Think Piece: Pioneers as relational subjects? Probing relationality as phenomenon shaping collective learning and change agency formation
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182787 , vital:43874 , xlink:href="DOI 10.4314/sajee.v34i1.5"
- Description: This paper deliberates on how relationality is framed in collective learning and change agency formation processes, with an emphasis on green economy and renewable energy learning contexts. The paper is not focused on empirical analysis of relationality in collective learning, but rather probes the phenomenon in order to provide more carefully constituted theoretical and analytical tools for further empirical research. The paper uses references to South African and Danish cases (albeit in slightly different ways), and, through this, it sets out to provide tools for generative insights and research into a recent international policy and strategy process which is bringing national-level Green Economy Learning Assessments (GELA) into being, including one in South Africa. Central to these GELAs is the notion of participatory or relational competence, which appears to be a central feature of collective learning, although this is not empirically analysed in this paper. In case study work undertaken for the GELA in South Africa that focused on South Africa’s major renewable energy development, and in the Samsø Island renewable energy transition case in Denmark, this competence appeared to come into focus in praxis. Interestingly, however, it appeared to come into focus colloquially as a discourse on ‘pioneers’ or ‘champions’, a phenomenon noticed in both the South African and Danish contexts. This paper probes this phenomenon further, especially since it initially appears to be contradictory to the emphasis on participatory and relational competence in the GELA study framework. This is because the concept of ‘pioneer/champion’ appears to highlight individual capabilities rather than collective, relational competences. Yet, on closer inspection, it is indeed the relational competences of the pioneer/champion, who is constituted as a ‘relational subject’ with a key role to play in producing shared relational goods, that appears to be significant to the collective learning and action process. This, as argued in the paper, requires a differentiation of relationism and relational realism. This Think Piece, which thinks with both theory and praxis, therefore offers a possible framework for more detailed empirical studies on relationality in collective learning and change agency formation.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Toward distributed key management for offline authentication
- Authors: Linklater, Gregory , Smith, Christian , Herbert, Alan , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430283 , vital:72680 , https://doi.org/10.1145/3278681.3278683
- Description: Self-sovereign identity promises prospective users greater control, security, privacy, portability and overall greater convenience; however the immaturity of current distributed key management solutions results in general disregard of security advisories in favour of convenience and accessibility. This research proposes the use of intermediate certificates as a distributed key management solution. Intermediate certificates will be shown to allow multiple keys to authenticate to a single self-sovereign identity. Keys may be freely added to an identity without requiring a distributed ledger, any other third-party service or sharing private keys between devices. This research will also show that key rotation is a superior alternative to existing key recovery and escrow systems in helping users recover when their keys are lost or compromised. These features will allow remote credentials to be used to issuer, present and appraise remote attestations, without relying on a constant Internet connection.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Towards transformative social learning on the path to 1.5 degrees
- Authors: Macintyre, Thomas , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Wals, Arjen E , Vogel, Coleen , Tassone, Valenina
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182461 , vital:43832 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.12.003"
- Description: This paper provides insights into learning orientations and approaches that encourage change and transformation on the path to achieving the 1.5 degree C target. This literature review of the climate change and education/learning interface positions relevant literature in a heuristic tool, and reveals different learning approaches to addressing climate change. We highlight that although traditional lines of departure for achieving climate targets are usually technocratic in nature, especially if a zero emissions pathway is aimed for, there is an increasing realisation that climate issues are complex, deeply intertwined with unsustainable development and cultural change, and require collective engagement. Through considering the 1.5 degree C target as a metaphor for the fundamental changes needed in society, we argue that a wide range of learning orientations, including more inclusive and transformative social learning approaches, are needed to address the colossal challenges facing society.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Traditional, indigenous, or leafy?: A definition, typology, and way forward for African vegetables
- Authors: Towns, Alexander M , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179791 , vital:43189 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-019-09448-1"
