'Hayi, they don’t know Xhosa’: Comparative isiXhosa teaching challenges in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Kretzer, Michael M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:42499 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2019.1672318
- Description: Language-in-education policy in South Africa is underpinned by the Constitution. The gap that this research addresses is the inconsistency of policy implementation and the actual teaching of isiXhosa in primary schools. It analyses the official and overt language policy and the (covert) language practices at schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with language teachers and principals. Data were also gathered from classroom observations and document analysis in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. On the one hand, there are standard language policy documents that exist. These advocate for English as a language of learning and teaching and isiXhosa as a subject. On the other hand, the daily reality in classrooms partly reflects this policy implementation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
'Here's to you, Mrs Robinson' : peculiarities and paragraph 29 in determining the treatment of domestic partnerships
- Authors: Kruuse, Helen
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article , text
- Identifier: vital:26388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54083
- Description: There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct. The law is one of the important architects of social norms. At times, it can be a tool to solve problems, eradicate inequalities, and advance the rights of the disadvantaged. At other times, the law is an anchor and a constraint upon social and ideological advances. With regards to equality and non-traditional partnerships, it seems that law falls into this latter category.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
'I always knew I would go to university': a social realist account of student agency: part 1
- Authors: Ellery, Karen , Baxen, Jean
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61207 , vital:27990
- Description: Academic development programmes at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa are often underpinned by discourses that view students as deficit. Archer's social realist ontology offers a means of understanding reflexivities and agency of students in the higher education context. Using narrative data and drawing on Archer's (2003) theory of mediation between structure and agency through internal conversations, this study examined the socio-economic background of one particular student, Thando, and his agential journey to arrive at the academy. The analysis reveals Thando has a deliberate and determined stance towards achieving his project of obtaining a tertiary education in order to realise a better life for himself and his family. Despite what could be perceived as constraining socio-cultural conditions, Thando strategically circumvents such restrictions and acts in ways that help him pursue his project. It is argued that student agency needs to take a more central place within academic development programmes in higher education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
'I want to tell the story again': re-telling in selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner
- Authors: Collett, Jenna Lara
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Warner, Alan Criticism and interpretation Winterson, Jeanette, 1959- -- Criticism and interpretation English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2248 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002291
- Description: This thesis investigates acts of ‘re-telling’ in four selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner.Re-telling, as I have defined it, refers to the re-imagining and re-writing of existing narratives from mythology, fairy tale, and folktale, as well as the re-visioning of scientific discourses and historiography. I argue that this re-telling is representative of a contemporary cultural phenomenon, and is evidence of a postmodern genre that some literary theorists have termed re-visionary fiction. Despite the prevalent re-telling of canonical stories throughout literary history, there is much evidence for the emergence of a specifically contemporary trend of re-visionary literature. Part One of this thesis comprises two chapters which deal with Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry (1989) and Weight (2005) respectively. In these chapters, I argue that, although the feminist and historiographic elements of her work are significant, there exist further motivations for Winterson’s acts of re-telling in both Sexing the Cherry and Weight. In Chapter One, I analyse Winterson’s subversion and re-imagining of historiography, as well as her re-telling of fairy tale, in Sexing the Cherry. Chapter Two provides a discussion of Winterson’s re-telling of the myth of Atlas from Greek mythology, in which she draws on the discourses of science, technology, and autobiography, in Weight. Part Two focuses on Warner’s first two novels, Morvern Callar (1995) and These Demented Lands (1997). In both novels, Warner re-imagines aspects of Christian, Celtic and pagan mythology in order to debunk the validity of biblical archetypes and narratives in a contemporary working-class setting, as well as to endow his protagonist with goddess-like or mythical sensibilities. Chapter Three deals predominantly with Warner’s use of language, which I argue is central to his blending of mythological and contemporary content, while Chapter Four analyses his use of myth in these two novels. This thesis argues that while both Winterson and Warner share many of the aims associated with contemporary re-visionary fiction, their novels also exceed the boundaries of the genre in various ways. Winterson and Warner may, therefore, represent a new class of re-visionary writers, whose aim is not solely to subvert the pre-text but to draw on its generic discourses and thematic conventions in order to demonstrate the generic and discursive possibilities inherent in the act of re-telling.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
