Municipal distress : towards a municipal infrastructure and finance model : a case study of uMgungundlovu District Municipality.

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2015.The Constitution (Section 152, 1996) defines local government as a sphere of government responsible for the provision of sustainable municipal services to communities. Sibanda (2012) states that “poor and lack of municipal service delivery is widely receiving considerable media attention.” Monitoring customer-focused service delivery could therefore be a critically important means to affect value service delivery in local government.” The purpose of this study was to evaluate service delivery at uMgungundlovu District Municipality (uMDM), the root causes of municipal distress and propose an infrastructure and finance model for service delivery. The study will also critique the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTS), MSA and the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA) on service delivery mechanisms. Local government in South Africa has been undergoing an unceasing bout of service delivery protests. Protests are a public manifestation of conflict and therefore this study uses the term conflict and protest interchangeably. Local Government is a key part of the reconstruction and development effort in our country. The aims of democratizing society and growing the economy inclusively can only be realised through a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system as part of a developmental state. The establishment of a South African Developmental State is grounded in the vision of the State and Society working together at all levels to advance social justice, economic growth and development through an integrated development plan to advance service delivery. The complex process of service delivery is seen to be of national importance and requires immediate developmental solution through innovative service delivery models. It is also equally important to establish the reason behind lack of, or poor, service delivery, resulting into community service delivery protest. The uMgungundlovu District Municipality is serving as a mechanism mandated to ensure sustainable municipal service delivery and it is chosen as a case study for this research. Lack of access to most basic facets of infrastructure and economic development flagship projects are apparent in most municipalities in South Africa. The study revealed that national government grants are not sufficient in addressing service delivery backlogs. Timely delivery of municipal infrastructure is constrained by limited municipal resources therefore municipalities must form Municipal Service Partnerships (MSP) with the private sector. The study underlined the need for a holistic approach to development planning through a service delivery model, a well-structured planning and implementation strategy municipalities in fulfilling their mandate. The study makes recommendations that municipal services must be sustainable and municipal business models are at the core of sustainable service delivery. The study recognises the need for further research to expand the existing body of knowledge on how legislation impacts on service delivery

An Inquiry into the Making of Market Devices

This project studies the making of a market for wind power in France. Markets for wind power, as well as markets for other renewable energies, are often referred to as ‘political markets: On the one hand, wind power has the potential to reduce CO2-emissions and thus stall the effects of electricity generation on climate change; and on the other hand, as an economic good, wind power is said to suffer from ‘disabilities’, such as high costs, fluctuating and unpredictable generation, etc. Therefore, because of its performance as a good, it is argued that the survival of wind power in the market is premised on different instruments, some of which I will refer to as ‘prosthetic devices’. This thesis inquires into two such prosthetic devices: The feed-in tariff and the wind power development zones (ZDE) as they are negotiated and practiced in France, and the ways in which they affect the making of markets for wind power. In this thesis, it is argued that while the two devices frame the price of wind power and the location of turbines, they also affect and address questions of costs, profitability, and efficiency; and as such, they may be investigated as market devices

Stage Business: Britain's Neoliberal Theatre, 1976-2016

Stage Business examines contemporary British drama vis--vis the neoliberal economic reforms that have dominated British policy for the last forty years, attending to the material conditions of theatre production amid a thoroughgoing transformation of the arts relationship to government, business, and consumer culture. The concretization of neoliberal policy in Britains recent political history produced a logical parallel in the countrys theatre history, which has effectively accepted a mixed economy of arts funding and the necessity of cooperation with the worlds of finance and corporate sponsorship. And the British stage has, throughout this fraught history, indexed its own complex entanglement with neoliberal consensus politics: on the one hand, playwrights have denounced the rapacious, acquisitive values encouraged by global capitalism and monetarisms uncontested dominance across the political spectrum; on the other hand, plays have more readily revealed themselves as products of the very market economy they critique, their production histories and formal innovations uncomfortably reproducing the strategies and practices of neoliberal labour markets. In their form and content, the plays discussed in Stage Business account for two undeniable trends in contemporary British drama. The first involves an explicit engagement not only with corporate finance and business culture but also with the ways in which neoliberal economics have revised cultural life. Connected to this thematic preoccupation is a structural trend some have called postdramatic, involving a rejection of traditional narrative and characterization. This formal fragmentation requires theatre practitioners to make sense of radically open-ended theatre texts, inviting considerable creative collaboration, but it too resembles the outsourcing of labour central to global capitalism. Stage Business thus tells the story of forty years in the British theatre by zooming in on a selection of plays and productions that function as nodes in Britains recent political, economic, and theatrical history. In so doing, it demonstrates the theatres immeasurable value not only in reflecting the cultural and political contexts from which it emerges but also in resisting a neoliberal hegemony that rides roughshod over social democratic values even when the theatre itself dangerously straddles the line of capitulating to the capitalist marketization of our cultural life

