Co-designing for common values:creating hybrid spaces to nurture autonomous cooperation

This paper concerns the development of digitally-mediated technologies that value social cooperation as a common good rather than as a source of revenue and accumulation. The paper discusses the activities that shaped a European participatory design project which aims to develop a digital space that promotes and facilitates the ‘Commonfare’, a complementary approach to social welfare. The paper provides and discusses concrete examples of design artifacts to address a key question about the role of co- and participatory design in developing hybrid spaces that nurture sharing and autonomous cooperation: how can co-design practices promote alternatives to the commodification of digitally-mediated cooperation? The paper argues for a need to focus on relational, social, political and ethical values, and highlights the potential power of co- and participatory design processes to achieve this. In summary, the paper proposes that only by re-asserting the centrality of shared values and capacities, rather than individual needs or problems, co-design can reposition itself thereby encouraging autonomous cooperation

The regulatory rescue of the Welfare State

The regulatory state and the welfare state can be described in terms of contrasting pairs of ‘types of policies’ and ‘types of politics’ following Lowi (1972). The paradigmatic regulatory type of policy is market coordination, and its type of politics is nonmajoritarian, technical and supranational. The welfare state has redistribution as its paradigmatic type of policy, and the dominant type of politics is majoritarian, party-political and national. This paper dissects these distinctions. Public sector reforms mean that regulatory types of policy can increasingly be found within welfare service provision. Different arrangements for labour market coordination are integral to different welfare state regimes, and at the same time these regulatory arrangements are concerned with combating market failure and promoting efficiency. There are abundant examples of technical, expertocratic policy-making within the welfare state and a high level of supranational policy exchange. Delegation is important to the institutionalisation of the welfare state, as are nonmajoritarian commitments to social rights, secured for example for migrants. These findings cast doubt on the characterisation of welfare state policy-making as political and partisan. It is suggested that the interpenetration of regulatory politics enhances the robustness of the welfare state in the face of international market integration, while at the same time biasing policy towards the promotion of efficiency and suppressing the importance of solidaristic political values

The nature and utilisation of the stock of social capital among the youth in selected areas in the Western Cape Province, South Africa

The backdrop of this research is the developmental state which requires government to make interventions. These interventions and programmes have to take into account the constitutional dispensation of the human rights culture which requires consultation and a responsive government in respect of the poor and vulnerable. The researcher selected to embark on a descriptive research journey using the quantitative approach to engage the concept of social capital, the youth and the public sector. The researcher used the 3 types of social capital, bonding, bridging and linking to assess the stock of youth social capital. The hypothesis posited is that the public sector is a key contributor to the significant stock of social capital among the youth in the Western Cape. The researcher will respond to the following research question: what is the nature and utilisation of social capital among youth in the following six geographical areas of the Western Cape: Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Gugulethu, Mitchell's Plain, Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn

Current Challenges to Educational Leadership & Administration: An International Survey Report on the Pilot Survey

Published in the UCEA Review, Summer 2018. It was also published in 2017 as a stand-alone report (entered into the RIS)

Growth strategies and poverty reduction: the institutional complementarity hypothesis

This article starts from the limits of the policies that assume a significant de-connection between antipoverty strategies and the logic of the growth regime and that mainly rely upon market mechanisms. By contrast, a branch of the new institutional economics argues that a complete set of coordinating mechanisms is constitutive of really existing economies and that they are more complementary than substitute. The Institutional Complementarity Hypothesis (ICH) may be useful for analyzing simultaneously the antipoverty policies and the viability of growth regimes. The different brands of capitalism are the outcome of complementary institutions concerning competition, labor market institutions, welfare and innovation systems. Generally, such configurations cannot be emulated by poor developing countries, but reviewing the preliminary findings of the UNRISD country case studies suggests some common features to all successful experiments. Basically, antipoverty policies are efficient when they create the equivalent of virtuous circles within which growth entitles antipoverty programs and conversely these programs sustain the speed and stability of growth. Two methods are proposed in order to detect possible complementarities and design accordingly economic policies: the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) on one side, national growth diagnosis on the other side. A special attention is devoted to the timing of policies and the role of policy regimes. A brief conclusion wraps up the major findings and proposes a research agenda.development theory ; antipoverty policy ; Washington consensus ; new institutional economics ; institutional complementarity hypothesis ; qualitative comparative analysis ; growth diagnosis

