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Mobile Application Diffusion An Exploration of Trust and Privacy Amongst Rural Enterprises in South Africa
No full textconference paperThis review paper presents academic literature exploring why there
is a slow adoption of mobile technologies amongst rural enterprises in South
Africa. The researchers conducted a thorough literature review of studies related
to trust and privacy on mobile applications published in journals between January
2020 and April 2023. The study reviewed two main external variables: trust and
privacy of technology adoption. The systematic review shows that common trust
concerns for rural enterprises include untrusted service providers, weak security,
and security attacks. Additionally, the review revealed common privacy issues
and concerns, including integrity, user awareness, unobservability, and deniability
as obstacles to the fast uptake of mobile applications in rural marketplaces in
South Africa. Considering these factors, the paper concludes by offering practical
and theoretical suggestions that can assist rural entrepreneurs in enhancing the
diffusion of mobile technology.Colleges of Economic and Management Science
Advocacy of the oral history projects : processes that should occur to create public awareness in the project undertaken by Gauteng Provincial Archives
Get PDFIn March 2023, Veritas College in Springs, Ekurhuleni, undertook a fun history lesson where the Grade 4 learners were required to acknowledge and celebrate influential historical figures. Several of the children selected individuals such as Dr Chris Barnard, Dr Martin Luther King, Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela and one learner identified para-Olympic swimmer Natalie du Toit. The object of this class exercise was for learners to see that they too could have a positive impact on the world and strive to be leaders who can make their world a better place (Veritas College Facebook page, 2023). In March 2023, the United States National Archives hosted an exhibition showcasing their archives that focussed on women in baseball. These collections included video footage and oral testimonies from women who had participated in baseball and simultaneously created a National Baseball Hall of Fame (US National Archives Facebook page, 2023). These two examples are how the Gauteng Provincial Archives could take the oral history project to the people of Gauteng and inform learners of the unsung sporting heroes that were neglected under the apartheid dispensation. This paper will adopt a postmodernist approach by undertaking an investigation to see how other archives around the world market and promote their collections, particularly oral history collections, both to school-going learners and the general public. The intention of this paper is to formulate a framework that the Gauteng Provincial Archives could consider when marketing the oral history project related to unsung sporting heroes.Information Scienc
The Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations : an assessment of diplomatic and consular immunity with particular reference to the Khashoggi case (ca. 2018)
No full textM.A. (International Politics)Political Science
Erratum to: Observation of four-top-quark production in the multilepton final state with the ATLAS detector
No full text
Evaluating public policy approaches to urban poverty and inequality reduction in Zimbabwe
No full textUrban poverty and inequality continue to negatively affect the populace in Zimbabwe. Government interventions have not successfully dealt with the challenges of urban poverty and inequality. This thesis evaluates the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET) policy’s impact on urban poverty and inequality with a particular focus on Harare, bringing out the policy’s successes and failures as a development policy in significantly reducing poverty and inequality. The thesis further reveals the magnitude of poverty and inequality in Harare, the causes of poverty and inequality, the effects and the strategies towards meaningful poverty and inequality reduction in Harare. Qualitative research methods were used in the study with key informant interviews and desk research as data collection techniques. Desk research was used for secondary data which accounted for survey statistical data. Results have shown that ZIMASSET as a development policy failed to significantly reduce poverty and inequality in Harare as it did not have many positive impacts. The policy failure has been attributed to several factors which include policy maladministration, lack of political will, financial and economic challenges and policy unpopularity among the urban dwellers. Poverty and inequality in Harare have been on the rise and exacerbated by bad governance, deteriorated service delivery which has led to a deprivation of human basic needs, the economic collapse and a lack of productive economic opportunities for citizens. Negative impacts of poverty and inequality in Harare have been the exclusion of economic and social rights, increased social ills such as crime and substance abuse and a continuous vicious cycle of poverty among families. Strategies for poverty and inequality reduction in Harare include a restructuring trajectory characterized by a focus on economic growth and development, public sector reforms, the adoption of people centred economic and social policies, upholding good governance principles and a re-engagement with the international community for growth and development. Harare as a city ought to have a specific growth and development policy that transforms the city to the status of the ‘Sunshine City’.D. Phil. (Development Studies)Development Studie
Shock and the materialist conception of art: Considerations for a politicised cultural psychology
No full textThe materialist conception of art understands art in relation to the material conditions
within and by which art is produced and consumed. For cultural psychology,
the materialist conception of art has been useful for developing insights into how
individual perceptions are shaped, and are shaped by, culture as a collectively produced
and historically embedded site of meaning-making. However, in much of
cultural psychology, the relationship between progressive politics and the materialist
conception of art remains under-appreciated. In this article, I consider how cultural
psychologists might strengthen this relation through artistic shock, that is, a subjective,
perceptual, and/or historiographical rupture brought about through the
experience of art. In particular, I outline how Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin
theorised and practiced artistic shock, and examine what the work of these thinkers
could mean for cultural psychologists working with political collectives to grapple
with psychopolitical questions related to subjectivity, contradiction, and memory. I
conclude by reflecting on how future work that seeks to politicise cultural psychology
might engage with the materialist conception of artInstitute for Social and Health Studies (ISHS
Exploratory factor analysis of constructs used for investigating research uptake for public healthcare practice and policy in a resource-limited setting, South Africa
No full textAbstract
Background
Low-resource settings are often less capable of responding to and implementing available quality research evidence for public healthcare practice and policy development due to various factors. In most low-resource settings, limited empirical evidence is available to help deal with localised factors that contribute to low public health research uptake, particularly from the perspective of key research stakeholders.
