11613 research outputs found
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Economic transitions in South Africa's secondary cities: governing mine closures
No full textMany South African secondary cities depend on a single economic sector, often mining or manufacturing. This makes them vulnerable to economic change and national decision‐making. We describe change in three secondary cities—Emalahleni, Matjhabeng and Newcastle—all at different phases of economic transition due to imminent mine closure. We investigate the way local governance and planning are dealing with the change. We draw on concepts from institutional economics and evolutionary governance theory, material from strategic planning documents, and approximately 50 key informant interviews. We show how difficult it is to steer economic planning during economic transitions, and we demonstrate how both economic change and governance are path‐dependent. Path dependency in South Africa’s mining towns has several causes: the colonial influence, which emphasised extraction and neglected beneficiation; the dominance of a single sector; the long‐term problems created by mining; and the lack of the skills needed to bring about economic change. The local governments’ continuing reliance on the New Public Management paradigm, which focuses on steering as opposed to building networks, compounds the problem, along with poor governance, inadequate local capacity and inappropriate intergovernmental relations. Of the three towns, only Newcastle has shown signs of taking a new path.Publisher's versio
Cyber vaticinations: a systematic review of schoolchildren's activities in the cyberspace in thirty years' time
No full textThere are scholarly pieces of evidence attesting to the use of the Internet by children in a manner comparable to adult users. Many children now use mobile phones, laptop computers, and tablet PCs that are connected to the Internet to access the cyberspace and engage in any activity of interest. The Spatio-temporal communications by schoolchildren in cyberspace have reduced television viewing which in the analog era was subjected to parental control. Unfortunately, the technical nature of the Internet makes it difficult for parents to control the contents available to schoolchildren in the cyberspace. This article uses the space transition theory to examine and analyse schoolchildren’s current cyberspace activities relating to cyber dating, cybersex, cyberbullying, and online gambling to infer the dimensions that these activities would take in the next thirty years. Current scholarly articles were explicated on popular engagements
of schoolchildren in the cyberspace and analysed to predict the dimensions of these activities in thirty years. This paper is of scholarly value on the vogues that would be prevalent in the cyberspace in the next generation. The emerging trends in the scholarly articles analysed were used to recommend cyber-parenting related measures on training schoolchildren in the next thirty years.Publisher's versio
Gender differences in intra‐household financial decision‐making: an application of coarsened exact matching
No full textMost studies that explore collective models of intra‐household decision‐making use economic outcomes such as human capital, earnings, assets, and relative income shares as proxies of the relative distribution of bargaining power. These studies, however, fail to incorporate important measures of control over and management of the economic resources within households. In the current study, a direct measure of financial decision‐making power within the household is used to directly assess the distribution of bargaining power. Coarsened exact matching, an identification strategy not yet applied in studies of this nature, is applied to couple‐level observational data from South Africa’s longitudinal National Income Dynamics Study. The influence of gender differences in intra‐household decision‐making on resource allocations to per capita household expenditure is assessed. In the case of greater financial decision‐making power in couples being assigned to wives rather than husbands, per capita household expenditure on education increases significantly. The empowerment of women with financial decision‐making power therefore holds the promise of realizing the benefits of investments in human capital.Publisher's versio
Enhancing risk management skills at a municipality using an adult education approach
