! or language, power and education in Dearborn, Michigan: a case study of Arabic heritage learners and their community

  • Authors: Ayouby, Kenneth Kahtan
  • Date: 2004
  • Subjects: Arabic language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Michigan -- Dearborn , Education and language -- Michigan -- Dearborn
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
  • Identifier: vital:11015 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/369 , Arabic language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Michigan -- Dearborn , Education and language -- Michigan -- Dearborn
  • Description: This study examines the history and development of the “Arabic as a foreign language” (AFL) programme in Dearborn Public Schools (in Michigan, the United States) in its socio-cultural and political context. More specifically, this study examines the significance of Arabic to the Arab immigrant and ethnic community in Dearborn in particular, but with reference to meanings generated and associated to Arabic by non- Arabs in the same locale. Although this study addresses questions similar to research conducted on Arab Americans in light of anthropological and sociological theoretical constructs, it is, however, unique in examining education and Arabic pedagogy in Dearborn from an Arab American studies and an educational multi-cultural perspective, predicated on/and drawing from Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, Paulo Freire’s ideas about education, and Henry Giroux’s concern with critical pedagogy. In the American mindscape, the "East" has been the theatre of the exotic, the setting of the Other from colonial times to the present. The Arab and Muslim East have been constructed to represent an opposite of American culture, values and life. Through the agency of conflation, Arab (and Muslim) Americans are accordingly lumped together with people from abroad, making for their status as permanent outsiders. Thus, if the American Self represents an ideal, the inhabitants of this oppositional world of Arabs and Islam (an Anti-world) represent an Anti-self. A source of fear and object of hate and prejudice, this Anti-self is the object of derision and anything connected with it (e.g. language, customs, religion, etc.) becomes suspect and is devalued by association. This document has two objectives: First, to present an historical account of this context, and, secondly, to shed light on how and why things that are associated with Arab Americans in Dearborn are devalued. This is achieved by addressing the developments of meanings (of actions and symbols) in their American context, and how they have shaped (and still shape) the local culture's depiction of and understanding of Arab (and Muslim) Americans. Therefore, Arab American issues of language, culture and societal interactions should be understood as constituting a stream of American life, which represent a dimension of the total American experience, past and present, that is best understood through the paradigm of American studies. Viewing this experience as a cultural whole rather than as a series of unrelated fragments (e.g. immigration waves and settlement patterns, religious and state affiliations, assimilation and preservation debates), Arab American culture and issues begin to shine through as an organic and holistic experience whose characteristics are shared with other groups, suggesting research on this community is equally generalisable to others. ii As an academic work, this document promotes an understanding of the Arab American experience from an interdisciplinary point of view through focusing on the phenomenon of language in the community with emphasis placed on the AFL experience at school. Therefore, it is a broadly-framed outlook that permits, in an introductory way, a view of the richness of the Arab American experience, particularly in Dearborn, Michigan, as part of the American experience. Data were collected using two surveys, one for AFL students at a high school, and another was administered to adults in the community—in Dearborn. In addition, an action-research-based effort, individual personal interviews and focus groups were conducted with stakeholders in the community: parents/community members, teachers/school personnel and students, utilising personal involvement in understanding and analysing the data. Also, the study referred to archival and documentary evidence available in the school system. Four hypotheses regarding importance/significance and utility of Arabic were offered and tested by means of qualitative, interpretive analysis. Findings included: (1) Arab Americans valued Arabic as an emblem of their community in Dearborn, suggesting its employment as an indicator of political empowerment. (2) Conversely, in the non-Arab community Arabic was observed as a mark of the Other, and an artefact of ethnic retrenchment and rejection of assimilation. (3) Interestingly, however, development of English language competence emerged as a major concern in the community, outweighing Arabic language preservation. (4) While, language maintenance efforts in the community were observed as minimal, especially at the organisational level, and support for such programmes was marginal to nil. (5) Additionally, Arabic, while not the object of a desire to master as a medium of communication, was observed to signify a special symbol of heritage for Arab American youth in the Dearborn community, who may have rejected their parents’ ideas about learning Arabic, but had developed their own. (6) What is more, Arab American youth were observed developing a viable hybridised identity, whose mainstay is being “Arabic”, despite the dominance of English and Euro-Anglo cultural norms. (7) At the institutional level, Arabic was observed devalued in the school setting due to its association with Arabs, Islam, Arab Americans, and immigration. (8) Moreover, relations between Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans in the school system seems to have been equally impacted by this process of devaluation, furthering the cause of stigmatisation, prejudice and racism.
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  • Date Issued: 2004

