UJ Press Journals
Not a member yet
2155 research outputs found
Sort by
A visual dialogue between lived and perceived experiences of Deafness: addressing power imbalances in therapy with vulnerable populations
No full textAbstract
How does a hearing therapist avoid relying on stereotypes in an overarching characterisation of the Deaf experience to engage in meaningful and useful therapy for Deaf people, who are not only vulnerable as a result of hearing loss, but by the dire socio-economic circumstances in South Africa? Adopting a mentalising stance, this arts-based research interrogates how I, a researcher-clinician, perceive potential Deaf clients, how these clients believe that I see them, how that belief affects their self-perception and how this ultimately can affect their behaviour, thoughts, and emotions. To achieve this, I am taking on the role of a participant observer, engaging in artmaking processes and discussions alongside three participants and asking of myself, what I am asking of the participants. A person-centred approach is fitting in this regard as it implies that clients can direct and inform their own therapy and healing. The exploration of our experiences throughout this study exists through dialogue and relationship; therefore, the therapeutic relationship is investigated through the lens of attachment theory. The findings are three-fold: firstly, that a dialogical approach in artmaking expedites the revelation of uncomfortable biases and prejudices within the group and provides a safe and meaningful space in which to explore these; secondly, that artwork effectively underpins and reinforces communication and connection between hearing and Deaf people; lastly, that both art therapy and mentalising are visual, intrapersonal and interpersonal by nature – and therefore meaningful approaches to working in the Deaf community
Art therapy postcards: How does a personal arts-based process inform the development of an art therapy protocol to address intergenerational perpetrator trauma?
Get PDFThis research article draws on a master’s thesis. This historical narrative emerges from a familial relationship with the artist Irmin Henkel, the author’s step-grandfather. Henkel was known as the official portrait painter of the 1960s apartheid government Cabinet. The approach repurposed family photographs into postcards to reflect on the past. The analytical framing of the study is grounded in inherited perpetrator trauma theories that reverberate with conditions in post-apartheid South Africa. A gap in the literature on trauma beyond apartheid is the enduring relationship between inherited perpetrator trauma and toxic shame. A heuristic self-study and arts-based approach were used as the vehicle through which I convey personal insights of my family history and drive home their meaning. My analytical approach derives from dialectical thinking as a way of grappling with more than one perspective. The creation of postcards from historical family narratives successfully uncovered three main themes: guilt, denial, and toxic shame. Because toxic shame is avoided, shunned, and kept secret, I advance a five-step protocol that art therapists could use to address inherited perpetrator trauma. However, the protocol has not been tested beyond the self-study. In extending this protocol to a broader South African society, the larger contribution of this study is to suggest the advantages of the use of the protocol in confronting inherited trauma and making toxic shame conscious, thereby preventing a repeat of past historical transgressions and encouraging healthier relationships to self, family, community and a broader South African society
Re-storying pregnancy loss: Threading narrative, artmaking and textile-weaving into an embodied grief work ritual
Get PDFIn Western societies, certain traumatic losses are met with a lack of grieving rituals or grief work templates to acknowledge, process, or integrate these losses. This can lead to disenfranchised grief. This article is based on a visual auto-ethnographic study of pregnancy loss in South Africa. It explores the creation of a secular, ritualised form of grief work in line with non-linear models of grief that emphasise connecting bonds. In this article, I explore how a combination of narrative, artmaking and textile-weaving can be employed in traumatic loss and disenfranchised grief as a form of ritualised embodied grief work. I show how creating a personalised, secular ritual can help restore bonds of connectivity according to Dennis Klass’s oscillation model of grief. This form of narrative weaving is posited as an alternative way of giving voice to that which is unbearably hard to voice and ‘re-storying’ the narrative for meaning-making. This article proposes, therefore, that the threading through of these complementary techniques is an effective model of embodied grief work to acknowledge trauma and loss and combat disenfranchised grief
The use of social media by three political parties during South Africa’s 2014 general election
Get PDFSince the first democratic election in South Africa in 1994, electoral campaigns have changed significantly, largely due to social media, which now play a vital role in influencing voters throughout the world. This study examines the social media campaigns of three major South African political parties, namely the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), prior to the 2014 general election. Data comprised interviews with members of Parliament (MPs) of all three parties, and an analysis of their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and YouTube channels. The study finds that, while all three parties made active use of social media, the full potential of this form of communication was not exploited, as they continued to disseminate traditional political messages instead of interacting actively with voters
Reimagining South African political campaigns through indigenous language posters in the 4IR: A political communication perspective
Get PDFThis study sought to explore how the Fourth Industrial Revolution tools or platforms such as digital media technology, social media, and the internet are employed to publicise indigenous language posters for political election campaigns in South Africa. The study was underpinned by a theory of communication in political campaigns to ascertain the importance of communication or linguistic features in political campaign posters. A phenomenological qualitative research method and exploratory research design were employed to address the research problem and objectives of the study. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview was used to collect data from 10 purposively selected respondents. The collected data were thematically analysed to identify, describe, and explain the major themes and sub-themes that emerged. The study established that the previously disadvantaged and marginalised South African indigenous languages were seriously underutilised for political election campaign posters on social media platforms by various South African political organisations. Therefore, the article recommends that, in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, for political parties to participate in the development, preservation, digitalisation, and promotion of these indigenous languages, they should strive to use and post on social media accounts political election campaign posters that are written in the various South African indigenous languages.