'I won't be squeezed into someone else's frame': Stories of supervisor selection
- Authors: Harrison, Liz , McKenna, Sioux , Searle, Ruth
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/187395 , vital:44629 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC15100"
- Description: Using a collection of stories from a group of women who belong to a PhD support group, this article tracks the issue of choosing a supervisor. These women are all academics and therefore had some claim to an "insider" status but as novice researchers they were also "outsiders". Their discussions around how and why they chose their supervisors highlight issues often underplayed or ignored in textbooks on postgraduate supervision. In particular, this article examines issues of knowledge, embodied subjectivity and power by following three questions that arise from the data : whose knowing is important; who should I be, and whose PhD is it?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
'Iron on iron': modernism engaging apartheid in some South African railway poems
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: vital:7068 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007459 , https://doi.org/10.1080/00138398.2011.626177
- Description: preprint , Modernism tends to be criticised, internationally, as politically conservative. The objection is often valid, although the charge says little about the quality of artistic achievement involved. This article argues that the alliance between Modernism and political conservatism is by no means a necessary one, and that there are instances where modernist vision has been used to convey substantive political insight, effective social critique and solid resistance. To illustrate the contrast,the article juxtaposes the abstract Modernism associated with Ben Nicholson and World War 2, with a neglected strain of South African railway poetry which uses modernist techniques to effect a powerful critique of South Africa’s apartheid dispensation. The article sustains a distinction between universalising modernist art that requires ethical work from its audiences to achieve artistic completion, and art in which modernist vision performs the requisite ethical work within its own formal constraints. Four very different South African railway poems, by Dennis Brutus, John Hendrickse, Alan Paton, and Leonard Koza, are examined and contextualised to demonstrate ways in which a modernist vision has been used to portray the social disruptions caused by apartheid. Modernist techniques are used to turn railway experience into a metonym for massive social disruption,without betraying the social reality of the transport technology involved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
'Joining the academic life': South African students who succeed at university despite not meeting standard entry requirements
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Idahosa, Grace E
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141745 , vital:38001 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC159177
- Description: At present the Swedish points system is one of the main determinants of an applicant either being granted or refused entry into many South African higher education institutions (HEIs). Using a grounded theory approach, this article interprets the experiences of participants whose school performance and therefore university 'entry points' were lower than the expected norm. Despite not meeting standard university entry requirements, these students succeeded at university, completing their degrees in the minimum time available and going on to higher degrees. The journey of these participants - from low entry points to academic success - suggests that points based on school performance are not necessarily the best way of identifying students' potential to succeed in the contemporary South African educational context. If their entry points were not a good indication of their ability to thrive at university, the article asks, what is it about these participants that accounts for their success? And what implications does this have for South African practice, not only with regard to admissions policies but also in relation to the responsibilities of HEIs to students once they are admitted?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
'Leaders like children playing with a grenade?' : an analysis of how the Arab Spring was received in South Africa
- Authors: Gevers, Tristan Ronald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Arab Spring, 2010- Revolutions -- Theory Arab countries -- Social conditions -- 21st century South Africa -- Social condtions -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2846 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006031
- Description: When the Arab Spring took place, it took the world by surprise and sparked renewed interest in the idea of revolution. With differing opinions on what caused such a revolutionary wave throughout the North African and Middle Eastern region, many began looking at their own countries, and South Africa was no different. A debate was sparked in South Africa, as to whether there would be a revolution or not. What I originally set out to accomplish is to find out which side of the debate would be correct through the philosophical context of revolutionary theory. Initially, we attempted to define and consider the history of revolutionary theory. We found that revolutionary theory has gone through four generation and that even finding a theoretically informed definition is difficult. Following this, we considered some social-psychological theories of revolution as well as theories of moral indignation. We found that these theories were incredibly informative and that they provide some insight into the reasoning for revolutionary fear in the South African debate. Through the use of opinion pieces, we then considered the South African debate, and – using socialpsychological theories and the theories of moral indignation - found that both sides of the argument had valuable points, however, they often lacked some foresight. With tentative agreement, we found that the side arguing that there would a revolution in South Africa had a more valuable argument, despite its limitations. However, far more research is required before one can – with more accuracy – predict a revolutionary occurrence in such a way as was done in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
