Shopping and Guns: an analysis of public discourses in social media about mall robberies in South Africa

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in International relations, 2017This research project investigates public opinions about South African mall robberies discussed on Twitter. Using the principles of discourse and multimodal analysis, it provides critical insights constructed from the represented narratives of select, proposed middle-class consumers illustrating distinct sentiments about malls, crime and shopping. Malls are empirical objects that have been trivialised as ordinary and mundane consumer sites, devoid of any sociological significance embedded within the daily practices of shopping. This paper makes the argument that when contested by criminal activity, malls become valuable sites for critical enquiry towards gaining a deeper understanding of what these shopping attitudes mean within a post-apartheid, South African consumer landscape. The central issue of crime threatening public safety at malls diverges into an array of thematic discussions, revealing distinct indoctrinations surrounding apartheid’s iniquitous system of racial and social engineering. This study’s principle argument makes the claim that anxieties concerning public safety are only the tip of the iceberg, and this serves as an entry point into a discourse contesting exclusive shopping rights above constitutional equality for all. The test tube of mall robberies mixes desirable pleasures and humanitarian moralities together and creates a volatile cocktail of conflicting, consumer aspirations. In short, the public discourse of mall crimes is about maintaining self-entitled spaces of exclusivity within a desperate socioeconomic climate. This study concludes with questions and considerations raised by these authors which could springboard into opportunities for future inquiry.XL201

Corruption and patronage in post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa: an Afrocentric ethical critique.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Corruption has become one of the worrying plagues that affect political and socio-economic conditions of nations globally. Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions that is adversely affected by the effects of this menace. Even though corruption has attracted a lot of scholarship in the region, less attention has been paid to the role of political patronage and entitlement ethos on corruption prevalence. As a result, this thesis argues that the symbiotic relationship between political patronage and a strong sense of entitlement by politicians leads to endemic corruption in the region. The study adopts conceptual analysis method whereby corruption, patronage and entitlement are critically analysed. These concepts are analysed in the context of the struggle politics that characterised the transition from colonialism to post-colonialism and entitlement ethos portrayed by the national liberation movements that became governments. In order to establish the influence of patronage and entitlement on corruption, the study addresses various concerns. The key concerns include ascertaining the role of political patronage towards pervasive corruption in the governments of post-colonial sub-Saharan African countries, the metamorphosis of corrupt culture by the ruling liberation parties into entitlement ethos and the determination of the role that African ethics can play towards proffering a tenable and contextually relevant basis for critiquing corruption in the region. To respond to these concerns, the study established a conceptual interface between corruption and patronage. The study also traced how corruption became a corollary of weak colonial governments’ institutions, which were later inherited by independent governments. The study argues that from a monopolistic sense of legitimacy that characterised national liberation movements’ the political culture of entitlement has led to endemic corruption. Governments of former liberation movements have exhibited these characteristics through their dictatorial, predatory and entitlement political culture as a means of preserving their purported exclusive right to rule. In the light of the above observations, it is concluded that the manner in which political patronage and entitlement ethos were exercised by the national liberation movements that became governments have led to endemic corruption. African ethics is therefore adopted as the relevant critical tool upon which corruption and the ethos of entitlement in the sub-Saharan African region are critiqued. Based on its contextual relevance and ability to prioritize the wellbeing of the community above individual self-interest, African ethics has a potential to provide a tenable basis for anti-corruption discourse in the region and thus inform effective anti-corruption strategies

The Black Pacific

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Why have the struggles of the African Diaspora so resonated with South Pacific people? How have Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha activists incorporated the ideologies of the African diaspora into their struggle against colonial rule and racism, and their pursuit of social justice? This book challenges predominant understandings of the historical linkages that make up the (post-)colonial world. The author goes beyond both the domination of the Atlantic viewpoint, and the correctives now being offered by South Pacific and Indian Ocean studies, to look at how the Atlantic ecumene is refracted in and has influenced the Pacific ecumene. The book is empirically rich, using extensive interviews, participation and archival work and focusing on the politics of Black Power and the Rastafari faith. It is also theoretically sophisticated, offering an innovative hermeneutical critique of post-colonial and subaltern studies. The Black Pacific is essential reading for students and scholars of Politics, International Relations, History and Anthropology interested in anti-colonial struggles, anti-racism and the quests for equality, justice, freedom and self-determination