"The isolation and estimation of low molecular weight N-nitrosamines in biological materials"

  • Authors: Du Plessis, Leo Stephen
  • Date: 1973
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:21176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6750
  • Description: Summary: Low molecular weight N-nitrosamines were detected by ultraviolet, infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectral, thin-layer chromatographic and gas liquid chromatographic means. A method for the estimation of dimethylnitrosamine, diethylnitrosamine, ethal-n-propylnitrosamine and di-n-propylnitrosamine has been developed. The method involves the isolation of the nitrosamines in an aqueous distillate by freeze-drying. After extraction of the nitrosamines from the aqueous distillate by means of dichloromethane, their separation and quantitative estimation are achieved by gas liquid chromatography of the extract. The procedure can be extended down to the ppb range. Dimethylnitrosamine was isolated from an extract of Solanum incanum and identified by gas liquid chromatography on four different columns, infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
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  • Date Issued: 1973

"The struggle of memory against forgetting" contemporary fictions and rewriting of histories

  • Authors: Patchay, Sheenadevi
  • Date: 2008
  • Subjects: Morrison, Toni. Beloved Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nevous conditions Høeg, Peter, 1957- Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne Nahai, Gina Barkhordar. Moonlight on the avenue of faith Roy, Arundhati. God of small things Fiction -- History and criticism History in literature Contemporary, The, in literature Postcolonialism in literature Psychic trauma in literature
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:2210 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002253
  • Description: This thesis argues that a prominent concern among contemporary writers of fiction is the recuperation of lost or occluded histories. Increasingly, contemporary writers, especially postcolonial writers, are using the medium of fiction to explore those areas of political and cultural history that have been written over or unwritten by the dominant narrative of “official” History. The act of excavating these past histories is simultaneously both traumatic and liberating – which is not to suggest that liberation itself is without pain and trauma. The retelling of traumatic pasts can lead, as is portrayed in The God of Small Things (1997), to further trauma and pain. Postcolonial writers (and much of the world today can be construed as postcolonial in one way or another) are seeking to bring to the fore stories of the past which break down the rigid binaries upon which colonialism built its various empires, literal and ideological. Such writing has in a sense been enabled by the collapse, in postcolonial and postmodernist discourse, of the Grand Narrative of History, and its fragmentation into a plurality of competing discourses and histories. The associated collapse of the boundary between history and fiction is recognized in the useful generic marker “historiographic metafiction,” coined by Linda Hutcheon. The texts examined in this study are all variants of this emerging contemporary genre. What they also have in common is a concern with the consequences of exile or diaspora. This study thus explores some of the representations of how the exilic experience impinges on the development of identity in the postcolonial world. The identities of “displaced” people must undergo constant change in order to adjust to the new spaces into which they move, both literal and metaphorical, and yet critical to this adjustment is the cultural continuity provided by psychologically satisfying stories about the past. The study shows that what the chosen texts share at bottom is their mutual need to retell the lost pasts of their characters, the trauma that such retelling evokes and the new histories to which they give birth. These texts generate new histories which subvert, enrich, and pre-empt formal closure for the narratives of history which determine the identities of nations.
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  • Date Issued: 2008

#KeepItReal: discursive constructions of authenticity in South African consumer culture

