KovsieJournals - University of the Free State (UFS)
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Deracialisation of urban business space: street traders in Pietersburg
Get PDFThe \u27invasion\u27 of the CBD by informal entrepreneurs signalled the first visible phase of the informal process of deracialisation of business space. A clear distinction between deracialisation and desegregation processes relating to urban residential space has been made by Saff (1994). This paper will apply chis disrinccion co business space, using the secondary city of Pierersburg as a case study of two manifestations of policy concerning business space: processes of urban race-space restructuring and street trading as an example of the deracialisation process of urban development within the context of the response of the restructured democratic local authority
\u27Modernity\u27: the historical ontology
Get PDFThe article focuses on a fundamental and generally disregarded aspect of modern thought: the turn in eighteenth-century philosophy towards a historical ontology. The works of selected intellectuals such as Defoe and Rousseau (in contrast to Hobbes) highlight the shift away from a static, hierarchical ontology with God as the highest structuring force, in the direction of a historical ontology with an inherent teleology and the dominance of reason as its e.schaton - progress between the dialectically related poles of nature and culture. This historical ontology has since been taken up by important nineteenth-century thinkers such as Hegel, Comte, Marx and Darwin, and also makes its influence felt in the irrationalist tradition (albeit with the poles inverted), and even in the present day in various areas of culture (such as the film Dead Poets\u27 Society)
Environmental refugees in developing nations: exploring the causes and impact
Get PDFThe phenomenon of environmental refugees is a little recognised and largely undefined migration trend that is expected to show dramatic acceleration in the near future as environmental degradation renders large areas uninhabitable. This article explores the phenomenon, arguing that current conceptualisations concerning migration are too narrow to deal adequately with chis type of forced migration. A re-assessment of current categorisations and policy frameworks - concerning forced migration in general, and forced environmental migration in particular - is therefore ne~essary. Furthermore, the social factors fueling environmental degradacion, which in its turn leads to e:nvironmental refugee movements, are discussed. Attention is also paid co the impact chat these forced migrants may have on host countries
The remaking of local government in the Eastern Cape: economic, demographic and political challenges
Get PDFThis paper focuses on the problems and prospects of urban local government in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. It commences with an overview of the institutional framework of local government in South Africa. Secondly, it assesses the 1995 local government elections in the province, and the nature and extent of party political competirion at the local level. Thirdly, likely demographic trends are reviewed, along with their implications in terms of service provision. This is followed by a consideration of the revenue and planning crises confronting local authorities in the region. This issue is located within the context of specific patterns of urbanisation and economic readjustment. It is concluded that, while the detacialisation of local government represents a significant extension of South Africa\u27s new democracy, fiscal, demographic and political realities militate against any meaningful and sustainable devolution of power over the medium and long term
Why ecosocialism is not enough: ecofeminist reflections on another value form
Get PDFIn the context of contemporary social movement politics, the paper offers an ecofeminist argument that globalisation should be analysed as the effect of a single entangled system, a unity of ‘patriarchal-colonial-capitalist’ practices. On this basis, the author reflects on the emergence of time dissociation and spatialised abstraction as constitutive of the globally dominant patriarchal episteme; ‘a libidinal rift’ projected in the dualisms of Masculine vs Feminine, North vs South, Production vs Reproduction, Humanity vs Nature. With reference to feminist thinkers from several traditions, the author speculates on the origins of this exploitive ‘1/0 imaginary’ wherein the distinction between production versus reproduction is pivotal. A case is made that to build movement unity in a time of ecological crisis, ecosocialists should recognise dissociated constructs as appear in Marxist productivism and orient their politics around the reproduction of Life- on-Earth. The ‘meta-industrial labours’ of household care-giving and indigenous subsistence economies exemplify this holistic, time sensitive attunement to living processes. An ‘embodied materialism’ would replace the Left focus on use and exchange value with a regenerative eco-centric value form, a ‘meta-value’
The nature of communication and the communication of nature: revisiting critical theory and nature through decolonial environmental communication and human rights education in Brazil
Get PDFThe ways in which Western capitalist societies have exploited communication practices and media are similar to the exploitation and instrumentalisation of nature. In this paper, we want to argue that critical theorists’ concepts such as instrumental reason and communicative reason do not allow for sufficient critiques of current lifeworld colonisation processes, hindering the prevention of more significant forms of violence against peoples, communication, and natural environments. We begin by problematising Western philosophy and its anthropocentric and instrumental approaches to nature, and contrast them with Global South concepts such as Amerindian perspectivism and good living. Then, through case studies of the Amazon news agency Sumaúma and the Human Rights Observatory in Schools Project (PODHE), we reflect upon how decolonial and original peoples’ concepts and principles may enable us to draw the elements of new relations between people, communication, and nature, which may embody a radical critical theory of communication and nature
Public-private and community collaboration: A stakeholder communication case study of community-based tourism:
Get PDFBy focusing on the perceptions and experiences of the Batlokoa owner community at the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge in the Drakensberg, Free State, South Africa, this case study examines the collaboration between tourism companies, communities, and government departments. A stakeholder communication approach is applied within a reverse cultural studies analytical framework. The findings suggest that the lodge was viewed by the Batlokoa owners primarily as a place of employment and secondarily as a place of heritage. The study examines the many hurdles encountered, and how the decaying lodge became financially sustainable. This analysis draws on the case study of internal lodge communication and visioning that was conducted during a refurbishing phase led by a new hotel operator during 2010 to 2011 and which, updated to 2024, reveals clear community benefits and effective stakeholder communication. The lessons learnt from the early case study are contextualized for contemporary relevance
Realigning with the slave-like Jesus of Mark: The shorter ending of Mark 16:1-8 as a relecture
Get PDFMark’s shorter ending (16:1-8) is understood as a paratext, one that interrupts the existing text by forcing a relectureof the entire Gospel. It compels the intended readers to realign themselves with the provocative narration of Jesus as the atypical Messiah who challenges the physiognomic stereotypes of an honour-shame-based context. From this hermeneutical perspective, the reference text of Mark provokes a second text, the reception text, but does not replace it. Rather, it takes on motifs and themes of the first text as a kind of “interpretive development”. This new reception text, which is embedded in Mark’s original reference text, pushes the intended readers not only to re-read the Gospel, but also to re-understand it in light of Mark’s provocative presentation of the “non-godly” bodily demeanour of Jesus. However, it would appear that the original intertextual relecture, prompted by the ending of Mark 16:1-8, did not wholly succeed. Its open-ended nature, coupled with its provocative interpretation of Jesus, probably created too much dissonance for an unknown author who eventually added the longer ending of 16:9-20 in a different vocabulary and style
Seeking a path of its own: Old Testament ethics in current research
Get PDFOld Testament ethics has been a Cinderella discipline. However, since the 1980s, it has emerged as an important area of study, albeit one where certain key questions continue to be unresolved, including: Is this a discipline in its own right? Is Old Testament ethics a descriptive or normative discipline? If so, which texts does it consider? If it does contribute to contemporary practice, by what mode is that determined? This article outlines the issues involved in each of these questions, exploring a path towards understanding Old Testament ethics as a distinct discipline that draws on the whole canon with the aim of shaping contemporary practice, while accepting that fundamental differences continue