scholarly journals Building inclusive community activism and accountable relations through an intersecting inequalities approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Shaw ◽  
Jo Howard ◽  
Erika López Franco
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Community Activism ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Building Community

Abstract Community development interventions can generate collective identities, foster community activism and build more accountable relations between marginalized groups and duty-bearers 1. Yet, our previous research shows meaningful inclusion of the most disadvantaged groups is not sustainable unless the intersecting inequalities at the root of poverty and marginalization are understood and addressed. This article draws on participatory action research (PAR) processes conducted between 2016 and 2017 in Egypt, Ghana, India, South Africa and Uganda, which worked through local partners to engage directly with groups affected by deep inequalities and unaccountable dynamics. Collaboratively, we explored how intersecting inequalities play out in people’s everyday lives to drive poverty and marginalization and the elements necessary for participatory processes to catalyze community activism and build pathways towards accountability. In this article, we operationalize the concept of intersecting inequalities, in order to understand the complexity of ‘community’ in different contexts and the contribution of this approach to inclusive community development. Finally, we draw lessons about how to navigate the intrinsic tensions between recognizing difference and building community activism for accountability.

scholarly journals African Initiated Churches’ potential as development actors

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Öhlmann ◽  
Marie-Luise Frost ◽  
Wilhelm Gräb
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Do So

African Initiated Churches (AICs) are not yet recognised as relevant actors of community development interventions. While it has been acknowledged that many of them provide coping mechanisms in adverse environments, support in social transformation and social capital, little information is available on their role as development actors. In this article, we evaluate the potential of AICs as partners of international development agencies for community development. We draw on interviews and focus group discussions with leaders of various AICs conducted in South Africa in February and March 2016. In particular, we examine the churches’ understanding of development, their view on the separation of spiritual and development activities and their priorities. Moreover, we outline the development activities which they are currently engaged in and analyse the structures they have in place to do so. Our findings indicate that AICs are increasingly active in community development and offer various entry points for possible cooperation.

Decolonising the Rural-Urban Dichotomy in South Africa: An Asset-Based Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Bunmi Isaiah Omodan ◽  
Cias T. Tsotetsi ◽  
Bekithemba Dube
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Asset Based Community Development ◽  
Rural Dwellers

The rural-urban migration syndrome has eaten deep into the fabric of rural development in South Africa, thereby denying rural dwellers equitable access to social and economic amenities and social empowerment. This study, therefore, seeks to emancipate rural communities through an asset-based community development approach by forming university-community synergies for the purpose of decolonising these rural communities. The study attempted to provide a solution to the question of inequalities between rural and urban communities with a focus on how university engagement can be used to enhance community development in QwaQwa/Harismith Township and its environments. The study adopted a participatory action research design and the free attitude interview technique was used to collect data. The research participants consisted of one research assistant and 10 ordinary community members, members of NGOs and community leaders in QwaQwa/Harrismith Township in the Free State province of South Africa. Data collected were analysed through Laws, Harpes and Marcus’s seven-step model. The study revealed that rural dwellers face challenges of inequitable educational facilities and resources, and a lack of security in terms of their lives, properties, and means of travelling. Likewise, the study also showed a lack of access to health facilities in their communities. It was therefore concluded that community engagement through the asset-based approach and decoloniality would enable the university to empower rural dwellers with the freedom to attain their well-being by ensuring an environment that is sufficient and adequate for social investment.

Children and Participation in South Africa: An Overview

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Moses
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation

AbstractThis paper examines the current policy and practice around children's participation in South Africa. By situating the analysis from the perspective of the socio-economic and normative context within South Africa the paper critiques current typologies of children's participation for focusing too narrowly on processes internal to participatory processes. The paper argues that theorisations of children's participation need to take account of the range of activities which are labelled as children's participation and interrogate issues around who gets to participate and why, what the purposes of the participation are and under what conditions it is possible. This requires examining participatory processes and the children involved in them in relation to adult actors within and beyond the process as well as in relation to broader socio-political and economic environments.