  • Authors: Plüg, Simóne Nikki
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Consumer behavior Consumers' preferences -- South Africa Brand choice -- South Africa Marketing -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64973 , vital:28641
  • Description: Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde (1915), Matthew Arnold (1960), Erich Fromm (1997) and a proliferation of contemporary self-help gurus, variously assert that it is preferable for people to focus on “being”, or to value “who you are”, instead of emphasising “having” or the material possessions you have acquired. These discourses assert that individuals content with “being” are happier and more fulfilled than those involved in the constant (and alienating) motion of acquiring material goods as representations of themselves (de Botton, 2004; Fromm, 1997; James, 2007). This thesis provides an in-depth critical exploration of one of these ideal “ways of being”: authenticity. It does not seek to discover what authenticity is in an empirical sense, nor to define what it should be in a normative sense, but to map the cultural work done by changing and often contradictory discourses of personal authenticity. More specifically, this study uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method to critically discuss the discursive constructions of subject authenticity in South African brand culture. The sample consisted of (1.) ten marketing campaigns of several large, mainstream brands, which were popular in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, and (2.) fifteen smaller South African “craft” brands popular in the “artisanal” context. The analysis is presented in two distinct, but interrelated, sections (namely, Selling Stories and Crafting Authenticity), where the relevant discourses of authenticity for each data set are explored in depth. Through this analysis the thesis provides a critical discussion of the ways in which these discourses of authenticity work to produce and maintain, (or challenge and subvert), subject positions, ideologies, and power relations that structure contemporary South African society.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

'Environmental policy to community action': methodology and approaches in community-based environmental education programmes in Uganda

  • Authors: Babikwa, Daniel J
  • Date: 2004
  • Subjects: Environmental education -- Uganda -- Case studies Education and state -- Uganda Community development -- Uganda -- Case studies Sustainable development -- Uganda -- Case studies Environmental policy -- Uganda -- Case studies
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:1518 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003400
  • Description: This research was conducted in Luwero, a rural district in central Uganda, over a period of three years, half of which entailed fulltime engagement in a participatory action research process with VEDCO, an indigenous NGO. The study focuses on the educational processes involved in the translation of Uganda's environmental policy into action at community level. It looks at community-based education and development activities run by VEDCO among smallholder farmers. The study addressed four objectives. For the first objective I developed a conceptual framework through a review of theories informing education in general and environmental education, adult education, community education, and community development in particular. The second objective was to conduct a situational analysis to identify contextual issues related to policy implementation at community level. The third objective was to engage in a participatory action research process with the NGO in the farming community in response to the identified contextual issues, and the fourth was to explore and comment on environmental education methods used within a community context. PRA techniques, interviews, and other participatory data collection methods were used to generate the data. The study reveals contradictions that limit NGO capacity to make appropriate use of participatory education processes in implementing policy-related training at community level. Elements in the National Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture, for example, conflicted with the principle of sustainable development underlying the policy. VEDCO itself was changing from a social-welfare-oriented organisation into a commercial enterprise pursuing economic goals, which conflicted with its social goals. The capitalist development ideology of the donor was being adopted by VEDCO, which contradicted the goals of people-centred development. This was exacerbated by VEDCO's dependency on donor funds for its activities. Contextual issues like people's history; poverty, gender and inconsistent land policies further complicated the policy implementation processes. There were also inconsistencies in the epistemological assumptions and didactic approaches evident in the implementation. The study shows that the intended emancipatory education processes are more often supplanted by technicist methodologies. Thus, it exposes the underlying historical, ideological and epistemological tensions and contradictions within the field of education, particularly in relation to the `paradigmatic' orientations (neo-classical, liberal and socially critical/emancipatory) outlined in the literature. Conclusions are made at two levels: in relation to the study goals, of examining policy implementation at community level and in terms of the study's contribution to the understanding of current education theory in the context of sustainable development among communities.
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  • Date Issued: 2004