Innovation adaptation and institutionalization: a case study of an open and distance learning adaptation in Zimbabwe

This study set out to investigate a unique case of innovation adaptation and institutionalization in a depressed socio-economic environment. The main aim of the study was to understand and explain interventions and innovative strategies that underpin the survival and growth of the Open and Distance Learning Mode (ODLM) in Zimbabwe. Towards this end, the data to address the research questions was derived from the case study methodology which incorporated, among others, documentary analysis and interviews with persons involved in the initiation and management of the ODLM. The results of the study indicate that three broad categories of strategies, namely protectionism, innovative leadership and educational entrepreneurialism or commodification constitute the foundation of ODLM durability in Masvingo Province. Protectionism in the context of ODLM survival and growth are projected and articulated in the policy instruments such as mandates and legal frameworks which shielded the innovation from the usual hazards of the innovation process. Protectionism enabled the ODLM to gain traction in an elitist and conservative higher education landscape. Correspondingly, innovative leadership is manifested in a highly motivated team of management staff committed to the propagation of the ODLM to every part of Masvingo Province. The leadership at the Masvingo Regional Campus (MRC) utilizes the multiple stakeholder approach as strategy for establishing convergences and equilibrium in respect of the interests and concerns of the four main stakeholders, namely the government or the ruling party which initiated the implementation of the ODLM; the employers of ODL graduates who affirm the relevancy of ODL qualifications, the students who sustain ODLM by generating revenue for the ZOU, and finally, the MRC staff who are the implementers of the ODLM programmes. Likewise, educational entrepreneurialism constitute another key strategy in ODLM survival and growth. This strategy is articulated in the principle of continual adaptation and creation of market – driven programmes. The above results have several implications to various role players and actors involved in the educational reform and innovation. Firstly, the results of the study reveal the imperative for power elites or policy formulators to ensure that they initiate and adopt educational innovations that match the capacities of their implementers and the socio-economic realities of their respective countries or societies. In this regard, the ODLM appears to have been a prudent choice in light of the challenges that were being encountered in post-independence Zimbabwe. Secondly, from a management perspective, the selection of the innovation team to spearhead or steer the implementation was prioritized. Only competent and committed personnel positively disposed towards an innovation should spearhead the implementation. In addition adequate training and staff development should be instituted to keep the implementers abreast of new trends and standards in educational provision. Lastly, the results of this study constitute a clarion call to curriculum developers in African university departments to design and develop programmes which resonate with the needs of key stakeholders who constitute the support base for viable educational institutions

Platformization of Urban Life: Towards a Technocapitalist Transformation of European Cities

The increasing platformization of urban life needs critical perspectives to examine changing everyday practices and power shifts brought about by the expansion of digital platforms mediating care-services, housing, and mobility. This book addresses new modes of producing urban spaces and societies. It brings both platform researchers and activists from various fields related to critical urban studies and labour activism into dialogue. The contributors engage with the socio-spatial and normative implications of platform-mediated urban everyday life and urban futures, going beyond a rigid techno-dystopian stance in order to include an understanding of platforms as sites of social creativity and exchange

Platformization of Urban Life

The increasing platformization of urban life needs critical perspectives to examine changing everyday practices and power shifts brought about by the expansion of digital platforms mediating care-services, housing, and mobility. This book addresses new modes of producing urban spaces and societies. It brings both platform researchers and activists from various fields related to critical urban studies and labour activism into dialogue. The contributors engage with the socio-spatial and normative implications of platform-mediated urban everyday life and urban futures, going beyond a rigid techno-dystopian stance in order to include an understanding of platforms as sites of social creativity and exchange

A political economy of mobile telecommunications in South Africa.

Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.The thesis is in part a political economy of telecommunications in South Africa, in part a discourse analysis of the field. While the thesis investigates issues around ownership, control and regulation of the big telecoms companies in South Africa, it also considers some facets that do not really fit comfortably into traditional political economy approaches. The dominant discourse within telecommunications is a neoliberal technological determinism, despite the developing context. However, there are lesser known narratives of consumption, commodification and control, which demand a cultural studies approach. Together these form alternate, ignored yet important facets emerging from the sector. The thesis foregrounds these alternate discourses as they relate to wider systems of control in the modern empire’s hegemony

Patient access to care in health reform: opinions of primary care physicians on St. Maarten, NA, identifying barriers and developing solutions

Physician opinions on patient access in health care reform are a valuable contribution to the design, implementation and success of health policy changes. As part of a more broadly defined stakeholder group including patients, providers, policy makers, insurers, and private industry, physicians offer unique perspectives on the health care system and the challenges patients face in accessing care under current policy. This dissertation examines physician attitudes toward health care reform on St. Maarten, NA using interviews with primary care physicians. Although physicians identified barriers and solutions to health care access that were often specific and actionable, most physicians also saw a need for the development of an overall vision of reform for the health care system. The St. Maarten physicians' presented barriers and solutions that closely paralleled those of the Pan American Health Organization's (PAHO) Primary Health Care-Based System approach. For the island nation to succeed in health reform, the PAHO framework provides the necessary vision for a health care system whose primary purpose is to improve the population's health under difficult circumstances, including St. Maarten's limited resources and relative geographic isolation. Leadership in reform is a key element in St. Maarten's ability to address health reform in an efficient and effective manner. This dissertation research presents a unified voice for physicians as a stakeholder group and an open path to active participation in health reform

Platformization of Urban Life

The increasing platformization of urban life needs critical perspectives to examine changing everyday practices and power shifts brought about by the expansion of digital platforms mediating care-services, housing, and mobility. This book addresses new modes of producing urban spaces and societies. It brings both platform researchers and activists from various fields related to critical urban studies and labour activism into dialogue. The contributors engage with the socio-spatial and normative implications of platform-mediated urban everyday life and urban futures, going beyond a rigid techno-dystopian stance in order to include an understanding of platforms as sites of social creativity and exchange

A Comparative Analysis of Neoliberal Education Reform and Music Education in England and Ontario, Canada

This study provides an account and comparison of the ways in which neoliberal education reform and resulting music education policy, implementation, and provision were enacted in and responsive to social, historical, and institutional influences in England under Margaret Thatcher’s and John Major’s Conservative governments (1979-1997) and in Ontario, Canada under Mike Harris’ Progressive Conservative government (1995-2003). It traces how global neoliberal economic policy has influenced state education reforms that restructure schooling to produce knowledge workers in response to the global knowledge economy. A conceptual map of neoliberal education is employed to examine the ways in which the governments of England and Ontario reformed their respective elementary and secondary state-funded systems of education. Music education policy development, implementation, and provision in each state are then placed within the wider contexts of these reforms. This study finds that neoliberal education in England and Ontario and the resulting processes and outcomes of music education policy converge and diverge based on the elements of neoliberal education present in reform and the ways in which history, ideology, and politics intersect in each state. It provokes a re-examination of a reified concept of neoliberal education in favour of a more nuanced one responsive to reform locations. Comparative approaches to music education research can both broaden and deepen our knowledge of foreign systems of education while dispelling assumptions, based on experiences with our own educational systems, about the nature of neoliberal education reform and its effects on music education. Recommendations for future research are suggested. Useful tools for future research in music education policy include a conceptual map of neoliberal education