'Meaningful engagement’: Towards a language rights paradigm for effective language policy implementation
- Authors: Docrat, Zakeerah , Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174812 , vital:42512 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2015.1056455
- Description: This article aims to develop the concept of ‘meaningful engagement’ in terms of the contemporary language policy implementation framework in South Africa. By exploring the current language policies, implementation and the current lack of effectiveness, the authors offer a new implementation focus drawn from the legal concept of ‘meaningful engagement’. ‘Meaningful engagement’ is a concept within the socio-economic rights sphere. This article expands and advances the concept within a language policy framework. Against the enabling legislative environment created by the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012 and the overarching Constitutional framework which embeds the rights of all official languages, ‘meaningful engagement’ is developed and applied to selected language policies and practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
'n Interdissiplinêre benadering tot die klasmusiekonderwys in Suid-Afrika
- Authors: Hendrikse, Salóme
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: School music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa Music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2640 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002305
- Description: In hierdie tesis word 'n nuwe benadering tot klasmusiekonderwys in die R.S.A. bespreek. Die navorsing vervat in die tesis is vanaf 1984 tot 1992 gedoen. In 'n sekere sin verklaar die aanvangsdatum van die navorsing die feit dat die projek veral gerig is op die blanke onderwyssituasie aangesien die verskillende groepe se onderwysbelange volgens amptelike beleid grotendeels deur verskillende onderwysowerhede behartig is. Die blanke onderwysgerigtheid van die navorsingsontwerp ten spyt, is die uitgangspunte en die bevindings van die studie, veral ten opsigte van die rol en funksie van musiekopvoeding, sonder twyfel van toepassing op al die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskappe. In die opsig behoort die bevindings van die studie dus tot 'n groot mate ook die eise van musiekopvoeding veral vir 'n toekomsgerigte onderwys te kan ondervang juis omdat die vertrekpunt van die voorgestelde vemuwings en aanpassings in die musiekopvoeding die waardes en norme van gemeenskappe moet identiflseer en vertolk en terselfdertyd die beperkende effek daarvan moet teenwerk deur kulturele transenderings. Veral laasgenoemde is van groot belang in die multikulturele opset van die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap waarin die musiekopvoeding juis 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die ontwikkeling van 'n onderlinge begrip en waardering tussen die verskillende kultuurgemeenskappe. In Afdeling A van die tesis word die huidige stand van klasmusiek bespreek en daar word op gewys dat, afgesien van 'n aantal sekondere faktore, die prirnere redes vir die nie-geslaagdheid van die vak, faktore soos die sillabusse, die opleiding van die onderwyser en die posisie van die vak in die kurrikulum is. Teenoor die huidige benadering van klasmusiek met al sy probleme word 'n ander benadering tot die onderwys in die a!gemeen en die klasmusiek in die besonder gestel, naamlik die interdissiplinere benadering met sy twee afdelings, naamlik die geesteswetenskappe en die kunstebenadering. Hierdie benaderings word bespreek soos wat dit in die V.SA. en Europa toegepas word, en daarna word 'n aangepaste benadering vir die R.S.A. ontwikkel ten opsigte van doelstellings,uitgangspunte, riglyne, metodiek en tegniek. In Afdeling B volg die empiriese navorsing wat ten opsigte van die interdissiplinere benadering in die R.S.A. gedoen is, en drie lesreekse, soos beplan vir Standerd 6 en 7; Standerd 8 en vir Standerd 9 en 10 word bespreek. As deel van elke lesreeks word die wordingstand van elke ouderdomsgroep bespreek en in gedagte gehou by die saamstel van hierdie lesreekse. Elke lesreeks bestaan uit 3-4 volledig uitgewerkte lesse wat insluit: hulpmiddels (kunsvoorbeelde, musiekvoorbeelde, gedigvoorbeelde ensomeer), beknopte aantekeninge vir die onderwyser, 'n bronnelys en 'n klankkasset met die nodige klankillustrasies soos waarna in die lesse verwys word. In Afdeling C word die resultate van 'n steekproef bespreek wat gedoen is in verskeie skole in die vier provinsies van die R.S.A. Met hierdie steekproef is beoog om die reaksies van leerlinge en onderwysers te toets ten opsigte van hierdie nuwe voorgestelde, en aangepaste interdissiplinêre benadering. Die lesreekse wat deel vorm van Afdeling B is as basis deur die onderwysers gebruik, maar hul was vry om eie idees te ontwikkel en te gebruik. Die reaksies van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word in die vorm van tabelle en besprekiogs aangedui, en aanbevelings van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word aangetoon. Die tesis word afgesluit met addendums tot die verskillende hoofstukke asook volledige bibliografiese besonderhede.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