'n Interdissiplinêre benadering tot die klasmusiekonderwys in Suid-Afrika

  • Authors: Hendrikse, Salóme
  • Date: 1993
  • Subjects: School music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa Music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:2640 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002305
  • Description: In hierdie tesis word 'n nuwe benadering tot klasmusiekonderwys in die R.S.A. bespreek. Die navorsing vervat in die tesis is vanaf 1984 tot 1992 gedoen. In 'n sekere sin verklaar die aanvangsdatum van die navorsing die feit dat die projek veral gerig is op die blanke onderwyssituasie aangesien die verskillende groepe se onderwysbelange volgens amptelike beleid grotendeels deur verskillende onderwysowerhede behartig is. Die blanke onderwysgerigtheid van die navorsingsontwerp ten spyt, is die uitgangspunte en die bevindings van die studie, veral ten opsigte van die rol en funksie van musiekopvoeding, sonder twyfel van toepassing op al die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskappe. In die opsig behoort die bevindings van die studie dus tot 'n groot mate ook die eise van musiekopvoeding veral vir 'n toekomsgerigte onderwys te kan ondervang juis omdat die vertrekpunt van die voorgestelde vemuwings en aanpassings in die musiekopvoeding die waardes en norme van gemeenskappe moet identiflseer en vertolk en terselfdertyd die beperkende effek daarvan moet teenwerk deur kulturele transenderings. Veral laasgenoemde is van groot belang in die multikulturele opset van die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap waarin die musiekopvoeding juis 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die ontwikkeling van 'n onderlinge begrip en waardering tussen die verskillende kultuurgemeenskappe. In Afdeling A van die tesis word die huidige stand van klasmusiek bespreek en daar word op gewys dat, afgesien van 'n aantal sekondere faktore, die prirnere redes vir die nie-geslaagdheid van die vak, faktore soos die sillabusse, die opleiding van die onderwyser en die posisie van die vak in die kurrikulum is. Teenoor die huidige benadering van klasmusiek met al sy probleme word 'n ander benadering tot die onderwys in die a!gemeen en die klasmusiek in die besonder gestel, naamlik die interdissiplinere benadering met sy twee afdelings, naamlik die geesteswetenskappe en die kunstebenadering. Hierdie benaderings word bespreek soos wat dit in die V.SA. en Europa toegepas word, en daarna word 'n aangepaste benadering vir die R.S.A. ontwikkel ten opsigte van doelstellings,uitgangspunte, riglyne, metodiek en tegniek. In Afdeling B volg die empiriese navorsing wat ten opsigte van die interdissiplinere benadering in die R.S.A. gedoen is, en drie lesreekse, soos beplan vir Standerd 6 en 7; Standerd 8 en vir Standerd 9 en 10 word bespreek. As deel van elke lesreeks word die wordingstand van elke ouderdomsgroep bespreek en in gedagte gehou by die saamstel van hierdie lesreekse. Elke lesreeks bestaan uit 3-4 volledig uitgewerkte lesse wat insluit: hulpmiddels (kunsvoorbeelde, musiekvoorbeelde, gedigvoorbeelde ensomeer), beknopte aantekeninge vir die onderwyser, 'n bronnelys en 'n klankkasset met die nodige klankillustrasies soos waarna in die lesse verwys word. In Afdeling C word die resultate van 'n steekproef bespreek wat gedoen is in verskeie skole in die vier provinsies van die R.S.A. Met hierdie steekproef is beoog om die reaksies van leerlinge en onderwysers te toets ten opsigte van hierdie nuwe voorgestelde, en aangepaste interdissiplinêre benadering. Die lesreekse wat deel vorm van Afdeling B is as basis deur die onderwysers gebruik, maar hul was vry om eie idees te ontwikkel en te gebruik. Die reaksies van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word in die vorm van tabelle en besprekiogs aangedui, en aanbevelings van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word aangetoon. Die tesis word afgesluit met addendums tot die verskillende hoofstukke asook volledige bibliografiese besonderhede.
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  • Date Issued: 1993

'n Ondersoek na aspekte van die verhouding tussen betrokkenheid en universaliteit in die literatuur