Methods
Although the study initially employed a two-phase exploratory sequential approach, this paper focuses on the results generated from a quantitative approach. Considering the determining factors that affect research uptake in the context of low-resource settings, a measuring instrument was developed and its reliability and validity were assessed using an exploratory factor analysis approach.
Results
A total of 212 respondents, according to their job roles and titles, were identified as researchers, front-line workers, programme managers, and directors/senior managers of higher learning institutions, indicating that the three constructs applied in the questionnaire, namely (1) individual factors, (2) organisational factors, and (3) research characteristics, demonstrated relatively high reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of greater than 0.791.
Conclusion
The study concludes that the instrument can potentially be used to measure factors that affect research uptake in low-resource settings
Open distance electronic learning students with disabilities' mobile learning use and psychological factors inherent in the Technology Acceptance Model influencing mobile learning use
No full textThis study aimed to gain insight into the psychological factors that influence m-learning usage
among students with disability (SwD) enrolled at an open distance and e-learning (ODeL)
institution (UNISA) during the year of 2023. An unexplored area in the literature regarding mlearning
use amongst SwD hinders this HE institution in effectively designing both educational
material and technological solutions for SwD. This highlights a challenge in UNISA’s ability
to support SwD and presents a problem in developing effective e-learning tools which include
these students. This study aimed to contribute knowledge in this area in order to promote
educational equity for SwD. Using an adapted TAM, a quantitative research method was
applied, which made use of an online, non-experimental cross-sectional survey to investigate
m-learning use, the prevalence of m-learning and to examine the relationship between mlearning
use and the psychological constructs of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of
use (PEOU), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and attitude. Given the prolific nature of
TAM, its use in educational settings and its flexibility, it was chosen as the basis of the
theoretical framework of this study. In order to answer the research questions, data from the
research instrument was analysed in SPSS using two frequency analyses, a Spearman's Rho
correlation, and two Kruskal-Wallis tests. Although TAM is widely used to understand
technology use, its application in m-learning contexts, especially among SwD in ODeL,
remains largely unexplored. Results indicate the majority of respondents reported using mlearning
either daily or weekly (90.5%; n = 199). Further results revealed no significant
relationship between m-learning use and PBC, PEOU or attitude. A significant correlation was,
however, found between m-learning use and PU. These results bring to the fore the importance
of emphasising the benefits of m-learning in educational settings to enhance SwD’s perception
of its usefulness, thereby encouraging greater adoption and integration into their learning
routines. Furthermore, the significance of PU indicates that this psychological construct is of
the utmost importance for this population of students and that future technology acceptance
models would do well to use PU as a basis, excluding PEOU, PBC and attitude. Additionally,
results revealed no significant difference between m-learning use and type of disability or mlearning
device used. This implies that educational institutions and policymakers can adopt a
versatile approach to m-learning implementation for SwD, accommodating a variety of devices
to students with various types of disabilities.M.A. (Psychology)Psycholog
Recidivists’ perceptions of the effectiveness of correctional programmes at the Baviaanspoort Management Area
Get PDFCorrectional programmes have emerged as one of the most preferred ways of combating high rates of recidivism in the criminal justice system in South Africa. Since the drastic increase in crime rates globally, the South African corrections system contributes to the reduction of recidivism by exposing more offenders to correctional programmes. The numbers of recidivist in the South African corrections system have been on the increase since the advent of democracy in South Africa. While there is tangible evidence of the implementation of correctional programmes in South African correctional centres, recidivism rates in South Africa remain high. Rehabilitation efforts to alter offender criminal behaviour are consequently fundamental to curb recidivism.
The study intended to capture the perceptions of recidivists on the effectiveness of correctional programmes at the Baviaanspoort Management Area in Gauteng Region. The objectives of the study were to determine the correctional programmes that are used by the Baviaanspoort Management Area to support the preparation of offenders for release; determine the suitability of correctional programmes used by the DCS during the pre-release process; establish offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness of correctional programmes after release and pinpoint strategies to strengthen correctional programmes that could help offenders avoid reoffending after their release.
The study used qualitative method to collect data in the form of two focus group interviews. The focus groups were conducted with recidivists incarcerated at the Baviaanspoort medium correctional centre and the Baviaanspoort maximum correctional centre who were all purposively sampled. A thematic analysis was applied to create categories, sub-themes, and themes.
The study findings established that recidivists at the Baviaanspoort Management Area attended and completed the correctional programmes on offer in the correctional centres. The study was able to establish that most of the recidivists participated in and completed the correctional programmes. It was also established that factors such as need-based programmes, use of offender’s home languages and special programme for parole violators are important in making the Baviaanspoort Management Area’s correctional programmes suitable. The study findings further established that the Baviaanspoort Management Area’s correctional centres are challenged by elements such as poor learning support material, poor learning assessment, overcrowding, and use of (unqualified) offenders as facilitators. The study concludes that the correctional programmes are not mandatory and are not prescribed by either psychologists or social workers, there is an absence of well-structured correctional programmes, there is little or no of use Learning and Teaching Materials (LTSM) in the facilitation of correctional programmes and the correctional programmes need to match offenders’ offending behaviour.
Recommendations for future research included the review of the current correctional programmes by the DCS. Future research should also cover correctional officials and service providers involved in the facilitation of correctional programmes and their exposure to continuous development programmes. In addition, future research needs to explore the effects of the elements associated with teaching and learning processes in the facilitation of the correctional programmes.M.A. (Criminal Justice)Corrections Managemen