No full textThis study aims to formulate a framework to enhance risk management skills at a municipality using an adult education approach. Risk management is a process whereby the risks in the organisation are identified, assessed and mitigated. It also involves monitoring projects and their finances towards sustainability. Adult education is a learning process that involves collaborative learning, prior knowledge and experience and self-directed learning. In this study, some challenges remain critical to effective teaching strategies for risk management, including the inability to promote collaborative problem-solving skills, a teacher-centred approach and ignorance of adult learners’ experience, which affect an appropriate assessment of risks. Participatory action research was used as an approach to intervene and respond to these challenges. However, the adult education strategy needed for teaching risk management skills is contextually bound and complex. Therefore, the study adopted Ubuntu as a theoretical lens, mainly due to its values and commitment to promoting humanness and challenging the social oppression that frequently limits the potential growth of municipalities and municipal officials. In this study, Ubuntu has encouraged the researcher and co-researchers to use an integrated form of risk management education, as Ubuntu expresses humanity and advocates working together towards effective teaching strategies for risk management and employing solutions to these challenges that prevent social development. Using the Ubuntu approach, the study embraces multiple perspectives and negotiates meaning in formulating a strategy to respond to the identified challenges. The study was guided by an epistemological stance that embraced the value of welcoming subjective views on knowledge production. Participatory action research created a platform for the participants, who later became co-researchers, to engage in knowledge production activities, equality and tolerance of contrasting views. Through adult teaching and learning workshops, working closely with a participatory action research methodology, a team of eight municipal officials, a youth community member, a post graduate student and I, the researcher, worked together at the research sites. As a research team, we collectively identified challenges to the effective teaching of risk management and employed standard solutions to improve the risk management skills of the municipal officials at one municipality. The generated data comprised photographs, video recordings, audio recordings, lesson plans and co-researchers’ reflections. We used critical discourse analysis to analyse the data. To understand the deeper meaning of the personal and subjective accounts of the co-researchers’ lived experiences of ineffective strategies for teaching risk management, the data were analysed and interpreted at three levels of critical discourse analysis, namely text, discursive practice and social structure. Through critical discourse analysis, the problems experienced by municipal officials in terms of effective teaching strategies for risk management were examined. The purpose was to propose possible solutions and components that could be adopted to address ineffective methods of teaching risk management to municipal officials. In order to formulate the strategy to be sustainable in enhancing risk management skills during and beyond the duration of the research, the conducive conditions of the process were investigated and enacted. Furthermore, possible ways to circumvent threats and risks that could derail the successful implementation of the design were analysed and presented. The research was transformative, which created the opportunity to operationalise and evaluate the success of the strategy before it was considered for recommendation. In conclusion, the study findings are revealed, indicators of success are identified and recommendations are made. Some of the results were that officials worked in silos and their teamwork was ineffective. In the end, the knowledge gap regarding effective teaching strategies for risk management results in a learning dead end
Exploring principals’ roles in improving literacy in the foundation phase
No full textThis dissertation explored the role of the principal in improving literacy in the foundation phase. The challenges teachers and principals experienced were shown in the study as well as additional influential factors affecting literacy. This study is grounded in a theoretical framework with a focus on instructional leadership. This study comprised a qualitative research method, and the study took place in five different schools in the Motheo District, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Data were collected using individual interviews with five principals and 6 Departmental Heads. In addition, focus group interviews were conducted with 16 foundation phase teachers. Furthermore, a documentary analysis was done in each school as well. Various themes emerged from the qualitative research, and the primary focus was on the role of the principal in improving literacy in the foundation phase. The findings revealed that principals need to better understand literacy and the curriculum in the foundation phase and that literacy instruction needs urgent attention to improve learner achievement.Free State Department of Educatio
COVID-19 disaster response: South African disaster managers’ faith in mandating legislation tested?