- Description: Around 1000 different species of indigenous and naturalized vegetables contribute to the dietary diversity, food security, and livelihoods of populations across sub-Saharan Africa. These foods are also a part of alimentary traditions and cultural identity, but have suffered as neglected and underutilized species. Slowly, African vegetables are beginning to gain the attention of universities, research centers, and development organizations; however, the terminology used to describe the plants is characterized by widespread disagreement and redundancy. Key terms and concepts used such as indigenous, traditional, and leafy have different interpretations and are used interchangeably, creating a challenge for coordinated research and extension efforts. Through analyzing a broad set of peer-reviewed journal articles on African vegetables, we (1) provide an overview with respect to definitions and terms used in the literature, (2) propose a definition of the term traditional African vegetable (TAV), (3) create a typology to classify the main groups of African vegetables, and (4) identify trends and gaps for further research and extension on African vegetables. We propose not only a unified way to categorize these vegetables but also a way for a more holistic and interdisciplinary systems approach to further the research agenda and practical management of African vegetables.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Traversing ethical imperatives: Learning from stories from the field
- Authors: Treharne, Gareth J , Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Marx, Jacqueline , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434279 , vital:73044 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_28
- Description: In this chapter we integrate the lessons that are shared across this handbook through the rich, storied examples of ethics in critical research. We outline central themes to the handbook that cut across all of the sections. The notions of vulnerability and harm are pertinent in critical research not only as a duty to protect participants, but also as signifiers that are mobilised and can constrain what is achieved in critical research. The stories told in this handbook contribute to ongoing learning about ethics in critical research by drawing on ethically important moments in the unfolding research processes. We ask whether ethical critical research requires relational models of reciprocity between researchers and participants/co-researchers and appreciation of situated ethics in the bureaucratic review processes.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Urban street names: An opportunity to examine biocultural relationships?
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182285 , vital:43817 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200891"
- Description: With increasing urbanisation there is concern regarding loss of experience and knowledge of biodiversity amongst urban populations. Yet biodiversity representations are retained in many art and functional forms, including names of places, buildings, institutions and streets. These manifestations offer a window to examine the relationship between humans and their experienced or imagined environment using a biocultural lens. I quantified the current prevalence of urban streets named after animals or plant species, the diversity of species represented, whether they are native or non-native, whether representative of the biome in which the town was situated and the change in prevalence through time. The street names of 48 towns in a one degree wide south-north belt across seven of South African’s biomes were captured and analysed. Of the 4,359 street names, 11.1% were named after plants (218 species) and 5.3% after animals (131 species), although some towns had none and others more than 40%. Approximately half of the plants were native to South Africa, whereas over 80% of the animals were. There was no correspondence between the species composition reflected in street names and the biome in which towns were located. The proportion of streets named after plants or animals has generally increased over the last two hundred years. These results provide insights into the bioculturally defined plants and animals that are valued by past and present urban communities, showing that they are generally from a wider array than can be found or experienced in the local setting.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Violations of good security practices in graphical passwords schemes: Enterprise constraints on scheme-design
- Authors: Vorster, Johannes , Irwin, Barry V W , van Heerden, Renier P
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430324 , vital:72683 , https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/10919/Vorster_22337_2018.pdf?sequence=1isAllowed=y
- Description: During the past decade, the sophistication and maturity of Enterprise-level Information Security (EIS) Standards and Systems has increased significantly. This maturity, particularly in the handling of enterprise-wide capability models, has led to a set of standards – e.g. ISO/IEC 27001, NIST 800-53, ISO/IEC 27789 and CSA CCM – that propose controls applicable to the implementation of an Information Security Manage-ment System (ISMS). By nature, the academic community is fruitful in its endeavour to propose new password schemes; and Graphical Passwords (GPs) have had many proposals for schemes. In this paper, we explore the impact of good security standards and lessons-learnt over the past decade of EID as a model of constraint on GPs schemes. The paper focuses on a number of GP schemes and points out the var-ious security constraints and limitations, if such schemes are to be im-plemented at the enterprise level.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Whose PARty was this? The dilemmas of a participatory action research process of evaluating a social enterprise.