  • Authors: Weideman, George, 1947-2008
  • Date: 1982
  • Subjects: Politics and literature Comparative literature
  • Language: Afrikaans
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3604 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003723
  • Description: Voorwoord: In die loop van hierdie studie word dit op enkele plekke duidelik gestel dat die littérature engagée nie beperk is tot die engere "politiek" nie, en dat 'n teks met 'n religieuse tema of 'n teks waarin maatskaplike wantoestande aan die lig gebring word, ook engagé kan wees. Die politiek laat hom egter as magsfaktor oor so 'n wye gebied geld dat nuanserings nie altyd moontlik is nie; 'n teks met 'n oorwegend "religieuse tema" kan politieke implikasies hê. Dit bring verder mee dat selfs 'n teks of 'n bundel waarin géén politieke verwysing voorkom nie, na 'n polities-gemotiveerde keuse teruggevoer word. Die kern van die saak is dat 'n teks tot hierdie subgenre gereken kan word slegs wanneer dit minder of meer uitdruklik kontesteer, of die klimaat skep vir kontestering, wat meebring dat 'n imperatief tot verandering in die teks aanwesig moet wees. Hierdie appél tot verandering rig hom in die beduidendste werke van die genre verbý die partypolitiek, rig hom tot die mens wat (met of sonder sy keuse) onderhewig is aan politieke gebeure. Kontestering (verset) impl iseer ook meebelewing, solidariteit en vereenselwiging. Dit is die oogmerk van hierdie studie om na te gaan hoe aspekte van hierdie vereenselwiging die engagement en die universele waarheid as temamoment en selfs as struktuurfaktor in homself kan verenig. Vanweë die omvang van die teoretiese inset van die studie word tekste in hoofsaak eksemplaries gebruik - déégliker struktulrele analises waarin die estetiese steeds sáám met die die maatskaplik-etiese dimensie ondersoek word, verg 'n afsonderlike studie.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 1982

'n Perspektief op kommunikasie in 'n post-apartheidsera in Suid-Afrika met spesifieke verwysing na die rol van Afrikaans