No full textFor the first time in the history of the Disaster Management Act, 57 of 2002, South Africa declared COVID-19 an epidemiological disaster. Section 3 and 27(1) of this Act activated the responsible Minister in consultation with other Ministers to issue regulations in response to the disaster. The declaration exposed the already criticised Act to scrutiny by the public. Therefore, this study investigated the Metropolitan Disaster Management Centres that coordinate local events and support the provincial and national disaster management centres, their perceptions concerning the disaster management legislation that mandates them. The study recognised a gap in this regard and saw it imperative to give the disaster managers a voice and a platform to express their opinion concerning the heavily criticised legislation. A model of the policy implementation process guided the study investigation. This model argues that implementation of policies tends to generate tensions, which result in a disruption of the policy formulators’ expectations. The research uses some of the model’s variables to measure the perceptions of disaster managers. Using an interview guide, the researchers conducted virtual interviews with the disaster managers. Scholarly and media articles review concerning the Act formed part of the data collection. The study finds that the disaster managers perceive the disaster management legislation as a very useful guide, an excellent piece of legislation and trust it regardless of the criticism it received. The gaps the critics identified in the legislation became evident and had negative effects on the COVID-19 disaster response.Publisher's versio
Implementation of the value re-engineering concept in the Nigerian construction industry: exploratory study
No full textValue Re-Engineering (VRE) is considered a critical analysis and radical redesign of existing construction processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in performance measures. The dissatisfaction of customers’ value offered by the Nigerian Construction Industry (NCI) necessitated a rethink of a new approach to the customers’ need. Hence, this article aims to explore the implementation of VRE in the NCI as a possible solution for the industry to resolve the challenges of customers’ dissatisfaction. A qualitative research approach was used to identify incremental adoption for the implementation of VRE in the NCI. Qualitative data was collected, using a structured tick-box questionnaire interview schedule with 34 key stakeholders in the NCI, including seven directors, nine project managers, nine quantity surveyors, and nine engineers. The tick-box interview schedule explored the level of importance of the activities of the implementation process in the eight phases (steps) for VRE take-off in the NCI. Using QSR Nvivo 12 (a qualitative content analysis tool), the tick-box data was given a numerical score, on a 5-point Likert scale, so that the data could be rated and reported quantitatively. This included frequencies and percentages. The exploratory research findings indicate that there is a significant need for the process to be re-engineered and for establishing a VRE organisational structure critical to achieving the successful implementation and adoption of VRE. Other most important activities for the successful implementation of VRE include evaluating the impact of new technologies; monitoring employee attitudes, customer perceptions, and supplier responsiveness, as well as identifying disconnects (anything that prevents the process from achieving the desired results and, in particular, information transfer between organisations or people). Identifying the customers’ needs by the NCI helps create the market value of the product being produced by the industry players. On the other hand, this improves the global competitive market for the industry by adopting the radical redesign process for the industry.Publisher's versio
A conceptual framework for using social innovation as an approach to local economic development
No full textBackground: Approaches such as social innovation were visible during many of the responses that public-sector organisations, civil society, communities, and the private sector collaboratively implemented to address the issues of unemployment and the impact of economic challenges during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The use of social innovation as an approach to local economic development by South African municipalities, however, reveals a research gap in terms of a conceptual framework for enabling such use.
Aim: This article explores a conceptual framework for using social innovation as an approach to local economic development by South African municipalities.
Setting: Conventional top-down local economic development approaches by South African municipalities have become inadequate for dealing with contemporary local economic development challenges. Such inadequacy calls for municipalities to rethink and adapt their approach to dealing with economic challenges and to developing and implementing their local economic development strategies.
Methods: Through an interpretivist paradigm, the adopted methodology is underpinned by a qualitative research approach. Content analysis was performed of relevant research documents concerning social innovation and local economic development. From this content analysis, a conceptual framework was developed through an inductive approach.
Results: The findings illustrate that the praxis for using this conceptual framework is vested in the interconnected nature of its attributes, antecedents, and consequences, which will contribute to the achievement of certain local economic development outcomes.
Conclusion: This article suggests that a conceptual framework could contribute to stimulating future research concerning the phenomenon and can serve as an impetus and direction for research inquiry.Publisher's versio
Representational praxis of coloured identity in South Africa reified by discursive formations located across three different online spaces