'n Ondersoek na die uitbeelding van Khoisan-karakters deur wit Afrikaanse prosateurs: 1994-2014
- Authors: December, Peter
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Khoikhoi (African people) -- South Africa -- History Khoikhoi (African people) -- Race identity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/22070 , vital:29819
- Description: This dissertation offers a literary-thematic investigation based on a postcolonial approach to the representation of the Khoisan and their descendants. I restricted my scope to selected Afrikaans novels at the centre of critical attention between between 1994 and 2014. Earlier novels in this period under discussion are Dolf van Niekerk’s Koms van die hyreën (1994), Willem Kotze’s Tsats van die Kalahari (1994), Die spoorsnyer (1994), Olifantjagters (1997) and Gif (2001) by Piet van Rooyen, plus Karel Schoeman’s Verkenning (1996). Later texts in the focus are Duiwelskloof (1998) and Bidsprinkaan (2005) by André P. Brink, Dalene Matthee’s Pieternella van die Kaap (2000), Eben Venter’s Santa Gamka (2009) and most recently, the Hertzog prize winner of 2015, Buys by Willem Anker (2014). Themes central to South African literature will form the focus of the research, namely intercultural interaction between the first inhabitants of South Africa and missionaries, the question of land ownership, the language motif, and the role of religion (indigenous versus Western belief systems). Attention will also be on more specific issues such as the nature of the relationship between the Khoisan and the colonisers, the characterization of the Khoisan by the selected white authors, as well as other contemporary debates. The secondary objective of the study is to review the historical presence of the Khoisan and their descendants as reflected through the fictional lense of these authors writing over the last two decades, since democratization of the regime in 1994. My focus is particularly on the substantial cultural contribution of the Khoi and the San, as reflected through their representation in fictional works. The question will be posed whether the portrayal of Khoisan characters in novels after 1994 is different from the portrayal in fiction before 1994? My hypothesis is that in the fictional representation one finds a move towards restoration of their human dignity, yet the fact remains that all the authors are white. A different study of fictional works by coloured writers (whose numbers as Afrikaans authors grew substantially after 1994), investigating their representation of the descendants of the Khoi and the San, would in all probability yield radically different results, as the white authors imagine the characters and their consciousness from outside the community and the racial group, whereas the coloured writers belong to the community and the group that they portray.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
'On the fringes of society’ and ‘out of the closest’: a response to ‘Sexual/Textual Politics
- Authors: Spencer, Lynda G
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139034 , vital:37698 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2014.983324
- Description: Gibson Ncube’s ‘Sexual/Textual Politics: Rethinking gender and sexuality in gay Moroccan literature’ focuses on an emerging body of gay literature that is developing within the larger framework of Moroccan literature. Ncube attempts to illustrate how the contemporary narratives of Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa portray the quotidian experiences of minority sexualities who strive to exist in the hegemonic heteropatriarchies of Moroccan societies. These narratives challenge and destabilise the heteronormative ideals of Arab-Muslim communities and endeavour to offer alternative ways of thinking about marginalised sexualities in the public space. This analysis draws on the feminist underpinnings of Maria Pia Lara to argue that private gay narratives have the potential to re-imagine the public domain.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
'ORPHEIOI HYMNOI' The generic contexts of the Orphic Hymns
- Authors: Malamis, Daniel Scott Christos
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Orphic hymns , Poetics Early works to 1800 , Hymns, Greek (Classical) History and criticism , Literary form
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327177 , vital:61088 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327177
- Description: Uncertainty surrounds the circumstances of Orphic Hymns’ composition and their intended use. Their author has substituted their own identity for that of the mythological poet and there is no certain reference to the extant collection in any ancient source. They are, in this sense, decontextualised. This study aims to make a contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the hymns’ composition, and the original function they might have served, through an analysis of their poetic and generic contexts. Following a detailed survey of scholarship on the hymns, I reflect first on the collection as a unified text, the constitutive parts of the individual hymns and the methods they employ for addressing, describing and praying to the gods. I then study a select group of stylistic features that the hymns prominently display: their use of phonic effects, including etymological figures, of antithesis and symmetrical patterning, and their extensive repetition of poetic formulae. In each case I discuss the deployment and significance of these poetic elements within the collection and consider the intertextual parallels suggested by their recurrence in Greek literary texts of all periods. This analysis reveals the hymns’ engagement with an overlapping set of poetic traditions, including, most prominently, cultic hymns and oracles, gnomic poetry, the theological discourses of the Presocratic philosophers and, in particular, Orphic poetry in its many forms. It suggests moreover that the hymns engage deeply with the oral strategies of the earliest Greek poets, underscoring the conclusion reached by several recent scholars, that the extant collection is essentially performative and was intended to be recited and heard. I argue that the Orphic Hymns were not a unique text in their employment of the stylistic features studied here, but drew extensively upon earlier hymns composed in Orpheus’ name. I further consider, in the light of this argument, the bearing this study has on the unresolved questions of the hymns’ composition, whether by a single author or many, and the aims of the poet(s) who composed them. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Languages and Literature Studies, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