  • Authors: Van Rensburg, Nicolaas Gerhardus Lourens
  • Date: 1993
  • Subjects: Afrikaans language South Africa Languages
  • Language: Afrikaans
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3575 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002099
  • Description: Chapter One is an historical review of the rejection of colonial domination in various states in Africa, before the spotlight was directed at the relationships between the "white" and "black" inhabitants of South Africa. The numerous problems which arise out of this inter-relationship can best be ascribed to the identity crisis which "white" and "black" experience in a multi-lingual country. The South African society needs to normalise its relations with cultural and language groups by means of communication. Chapter Two reviews the historical background, linguistic characteristics, the use, functions and the distribution of the ten most important languages of which the South African community consists. The diversity of these languages generates and complicates the debate which currently prevails concerning a language policy for a future non-racial South Africa. The geographical, social, historical and cultural factors which are conducive and non-conducive to language distribution are high-lighted in Chapter Three. In a changing South Africa, where affirmative actions are being insisted on, it is expected that the current privileged position of Afrikaans will be placed under political pressure. A painful process of self-examination by Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners - one of the major role-players in the current controversy concerning the continued existence and status of Afrikaans in a "postApartheid era" - has been precipitated. Chapter Four looks at how the "white", "coloured", "black" and "Indian" Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners' mother tongue has evolved to its present status. The arguments for and against, viewpoints of, and pleas for the re-unification of Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners to a larger single power base is emphasized. The possible future status and functions of Afrikaans insofar as its present status, functions and attitudes are concerned, are extrapolated in Chapter Five. The viewpoint concerning a possible scenario for the above-mentioned matters as expressed by a wide spectrum of South African society - academics, cultural groupings, political leaders, non-mother-tongue speakers of Afrikaans - is evaluated. A scenario of the possible role of Afrikaans in a "post-Apartheid era" in South Africa is sketched in Chapter 6. The conclusion is that the Western culture as understood by the black man, differs in more than one way from the perception of the white man. First and foremost, the acceptance of and respect for the languages and cultures of all fellow South Africans is the first step towards seeing all South Africans as being Africans. , Opsomming: Hoofstuk Een is 'n historiese oorsig van hoe die verwerping van koloniale oorheersing elders in Afrika diekontaken verhouding tussen die "wit" en "swart" inwoners van Suid-Afrika onder die soeklig geplaas het. Die talle probleme wat uit die kontaksituasie spruit, kan gereduseer word tot die identiteitskrisis wat "wit" en "swart" in 'n multitalige land beleef. Die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap het In dringende behoefte aan die normalisering van die verhoudings, vera! deur middel van kommunikasie, tussen die kulturele- en taleverskeidenheid. In Hoofstuk Twee word daar gekyk na die historiese agtergrond, linguistiese eienskappe, gebruik en funksies en die verspreiding van die tien vemaamste tale waaruit die Suid-Afrikaanse talegemeenskap bestaan. Die diversiteit van tale genereer en kompliseer die debat wat tans oor 'n taalbeleid vir 'n toekomstige nierassige Suid-Afrika gevoer word. Die geografiese, sosiale, historiese en kulturele faktore wat taalverspreiding bevorderof teenwerk, word in Hoofstuk Drie belig. In 'n veranderende Suid-Afrika, waar op regstellende aksies aangedring word, kan daar verwag word dat Afrikaans as gevolg van sy bevoorregte posisie onder politieke druk geplaas sal word. Vir die Afrikaanssprekende Afrikaners, as een van die hoofrolspelers in die polemiek oor die voortbestaan en status van Afrikaans in 'n "post-Apartheidsera", het dit 'n pynlike proses van selfondersoek gebring. In Hoofstuk Vier word daar gekyk hoe die "blanke", "anderskleurige", "swart" en "Asiatiese" Afrikaanssprekende Afrikaner sy moedertaal tot op hede ervaar het. Die argumente vir en teen, sienings van, en pleidooie vir 'n hereniging van Afrikaanssprekende Afrikaners tot 'n groter mags basis word belig. Die moontlike toekomstige status en funksies van Afrikaans word in Hoofstuk Vyfvanuit die huidige status, funksies en houdings geprojekteer. Die standpunte oor bogenoemde sake word vanuit 'n wye spektmm van akademici, kultuurgroeperinge, politieke leiers sowel as niemoedertaal-sprekers van Afrikaans van die talegemeenskap van die RSA op 'n moontlike scenario gefokus. ii 'n Scenario -oefening van die moontlike rol van Afrikaans in 'n "post-Apartheidsera" in Suid-Afrika word in Hoofstuk Ses geskets. Daar word tot die gevolgtrekking geraak. dat die Westerse kultuur, soos verinnerlik deur die swart man, in belangrike opsigte van die van die wit man verskil. Daarom is die aanvaarding van en respek vir aIle Afrikane as mede-Suid-Afrikaners die eerste stap om te verseker dat die Afrikaanssprekende Afrikaners se taal en kultuur gerespekteer sal word.
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  • Date Issued: 1993

'n Sintaktiese ondersoek na die gebruik van onderskikkende voegwoorde en sinsverbindende woorde in Afrikaans

'n Studie van die houding en gesindheid teenoor spesiale onderwys soos geopenbaar deur 'n groep ouers van spesiale klas-leerlinge in Oos-Kaapland

  • Authors: Bouwer, Jeremia Cornelius Esias
  • Date: 1979
  • Subjects: Special education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: Afrikaans
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:1361 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001427
  • Description: Die weerstand wat ouers soms teen Spesiale Onderwys bied, kan stremmend inwerk op leerlinge. Om insig in die gesindheid van ouers van Spesiale Klas-Ieerlinge te verkry, is 'n gewysigde vorm van die Thurston Sentence Completion Form gebruik. Die vorms is deur ouers van leerlinge in 'n aantal Spesiale Klasse in Oos-Kaapland voltooi en die response is in positiewe en negatiewe reaksies ingedeel. Ook is elke item ontleed. Daar is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die meeste ouers tog weI positief ingesteld is teenoor Spesiale Onderwys en inderdaad erkenning verleen aan die werk wat in die klasse gedoen word. Die behoefte aan 'n nouer skakeling tussen die betrokke ouers en die skole het duidelik na vore gekom
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  • Date Issued: 1979