No full textThis dissertation critically analyses contemporary representations of South African coloured self-styling that are located online. Social networking sites and online magazine-like media, are used by contemporary self-defined coloured South Africans to curate and publish content that postulates ideas about individual and collective performances of coloured identity. This involves publishing content from popular accounts located on social media applications as well as domains that enable editorial publication of small online magazines. In general, this dissertation aims to gauge the social, cultural and political significance of contemporary digitally curated performances of coloured identity. This study analyses present constructions of coloured identity made by those who claim the identity in different online contexts. The porous boundaries between the offline and online context and the mass production of visual technologies, means that the visual is central to popular culture (Rose, 2016: 35) and that meaning is produced and communicated through carefully constructed images. These visual constructions shape how the social world is understood and engaged. Social networking sites generate and circulate knowledge and ideas visually and technological attributes like hashtags and captions, influence the interpretation of the image. Understanding discursive formations (Rose, 2016: 212) located online is integral to establishing how knowledge and power ultimately circulate in the digital world and how this may impact representations of South African coloured identity online. To this end, the study assesses five multimodal texts sourced from two social media accounts and one online womxn’s magazine, respectively. The accounts, @being_ coloured and VannieKaap, are located on social media applications, Instagram and Facebook and the online magazine, Swirl Magazine ZA, is hosted on the domain MadMagz. Concerning the theoretical framework of this project, a number of theories—ranging from critical race theory, constructivist theories and the tenets discourse analysis as part of discursive psychology facilitate my interpretations of the texts I have selected to analyse. I selected texts found on three different online contexts as well as three digital forms, to compare and to account for the diverse expressions of coloured identity that exist and the possibilities for these expressions that different online contexts permit. The three respective online contexts analysed shape the form and
content of the multimodal messages shared from the accounts analysed and this is because the design, architecture, aesthetics and platform vernaculars of different online contexts play a role in the production, circulation and consumption of the multimodal messages. In looking at different online contexts, the study intends to cast a wide net across the digital space to reveal what those who self-define as coloured might be navigating politically, socially and culturally. In order to select texts to analyse, criteria were developed in advance. The criteria include the following six imperatives: 1) Overt references to Coloured identity, either in the individual or collective sense. 2) Explicit references to assumed generally accepted styles of Coloured identity performance (hair, clothes, language, gender, accent, values, behaviours). 3) Explicit claims, presented as truth about the socio-political and economic position Coloured people occupy in contemporary South Africa. 4) Rigid policing that employs persuasion techniques (Rose, 2016: 210) to advocate for an ‘essence’ (1988: 521) that defines Coloured identity. 5) Explicit aims stated, using hashtags and text, behind certain representations of Coloured identity. These imperatives determined which texts were ultimately selected for analysis. In addition to the above criteria, the ironclad rule with respect to maintaining research ethicality, restricted the texts chosen to only those published by public facing social media account holders and online magazine editors. According to Jang and Cullingham (2012), content posted/published in the public domain online, may be used in the course of desktop study research projects1. To this end, I successfully received ethical clearance from the University of the Free State’s Ethics Committee. The research is valuable as it assesses the multimodal formations of contemporary Coloured identity in the digital realm—a space that is designed for constructed identity performance. This research builds on the findings of scholars such as Adhikari (2009: 6), who has described the history of representations of self-defined coloured identity, as characterised by contradictions and influenced by the precarity of coloured marginality and the rigidity of an apartheid state built on racial capitalism. Considering the salience of digital realm in our contemporary context, this research observes and assesses the intersections between race, identity and the internet in order to arrive at conclusions regarding contemporary coloured representation.University of the Free State Postgraduate Schoo
Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis at Universitas Academic Hospital: a 4-year review
No full textBackground: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are rare but life-threatening dermatologic conditions that are part of the same disease spectrum. Drugs are the main inciting factor of this delayed (type IV) hypersensitivity reaction which produces epidermal and mucosal detachment. Despite morbidity and mortality being high, there are limited data available on SJS and TEN in South Africa. The objective of this study was to characterise patient demographics, aetiology and implicated drugs, treatment, and outcome in patients with SJS and TEN at a tertiary academic hospital in the Free State, South Africa. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional descriptive single centre study which included participants managed at Universitas Academic Hospital, South Africa between 2016 and 2020 was performed. Results: Fifty-five cases meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in this study. The cohort comprised TEN, SJS-TEN and SJS (n=40, n=10 and n=5 respectively). The mean age of the cohort was 37-years (range: 21- 67). Seventy percent were HIV-infected. Antibiotics (58%) and antiretroviral therapy (30%) were the most common drug classes implicated, with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (22%) and nevirapine (16%) being identified as the most commonly implicated drugs. The major complication in the cohort was sepsis (42%). Supportive care formed the mainstay of treatment and the mortality rate was 14.5%. Conclusion: The majority of the patients in this cohort were HIV infected, with antiretroviral therapy (specifically nevirapine) and antibiotics (specifically trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, used for prophylaxis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) in the HIV-infected population) being commonly implicated causes of SJS and TEN. In resource-limited settings such as our facility, supportive care forms the predominant mode of treatment with a relatively good outcome