'People's English' in South Africa : theory and practice
- Authors: Butler, Ian
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Second language acquisition -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1691 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003574
- Description: Communicative Language Teaching, an approach to language teaching currently widely prescribed, has been criticised for its unquestioning acceptance of the cultural and political norms of the target language. People's English (an aspect of the larger People's Education movement), on the other hand, offers a philosophy and methodology that takes an actively critical view of language and its relationship to power. In the context of South African society, this stance has had clear political implications. Although still imprecisely defined , the concepts of People's Education and People's English have been debated and discussed by various ant-apartheid movements in recent years. Attempts have also been made to translate the evolving theory into practice through the development of materials and methodologies. This has been achieved on a relatively small scale, with varying degrees of success. Recent reform measures by the South African government have, however, prompted the proponents of People's Education to reassess their position. This thesis presents a historical overview and critical assessment of the development of People's English in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
'Respecting the racist’: racism at work
- Authors: Martin, Tom
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159079 , vital:40265 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC1447221
- Description: Racists can believe some pretty odd things, I'm not talking about the completely out-of-left field, lunatic fringe racists who might believe that God deems that white people have dominion over black people, or that there is a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
'Rhodesians' in South Africa : a study of immigrants from Zimbabwe
- Authors: Simon, Alan
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Zimbabweans South Africa -- Foreign population Zimbabwe -- Emigration and immigration South Africa -- Emigration and immigration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005630
- Description: Although most whites have remained in Zimbabwe after independence and not all who have emigrated came to South Africa, large numbers established themselves as an immigrant community in this country. The aim of this study is to "sociologically capture" this community's views about their past experiences in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and their present experiences in South Africa. This is done by employing a generative methodological procedure whereby members of the target population themselves generated issues considered to be of importance to their previous and new situational contexts. As it was not possible to obtain a random sample of all Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, questionnaire data were collected from four separate categories of respondents. In addition, depth interviews were conducted and thus responses have been analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings demonstrate that for the most part, few "Zimbabweans" - whites who are reasonably accepting of the new socio-political order in independent Zimbabwe - have come to South Africa. Rather, most of the immigrants, whose views were canvassed in this research investigation, seem to be bitter "Rhodesians" who have been unable to accept change and integration and the consequent loss of white privilege in the new Zimbabwe. These recent immigrants have not found all things to their satisfaction in South Africa moreover, despite the similar socio-political structures in former Rhodesia and contemporary South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
'Rich man poor man': inter-household and community factors influencing the use of wild plant resources amongst rural households in South Africa
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Bangay, Lindsey , Shackleton, Charlie M , Wiersum, K Freerk
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141211 , vital:37953 , DOI: 10.3843/SusDev.15.3:3
- Description: Biodiversity is recognised as an integral part of people's daily livelihoods. This study therefore aims to understand the use of NTFPs at an intricate level by determining what role these resources fulfil in six rural villages and 1011 households' livelihoods. It examines how the use of NTFPs are influenced by intra-household variables, such as wealth and gender, and inter-community variables, such as accessibility to the natural resource. The results reveal that approximately 4453 kg of wild material is used annually per household, of which 1598 kg is used for cultural purposes. The influence of vegetation type and differences between villages are statistically more significant than inter-household variables. At an inter-household level, an increase in the financial status of households did not result in a decrease in the use of natural resources, nor in the quantity of material used.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
