1,720,955 research outputs found
Afrocentric social entrepreneurship development
No full textThis thesis examines the idea of social entrepreneurship (SE) from an Afrocentric and postdevelopment perspective. The thesis argues that the idea of SE is often examined from a Eurocentric perspective which tends to ignore the African context in which development takes place thereby failing to yield positive results for the African societies that are intended to be the beneficiaries of SE and its development outcomes. In South Africa, SE is predominantly understood from a business management point of view while epistemically drawing from German ideas of Social Democracy—a development that misses the contextual-epistemic realities of its location. This study takes an Afrocentric and post-development approach to examine bot the epistemic and contextual relevance of social entrepreneurship in South Africa.
To contribute to knowledge, the study appraises the relevance and value of SE’s social democratic epistemology to South Africa. Such an appraisal is undertaken from the view that traditionally, southern African society has been governed by the Afrocentric value of Ubuntu. Thus, posing the question of whether social democracy can be helpful to South African communities, and what adaptations, if any, would be required for this. Moreover, the study explores whether the practice (beyond theory) of social entrepreneurship is helpful from an Afrocentric viewpoint, as some ideas may be adaptable theoretically, but fail empirically.
Finally, the study found that it is more important to fashion the progress of South African societies along the lines of flourishing as opposed to developing. This is so as development is value-laden and tied to modernity, whose basic epistemology and axiology are not always reconcilable with local epistemologies. On the other hand, flourishing allows societies to define their unique trajectories of progress such as ubumbano/letsema – a concept embracing collective progress instead of individual wealth, amongst other important ideas. The findings also show that the motivations for SE vary but have a common understanding of human needs which affirm beneficiaries’ dignity and humanness. Further, the findings reveal that social enterprises want to build ecologies of innovation and change, and be empathetic to people’s needs, and they have reservations with most government-led solutions as those tend to be exclusive, further creating new problems when trying to solve old ones
Mechanisms employed to cushion Social Enterprises in Johannesburg and the surrounding Townships during the 2008 Global Economic Recession
Get PDFAbstract: Social Enterprise organisations (SEs) seek to assist communities to access their basic needs while using various mechanisms to remain financially sustainable. They do this in light of sustainable financial limitations of non-profit organisations (NPOs), especially since the 2008 global economic recession. However, SEs remain under-researched in South Africa. Therefore, this dissertation sought to understand the mechanisms used by four SEs in the city of Johannesburg and two townships around that city to survive beyond the aforementioned recession. Semi-structured interviews and documentary analyses were used to understand the efforts of these organisations to survive the recession. The finding of the study re not generalizable to all SEs that existed during the 2008 recession. However, the findings do show that upholding good management and business practices; as well as maintaining good relationships with donors, clients, and beneficiaries can potentially assist in surviving economic chaos. As the four SEs kept to the abovementioned practices, they did not need to make any drastic changes to their business models during the recession. The dissertation then makes recommendations relating to the South African government’s registration of SEs, the need for quantitative research in this and similar topic, and a call is made for social entrepreneurs to be able to analyse their context carefully.M.A. (Development Studies
The potential role blue flag status plays in promoting sustainable coastal tourism, Mthunzini Beach, uMlalazi, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
No full textThis paper investigates the role of using a blue flag (BF) as a marketing tool for
promoting tourism within Mthunzini Beach in South Africa. Although Blue
Flags are expensive and difficult to maintain, there is limited research on
whether blue flags are effective in promoting coastal areas as tourism destinations. This is a study of the uMlalazi Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa, home to Mthunzini Beach. Although Mthunzini Beach is
environmentally sensitive, it could advance local economic growth by attracting
more tourists to the region. This paper investigates the role of the Blue Flag as a
marketing tool that can both protect the environment and simultaneously
promote coastal tourism. Thus, this study is underpinned by the theory of
ecological economics where there is a balance between being sensitive to the
environment and to economic gains. Sixteen (16) semi-structured interviews
were conducted with conservation managers, environmentalists, tourism
officers, and the conservancy chairperson at Mthunzini Beach. Results show
that the Blue Flag is recommended as an effective marketing tool that can
preserve the environment and promote tourism development. However, much
work needs to be done by investing in supporting infrastructure such as parking
facilities, waste disposal, security, and upgrading the ablution facilities
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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