The work-family balance experiences of production couples operating Chinese Cut, Make and Trim factories in Newcastle, South Africa

The purpose of this study was to develop a deep understanding into the unique work family balance experiences of women in production couples in cut, make and trim factories in Newcastle, South Africa. A production couple is first and foremost a business partnership that involves joint ownership of a clothing factory, however the relationship is also a strategy the women use to satisfy their emotional needs and over time the relationship plays an important role in their return migration intention. Using a phenomenological research design, eight in depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with women in a production couple. Though the study set out to explore both the male and female partners, all the male partners eventually declined, citing Covid-19 related reasons such as having the only male in the researcher network dropping out, significantly lowering the likelihood of recruiting willing male participants. A potential reason for this is that men in Chinese culture are expected to carry the family name and with the persisting patriarchal gender roles (Sun & Chen, 2014), they are confronted with greater risk of losing face if exposed that they are in this type of relationship. Thematic analysis conducted on the data revealed three key themes: (1) Factors affecting the work-family balance of women in production couples, (2) Transnational care practices and, (3) Boundary management practices used by the women to maintain work-family balance. The findings challenged the nuclear family ideal and contributed new knowledge on how work family balance is perceived and maintained from a transnational perspective

"Speaking with one voice": the Somali Retailers' Association - rights and xenophobia in Cape Town's townships

In the wake of extreme xenophobic violence, which swept South Africa in 2008, a group of Somali refugees resident in Cape Town formed the Somali Retailers’ Association (SRA) as a mutual support network made up of those who were targeted by xenophobes most: Somalis involved in informal sector trade in the townships. This study investigates the networks of targeted populations, analysing how this Association helps to mitigate the impact of xenophobia on the lives of its members

Job-seeking experiences of unemployed youth participants in a youth development programme in Johannesburg

Abstract : Unemployment is a concerning social phenomenon globally, associated with poor socio-economic outcomes for individuals, communities and societies (Lam, Leibbrandt & Mlatsheni, 2008). Youth unemployment is a critical issue, given the youth bulge in many countries, including South Africa. The marked challenge with youth unemployment is that it negatively impacts on the economy, as it is associated with a lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP), due to the loss of economic productivity stemming from the absence of youth in the labour market (Aliber, 2003). The inadequacies in the education system, and structural inheritances from apartheid such as the urban-rural divide and the racialisation of unemployment are some of the contributors to the high unemploymnet rate, especially among the youth. Furthermore, literature indicates that youth unemployment is associated with poor physiological and mental health. A substantial body of knowledge exists on unemployment and youth unemployment, with emphasis on the causes and intervention responses, both internationally and locally. There has been little focus on institutions that support the youth as they seek employment, and, there is a paucity of research on the experiences of the youth in their job-seeking endeavours. This qualitative study was aimed at exploring the job-seeking experiences of unemployed youth Twelve participants aged 18-24 were selected through purposive sampling from a youth development programme in Braamfontein. Of the twelve participants, six participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews, while the remaining six formed part of a focus group discussion. The data was recorded electronically using an audio recorder and analysed using ATLAS.TI using a thematic analysis. The study found that youth employ multiple job-searching strategies, with web-based searching and in-person inquiry as the most common. Youth face several job-seeking challenges, including difficulty in accessing employment due to limited financial resources, pressure to support family financially, and the underutilisation of their skills and talents. In addition, it was found out that the youth benefit from social support particularly from friends and family, and spirituality buffers unemployed youth from the stresses of job-seeking. It is recommended that collaboration between stakeholders such as government, corporates and civil society be promoted to address some of the access-related challenges unemployed youth face. Future research can explore the impact that youth development programmes have on employability, as well as the plausibility of a youth transport and job-search subsidy to reduce job-searching costs.M.A. (Social Work

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given