- Authors: Lovell, Jacqueline , Akhurst, Jacqueline
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436926 , vital:73317 , ISBN 978-3-319-74721-7 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_24
- Description: Participatory action research aims to reduce power differentials in research. In this chapter we problematise the blurred boundaries when a participant becomes a researcher. We re-flect on a PhD undertaken by the first author who was a mem-ber of a social enterprise in the UK that provided user-led re-search and training with a diversity of communities. Experienc-es of ten members of the collective were gathered through creative arts-based methodologies designed to be inclusive. We describe three tensions that arose when trialling participa-tory video production, when data analysis could not be under-taken collaboratively, and when reflecting on the solitary nature of PhD thesis writing. We outline the ways these tensions were worked through and explore ways of writing about participatory research in a PhD thesis.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Wood preservation with gold hydroxyapatite system
- Authors: Ion, Rodica-Mariana , Nyokong, Tebello , Nwahara, Nnamdi , Suica-Bunghez, Ioana-Raluca , Iancu, Lorena , Teodorescu, Sofia , Dulama, Ioana D , Stirbescu, Raluca M , Gheboianu, Anca , Grigorescu, Ramona M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/187840 , vital:44702 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-018-0202-5"
- Description: Over centuries, the external factors such as fire, low temperature, light or microbiological agents, act on the wood and induce some degradation processes, sometimes irreversible, identified by discoloration, fragility and unsightly appearance. Although there are numerous literature reports about different nanomaterials used for preservation and restoration of wood surfaces (calcium hydroxides, magnesium hydroxides, hydroxyapatite, or even organic resins as Paraloid B72), in this paper it is proposed a new system—gold hydroxyapatite (AuHAp), tested on the hazelnut wood samples (young and aged specimens), as a new solution for preservation of some wooden artifacts. This paper addresses a broad range of analytical methods: X-ray diffraction, UV–Vis spectrophotometry, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, chromatic parameters and hardness test. Also, humidity sorption/desorption measurements are used for humidity sorption and desorption evaluation. The adsorption and desorption tests determined the hydroscopic sorption properties of the wood specimens by measuring the mass of the specimens in equilibrium with air at a specific temperature and RH. All the results concluded that after the application of the new system on the hazelnut wood surface, a well distributed and uniform layer consisting from AuHAp systems with a network aspect are observed, which covers the wood vessels and fibers, filling the voids and stopping the wood weathering process, more accentuated at aged wood than at the young species.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Writing groups as transformative spaces
- Authors: Wilmot, Kirstin , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:44576 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1450361"
- Description: Curriculum transformation is a central concern for higher education in response to rapidly expanding technologies, globalisation and the widening diversity of the student and staff body. This is particularly true for South Africa, which is still grappling with inequalities and pressure for social redress in its universities. Early responses to supporting students took the form of add-on, ‘deficit-model’ approaches which understood poor student retention and success rates as emerging from students’ lack of neutral literacy ‘skills’. Recent initiatives have begun to adopt more socio-cultural understandings of literacy that seek to challenge traditional power structures and cultivate horizontal peer-orientated spaces for learning with a focus on practice rather than on product. Writing groups, as spaces for academic writing development, embrace this orientation and are argued to provide a transformative framework that foregrounds proactive student learning and experience, while still accommodating disciplinary learning through peer engagement. Drawing on the successful implementation of such forms of support at a research-intensive university, this paper argues that writing groups can play a critical role in both personal (student) transformation and broader curriculum transformation. Data include anonymous questionnaires and surveys with participants and coordinators of the writing groups. An inductive, constant comparative analysis indicated that students feel empowered in this space to develop not only their writing practices but also their transforming identities as scholars. Writing groups were found to provide ‘safe spaces’ where academic practices can be made explicit and where they can be challenged. The paper therefore argues that writing groups can play a small but key role in broader transformation efforts.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Dridex: Analysis of the traffic and automatic generation of IOCs
- Authors: Rudman, Lauren , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429525 , vital:72619 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7802932
- Description: In this paper we present a framework that generates network Indicators of Compromise (IOC) automatically from a malware sample after dynamic runtime analysis. The framework addresses the limitations of manual Indicator of Compromise generation and utilises sandbox environment to perform the malware analysis in. We focus on the generation of network based IOCs from captured traffic files (PCAPs) generated by the dynamic malware analysis. The Cuckoo Sandbox environment is used for the analysis and the setup is described in detail. Accordingly, we discuss the concept of IOCs and the popular formats used as there is currently no standard. As an example of how the proof-of-concept framework can be used, we chose 100 Dridex malware samples and evaluated the traffic and showed what can be used for the generation of network-based IOCs. Results of our system confirm that we can create IOCs from dynamic malware analysis and avoid the legitimate background traffic originating from the sandbox system. We also briefly discuss the sharing of, and application of the generated IOCs and the number of systems that can be used to share them. Lastly we discuss how they can be useful in combating cyber threats.
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- Date Issued: 2016