The role of public participation in city branding processes as a tool for urban regeneration in a South African city: a case study of the city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Since ancient times cities around the world have been constantly transforming themselves to meet the standards of the current regimes. In an increasingly competitive and interconnected global economy, cities are strategically adopting various models and approaches that enable them to differentiate themselves and their products from other cities. This has led to an increase in cities reinventing and renovating themselves through various urban regeneration projects and programmes. one such model is the city branding model, where cities create and develop a city brand that show a positive perception of their city. Much popular in western countries, South African metropolitan cities including the city of Durban have also adopted the concept of city branding in order to compete at a global level. Although the concept of city branding has not received much scholarly attention, there has been an increase in the debates on city branding mainly around the issue of importance of city branding in developing countries. In the forefront of these debates is the issue of public participation in city branding and urban regeneration processes. Zooming specifically to South African cities which have been characterised with issues of inequalities and social exclusion, this study pursued to understand the role of public participation in city branding processes, using the City of Durban as a case study. The city of Durban has been specifically selected because it is spatially fascinating thus making it a unique product of urban regeneration and it is amongst the few metropolitan cities in South Africa to be branded and unlike its competitors the city of Johannesburg and Cape Town, it is not fully developed, which poses the opportunity to explore. Applying a qualitative research approach, this study selected a sample of 37 respondents to firstly capture the knowledge and perception of residents on the Durban city brand. It also seeks to examine the nature and extent of public participation in the branding of South African metropolitan cities by ascertaining the key stakeholders. Lastly, the study aimed to assess whether there is a correlation between city branding and urban regeneration in the city of Durban. The study findings showed that the City of Durban has made commendable progress in rejuvenating the city and developing a sustainable city brand but with a few underlying challenges. Through using various methods including social medium platforms, surveys and formulating policies, the city of Durban continues to find effective ways to engage and promote public participation. This study thus supports consistent collaborative planning in decision-making processes in order to enable communities and authorities to communicate effectively to encourage meaningful public participation

An Examination of the Socio-Economic Effects of Early Child Marriage on the Well-Being of Children in Ward 35 of Chisamba Village Dora, Mutare.

Early child marriage is a social vice that has cut across childhood and compromised fundaments rights in many societies. Early child marriage effects, translate to economic stress due to loss of access to education, lack of access to health care, lack of job opportunities, social stratification, low self-esteem, isolation and discrimination which all emphasize gendered poverty. The study derives from the fact that children are different from adults, are in need of particular concern, education and health care and that people within this category are not suitable for marriage. The study thus focused primarily on finding the socio-economic impact of early child marriage and challenges that the marriage bears on children on a daily basis. The research further aimed at producing an updated central to Manicaland study recommendations to curb challenges faced by young children who are married, critically analysing formerly generalized solutions when the setting of the unit of analysis is geographical, socially, politically and economically alien to the Zimbabwean situation. The study employed an explorative research design, quantitative and qualitative research approaches to this effect. The researcher further used purposive sampling to select respondents based on the knowledge of early child marriage. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a socio-economic scale were tools used to solicit information from respondents in Dora ward 35 of Chisamba village. In line with the research objectives, the research findings revealed that early child marriage is driven by factors such as personal willingness/voluntary early child marriage, physical maturity, socialization of the girl child and cultural beliefs. The findings further revealed that early child marriage effects cause a cycle of occurrences and are vastly perpetuated by socio-economic effects. Ultimately, the single effort of the law cannot curb early child marriage. The study thus made significant recommendations to the Government, child protection urgencies, Dora community leaders, members, and policy makers

Impact of community share ownership schemes on development in Mberengwa district in Zimbabwe

The formative study focused on the impact of Share Ownership Schemes on development in Mberengwa District in Zimbabwe. The qualitative research established that some of the objectives of the programme were indeed relevant to the current challenges being faced by the people in rural Zimbabwe. The study also explored the impact of the share ownership schemes on individual and household levels with emphasis on the eradication of poverty. It explored the implementation process of the broad empowerment initiative in Mberengwa district and suggested that other dimensions of empowerment such as the political and social empowerment be included in order for real empowerment to be achieved. The implementation process was being hampered by inadequate funding, bureaucratic bungling, political interference and general lack of a clear direction on the way the programme was to be implemented. There were however a few success stories noted by the study

The psychological effects of recidivism amongst male youth in Musina, South Africa

MA (Psychology)Department of PsychologyRecidivism refers to re-offending behaviour, and recidivists are usually individuals who were arrested repeatedly for the same or different offences. The aim of this study was to explore the psychological effects of recidivism amongst male youth in Musina. This study employed the qualitative research approach because it required elaborated information which this paradigm promotes. This research adopted an exploratory design. The participants were selected through the use of purposive and snowball sampling. Data was gathered using semi-structured face to face interviews. The researcher used a voice recorder and a note pad to record the collected data. The findings of this study indicated that peer pressure, lack of education and unemployment, substance abuse, poverty, child neglect, parenting and supervision were the most common factors contributing to recidivism. The results of this study indicated that recidivists often commit petty crimes. The participants stated that these crimes included pick-pocketing, mugging, shoplifting and house breaking. Serious crimes were not common amongst the recidivists because only few of them committed serious crimes. The participants also reported that recidivism has negative impacts on their own personal lives, their families as well as on their education