'Rhodesians' in South Africa : a study of immigrants from Zimbabwe

  • Authors: Simon, Alan
  • Date: 1984
  • Subjects: Zimbabweans South Africa -- Foreign population Zimbabwe -- Emigration and immigration South Africa -- Emigration and immigration
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005630
  • Description: Although most whites have remained in Zimbabwe after independence and not all who have emigrated came to South Africa, large numbers established themselves as an immigrant community in this country. The aim of this study is to "sociologically capture" this community's views about their past experiences in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and their present experiences in South Africa. This is done by employing a generative methodological procedure whereby members of the target population themselves generated issues considered to be of importance to their previous and new situational contexts. As it was not possible to obtain a random sample of all Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, questionnaire data were collected from four separate categories of respondents. In addition, depth interviews were conducted and thus responses have been analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings demonstrate that for the most part, few "Zimbabweans" - whites who are reasonably accepting of the new socio-political order in independent Zimbabwe - have come to South Africa. Rather, most of the immigrants, whose views were canvassed in this research investigation, seem to be bitter "Rhodesians" who have been unable to accept change and integration and the consequent loss of white privilege in the new Zimbabwe. These recent immigrants have not found all things to their satisfaction in South Africa moreover, despite the similar socio-political structures in former Rhodesia and contemporary South Africa.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 1984

'Visible hectares, vanishing livelihoods': a case of the fast track land reform and resettlement programme in Southern Matabeleland- Zimbabwe

  • Authors: Mabhena, Clifford
  • Date: 2010
  • Subjects: Sustainable development -- Zimbabwe , Rural poor -- Zimbabwe , Rural development -- Zimbabwe , Land tenure -- Zimbabwe , Land reform beneficiaries -- Zimbabwe , Livestock -- Breeding -- Zimbabwe , Land settlement -- Zimbabwe
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , D Soc Sc
  • Identifier: vital:11423 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1001193 , Sustainable development -- Zimbabwe , Rural poor -- Zimbabwe , Rural development -- Zimbabwe , Land tenure -- Zimbabwe , Land reform beneficiaries -- Zimbabwe , Livestock -- Breeding -- Zimbabwe , Land settlement -- Zimbabwe
  • Description: Land reform has been going on in Zimbabwe since the state attained independence from Britain in 1980 as a way of enhancing agrarian livelihoods for the formerly marginalized people. This study argues that, the Land Reform Programme in Southern Matabeleland rather than enhancing agrarian livelihoods, well established livelihoods have actually been drastically reduced. This has been exacerbated by the state programme of land re-distribution that prescribes a „one size fits all‟ model. Yet this is contrary to the thinking in development discourse that equitable land distribution increases rural livelihoods. As a way of gathering data this study utilized ethnography and case study methodologies. I spent two years interacting and interviewing purposively selected new resettles, communal residents, migrant workers and gold panners in this region. Results from this study confirm that, land reform has greatly reduced livelihoods, particularly agrarian livelihoods. Also, this research has found out that, the majority of residents now depend on off-farm livelihoods such as gold panning and migration to neighbouring South Africa. This thesis therefore concludes that, despite a massive expropriation of former commercial farms, people of Southern Matabeleland have not benefitted much as the village settlements (A1) and the small size farms (A2) have not received support from this live-stocking community. People in this region pin their hopes on livestock rearing to sustain their livelihoods and this study therefore recommends that, any agrarian transformation programmes should address the issues that promote livestock rearing
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  • Date Issued: 2010
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