Optimizing a Halfway House to Meet Mental Health Care Users’ Occupational Needs

2021 ◽  
pp. 000841742110448
Author(s):  
Itumeleng Augustine Tsatsi ◽  
Nicola Ann Plastow
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Halfway House ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Halfway Houses

Background. Halfway houses (HwH) may support community reintegration of mental health care users and can be effective in meeting occupational needs of residents. However, they are not optimally used in South Africa. Purpose. This study aimed to improve the functioning of a HwH so that it better meets occupational needs of the resident mental health care users. It draws on Doble & Santha; ( 2008 ) seven occupational needs. Method. A four-phase Participatory Action Research methodology was used. We conducted thematic analysis to describe met and unmet needs within PAR phases. Findings. Occupational needs of accomplishment, renewal, pleasure and companionship were being met. However, coherence, agency and affirmation needs were not being met. An additional occupational need for interdependence, based on the African ethic of Ubuntu, was identified. Implications. HwH functioning affected residents’ experiences of health and wellbeing. Engagement in collective occupations can contribute to meeting the occupational need of interdependence.

scholarly journals Developing partnerships in a paradigm shift to achieve conservation reality in South Africa

Koedoe ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Els ◽  
J. Du P. Bothma
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Wildlife Management ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Rural Community Development ◽  
The Social

In South Africa, communal rural community development has, for the most part, been viewed as an add-on, rather than as an integral value in the broad spectrum of conservation activities being practised in the country. This paper, therefore, argues for the reality-based adoption of an extension of existing conservation paradigms to incorporate the development of communal rural communities as an integral part of the overall wildlife conservation and management policy in South Africa. The answer to the seeming contradiction in the focus of wildlife conservation and rural development lies in the devel- opment of wildlife management programmes based on multi-disciplinary and multiinstitutional interaction, by also harnessing scientific knowledge and skills found in the social sciences. In this manner, the present largely lip service related to so-called com- munity participation in wildlife management can be changed into programmes which really achieve conservation-based community development enhancing survival for both the communities and their inherent natural resources.

scholarly journals (The) Margin(s) Speak! A Multifaceted Examination of Practising ‘Men who have Sex with Men’ Development in Bangkok

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Burford
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Performative Writing ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Development Literature

<p>In this study, I explore the experiences and understandings of twenty-seven participants involved with ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) development interventions in Bangkok, seeking to better understand the complex realities that emerge in practising MSM development. I endeavor to interrogate the development field’s limited understandings of sexuality as well as the discourses present (and absent) in existing Queering Development research. By acknowledging my personal journey in and through this re-search, I also examine authentic ways-of-being a queeresearcher, noting the challenges I faced and power I discovered in re-searching and re-presenting my own work. Ultimately, I explore the link between the paucity of local developing queer narratives in Queering Development and the limited space students have, to be visibly queer in mainstream theses – to do this I use the metaphor of ‘the margins’. In framing this re-search, I draw nourishment from queer, critical, poststructural and Participatory Action Research epistemologies. Methodologically, I carried out semi-structured interviews and focus groups, as well as using other tools such as mapping and story writing. I also spent time ‘hanging out’ at both Rainbow Sky and Bangkok Rainbow, enabling both a deeper appreciation of the work carried out by the organisations as well as providing an opportunity to gather materials. The generation of data did not cease once I left ‘the field’; I continued to produce autoethnographic texts including poetry and a re-search performance which I used both as a method of enquiry and re-presentation of this study. This multifaceted approach enabled diverse questions (emerging across disciplines) to be addressed in my work. To re-present my analyses of participants’ accounts I have celebrated different ways-of-knowing re-search. I have used poetry and consciously performative writing, visual art (including graffiti) and performance alongside traditional scholarly prose. This approach enables multiple voices to emerge all over the page, questioning the hegemony of the bound, straight-lined thesis and the ‘legitimate’ knowledges it generally contains. I argue that queer postgraduate students may be able to open spaces to produce authentic work, despite pressures to perform straight research texts. Yet, pressures to conform to traditional understandings of theses may be painful reminders of their own positions in academia and society. Overall, my study offers intimate, multifaceted perspectives on the agency of MSM development practitioners in Bangkok and my own experience of finding power through queeresearch. I hope it will contribute to more nuanced understandings of local practitioners of MSM development in Queering Development literature, and to scholarship on queer postgraduate students’ experience of re-search more generally.</p>

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