'She travels alone and unattended’: the visit to the Eastern Cape of the botanical artist, Marianne North
- Authors: Beard, Margot
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147759 , vital:38668 , https://doi.org/10.1080/00043389.2007.11877077
- Description: The visit of the botanical artist, Marianne North, to South Africa during 1882 to 1883, although frequently referred to, has not received much close attention; nor has her account of the visit, in her ‘Recollections of a happy’ life, been set against the actual conditions she would have encountered. This paper attempts to flesh out at least part of that visit, specifically the weeks she spent in the Eastern Cape Colony and, more particularly, her visits to Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown and Port Alfred. What were these three centres like at the time? Who were the people she mentions? Where did she stay? How do her observations tally with other accounts of the period?.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
'Show and tell': a discursive analysis of women's written accounts of their self-injuring practices
- Authors: Morison, Tracy
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Self-injurious behavior , Psychology, Pathological
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3026 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002535 , Self-injurious behavior , Psychology, Pathological
- Description: Self-injuring is a practice that involves self-administered damage to one’s body, most commonly cutting of the skin on the forearms. (The practice is distinguished from other intentional and in/direct self-harmful or self-damaging behaviours that cause bodily harm). Dominant psychiatric, psychological or medical approaches construct self-injuring as deviant, socially unacceptable or abnormal behaviour that is indicative of more or less severe psychopathology, and importantly as a stereotypically female practice. This research is conducted within a post-essentialist framework and views self-injuring, and the injured body, as discursively constituted as well as a cultural and political act. It therefore moves away from pathologising discourses in which those who self-injure typically find themselves and their own accounts of their behaviour invalidated and silenced. Instead, the mental health perspective is viewed as one party among many that may contribute to the conceptualisation of ‘self-injuring’ practices as socially meaningful and thus self-injuring is critically interpreted without reliance on a medical model of ‘normalcy’. As part of attempts to challenge medical models and cultural ideals of normalcy, this research presents a critical discursive analysis of a series of narratives provided by 5 female participants in which they record their own experiences, feelings and thoughts related to their practices of selfinjuring. It makes use of critical discourse analytic methodology to identify certain characteristics of these narratives as representations of larger collective meaning systems. It analyses the ways in which self-injuring is constructed in women’s stories of their self-injuring experiences, focusing particularly on the subject positions available in these discourses, as well as their ideological effects. The analysis focuses particularly on constructions of the body and subject positions as they enable or undermines the self-injuring subject’s agency. Finally, it attempts to determine the limitations of certain accounts of self-injuring, pursuing multiple meanings of self-injuring and illuminating new dimensions of talk on self-injuring and novel ways of conceptualising and understanding the practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
'Technic' practices of the computer game Lanner: identity development through the LAN-gameplay experience
- Authors: Khunyeli, Ramotsamai Itumeleng
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Computer games -- Social aspects , Computer games -- Psychological aspects , Computer games -- Sex differences , Information technology -- Social aspects , Social interaction -- Computer network resources , Local area networks (Computer networks) -- Social aspects , Race discrimination -- Education (Higher) -- Computer network resources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3534 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013405
- Description: This thesis is a reception analysis using qualitative interviews to investigate the formation of cultural groups around computer-game LANs present in Rhodes University. It also looks at how issues of social inequalities evident on the university's campus impact on the participation of students in these LANs. The findings of this study are that the participants have established a community around the practice of computer LAN-gameplay based on values developed through the combination of the material and gameworlds. It serves as a home-on-campus for them; where they can fully explore their passion for games thus reaffirming their identity as gamers on a campus where being a gamer is viewed negatively. In this light, computer-game playing is not just a practice these participants perform, but a culture they live out every day. This is a culture predominantly lived out by men. One of the reasons for this is because most women have been raised to believe to have negative predispositions about digital gaming e.g. that it is childish, addictive and anti-social, but also that computer are meant to be used by men - women use them only when it is absolutely necessary, for example, that it is childish, for academic-related purposes. As a result, not many of them will use computers for any otherreason for fear of being socially criticised. In addition, the gaming culture being dominated by whites is due to the fact that admittance in to this community is still unaffordable for the majority of black students on the Rhodes University campus as a result of their social backgrounds.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011