[In] Searching Our Mothers’ Archives: Building Umi’s Archive through Mourning Work
Get PDFBlack feminist scholarship provokes us to reimagine archives in creative and speculative ways and echoes everyday Black communities’ deep investment in memory that rejects the idea of African people as a people without history. I enter this discourse through Umi’s Archive is an interdisciplinary and multimedia research project that draws on my family archive to engage everyday Black women’s thought to investigate key questions of archives and power. In this article, I describe my experience curating, preserving, and presenting the archive and how that became a process of de-disciplining myself, turning to intimacy and mourning to learn from Black women by searching in my Umi’s archive
Political Alienation and Electoral Participation in Nigeria\u27s Democratization Process:A Survey of Voter Behavior in the 2019 General Elections
No full textThe attainment of adequate electoral participation in a democratic setting is essential to maintain legitimacy, credibility, and stability since democracy is about popular representation. However, from available data worldwide, voter participation is gradually on the decline. The study aimed to ascertain the reasons, nature and implication of voter abstention for Nigeria’s democratic development. This study thus surveyed the perceptions of Nigerians on the factors influencing low-level participation of eligible voters in the Nigerian electoral process. The study adopted the mixed model research design. A sample of 1,200 respondents was chosen from the selected local government areas of the six zones using the stratified random sampling technique. The simple percentages and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient statistical technique were used to test and determine the degree of association intrinsic in the stated research questions for the quantitative data. The descriptive-analytical technique was adopted to analyze the qualitative aspect of the data. The findings from the study showed that the failure of elected political officers to fulfill electoral promises, electoral fraud, and violence, are responsible for voter alienation in Nigeria. Consequently, the following suggestions are made: The elected political officials should ensure good governance based on meeting the needs of the citizenry; fraudulent practices during elections should be penalized with appropriate sanctions and the governments at all levels should put on modalities to mitigate the incidences of violence during elections. Achieving a credible, free, fair and effective electoral process would, therefore, require the partnership of all stakeholders in the Nigerian democratic project.
 
The Contributions of Party System to Democratic Development in Africa: A Historical Perspective
No full textThe paper examined the contributions of party system to democratic development in Africa. Democratic governance and meaningful elections have long been considered unachievable in the absence of political parties and party competition. This is because party system institutionalization is important for the consolidation of democracy. Democracy instead of being the bedrock of good governance stayed on as an unfulfilled promise because the method of power acquisition remained basically authoritarian and functioned on the basis of a hierarchy of networks and alliances with local tribe, ethnic group or through top-down utter sovereignty of institutions that choke the grassroots politicization of society which had been the moral fibre of the process of democratization. To this end, it was discovered that the relationship between political parties, electoral volatility and democracy in Africa cannot be addressed unconnectedly. The paper therefore recommends that; assumptions about the trajectory and outcomes of democratic development in Africa need to be more effectively investigated on the basis of empirically informed analysis of operationalized politics in these systems. It is important to bear in mind that most of the electoral systems, laws, institutions and constitutions that govern elections in Africa were inherited from colonialism. Electoral politics came as a proposed solution to other socio-economic and political problems. This therefore calls for an amendment to these electoral processes in order to mirror the present realities in Africa as well as adhere to best practice as it is in developed democracies. It is contended that if an electoral system is to append value to democracy, it must promote the accountability of the elected representatives to their constituencies which could be furnished through strong political parties. The paper relied on secondary data using descriptive analytical method
Assessing innovative tools and techniques for managing knowledge in construction firms in Nigeria
Get PDFrisks and require the input of several stakeholders. Therefore, there is a need to help organisations identify, assess, and manage these risks, reducing the likelihood of project delays, cost overruns, and other problems faced in the industry through effective Knowledge Management (KM). Previous studies on knowledge management and its practices in construction firms have dealt extensively with identifying these practices, how KM practices are carried out, and their importance to better construction performance and service. However, these studies have yet to recognise and discuss the innovative ways knowledge is managed. The practices of knowledge creation, acquisition, transfer, storage and use have seen recent developments in how they are being carried out, and this is primarily a result of the application of Information Technology (IT) to construction. The study sought to assess the innovations in KM practice in construction firms in Lagos state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to assess innovative KM practices carried out by construction firms and examine the innovative tools and techniques for managing knowledge in construction firms. A quantitative research method was used in this study. The targeted population was construction professionals in construction firms. Data collection was through a structured questionnaire administered to the targeted population, and a response rate of 62% was achieved. The data was analysed using statistical tools. The study revealed that knowledge management is particularly important to the construction industry, and there is a need to improve and invest in knowledge management practices through adopting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve project delivery and performance. The study recommended that construction firms be open to learning and adopting innovative ideas, tools and techniques to ensure that knowledge is properly managed
A principal component analysis of regulatory environment features for sustainable building construction in South Africa
Get PDFPolicies, legal frameworks, standards, and regulations referred to as the regulatory environment are linked to sustainable building construction (SBC) implementation. There have been contentions in the literature as to whether the regulatory environment features should be voluntary or mandatory for SBC adoption. Scholars also suggest that they should be tailored to suit the national context. This paper focuses on exploring the regulatory environment features for the effective implementation of SBC in South Africa. The primary research data was collected with a structured questionnaire from 281 built environment professionals, predominantly in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. The data was analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 29 was used to produce the results. Mean and standard deviation were used to rank the factors, while the data reduction technique was used to ascertain the principal regulatory environment features. Data suitability for factor analysis was assessed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Two constructs of RGE features, namely Compulsory enforcement and assessment, and National green building policies and standards, were developed from the PCA with factor loadings of the constituent variables ranging from 0.649 - 0.918. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability of each construct, and the results were 0.904 and 0.818, respectively. The study showed that the significance of RGE features is widely acknowledged by professionals who participated in the study. The findings added to knowledge by confirming two fundamental factors for the regulatory environment. The study recommends that these factors be adequately considered for the effective implementation of SBC in South Africa