Human Rights, Persons with Disabilities, ICF and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - Training Toolkit

No abstract available

Brussels youth: between diversity and lack of security

Presented in a thematic manner, the aim of this synopsis is to paint a picture of French- and Dutch-speaking Brussels youth between the ages of 12 and 25, based on a great diversity of data and academic research published since 2005. The institutional and linguistic complexity which characterises the situation in Brussels and the production of research makes this type of exercise absolutely necessary. This inventory of knowledge regarding youth in Brussels sheds light on their extraordinary diversity and their vulnerability, as well as on the work to be carried out in order to fill the gaps and improve the information available for the stakeholders in the field. This synopsis therefore also constitutes a proposed research agenda.Présentée de façon thématique, cette note de synthèse a pour objectif de dresser un portrait des jeunes bruxellois, tant francophones que néerlandophones, de 12 à 25 ans à partir d’une grande diversité de données et recherches scientifiques publiées depuis 2005. La complexité institutionnelle et linguistique caractérisant à la fois le contexte bruxellois et la production des recherches rend ce type d’exercice tout à fait nécessaire. Cet état des lieux des connaissances sur les jeunes bruxellois permet de prendre conscience de leur extraordinaire diversité et de leurs nombreuses vulnérabilités, ainsi que du travail à accomplir pour combler les lacunes et améliorer les informations disponibles pour les acteurs de terrain. C’est pourquoi cette note constitue également une proposition d’agenda de recherches.Deze synthesenota, voorgesteld als een thematische nota, strekt ertoe een portret te maken van zowel de Nederlandstalige als Franstalige Brusselse jongeren van 12 tot 25 jaar aan de hand van een groot aantal diverse gegevens en wetenschappelijke werken die sinds 2005 zijn gepubliceerd. De complexe situatie op het vlak van de instellingen en het gebruik van de talen, die zowel de Brusselse context als de onderzoeken kenmerkt, vereist een dergelijke synthese. Dit overzicht van de kennis over de Brusselse jongeren vestigt de aandacht op hun buitengewone diversiteit en grote kwetsbaarheid, alsook op het werk dat nog moet worden uitgevoerd om de lacunes weg te werken en de beschikbare gegevens voor de actoren te velde te verbeteren. Daarom is deze synthesenota eveneens een voorstel van onderzoeksagenda

International Comparative Perspectives on Religion and Education

This book scrutinises religion in education in ten countries. It reveals much about the tension between religion and education in secular countries, and the blending between religion and education in religious countries, such as Iran and Malaysia, as well as secular countries such as the Netherlands. It also shows the important role the church currently plays in education in developing countries, such as Tanzania

The Black Pacific

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Why have the struggles of the African Diaspora so resonated with South Pacific people? How have Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha activists incorporated the ideologies of the African diaspora into their struggle against colonial rule and racism, and their pursuit of social justice? This book challenges predominant understandings of the historical linkages that make up the (post-)colonial world. The author goes beyond both the domination of the Atlantic viewpoint, and the correctives now being offered by South Pacific and Indian Ocean studies, to look at how the Atlantic ecumene is refracted in and has influenced the Pacific ecumene. The book is empirically rich, using extensive interviews, participation and archival work and focusing on the politics of Black Power and the Rastafari faith. It is also theoretically sophisticated, offering an innovative hermeneutical critique of post-colonial and subaltern studies. The Black Pacific is essential reading for students and scholars of Politics, International Relations, History and Anthropology interested in anti-colonial struggles, anti-racism and the quests for equality, justice, freedom and self-determination

A historical perspective of formal education for black people in the rural areas of South Africa with special reference to schools in the Northern Province

Educational StudiesM. Ed. (History of Education