Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
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Browsing Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment by Type "Dissertation"
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Item Liberal peacebuilding and local ownership: a case study of post-civil war Mozambique(2022) Hlatshwayo, Shamiso NomsaThe concept of local ownership and participation emerged as contextually sensitised responses to the criticisms of the liberal peace approach to issues of local legitimacy and the need for context specific peace building solutions. Given that local ownership is often viewed as an afterthought by foreign actors, it continues to be an elusive concept that is widely considered to be a necessary ingredient for durable peace; yet the very same concept has gained wide ranging criticism due to the manner in which it still relies on fundamental liberal concepts. Through a qualitative enquiry, this study explored the dilemma of the two concepts by placing it within the post-Civil War Mozambique context. There appears to be little consensus on the subject due to the role the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (UNOMOZ) played in ending hostilities and ensuring the first multi-party elections. Thus, the mission is regarded as having been successful in those areas by garnering an acceptable level of local buy-in due to the peaceful nature of the first elections and the relative peace that the country has maintained since the UNOMOZ exit. Thus in terms of the research question, it is clear that Mozambique highlights the complexity of the liberal peacebuilding and local ownership debate, thus requiring a nuanced approach where both concepts are approached with a high level of objectivity. The study found that UNOMOZ can be said to have been successful in its ability to secure peace and cultivate equitable governance structures, even though they were isolated to a specific elite. However when taking the local ownership dimension of the debate, UNOMOZ’s limited mandate and time constraints rendered it to be a process that entered the country with a cultural blind spot which by design excluded locals and eventually rendered them as essentially disempowered pawns in the reproduction of power structures that continue to limit wide spread, equitable civic participation.Item Living lab in architecture: integrating university campus operational support(s) with academic programmes, case of the University of the Witwatersrand, School of Architecture and Planning, the Old John Moffat Building(2021) Matentshi, RodneyEssential the living laboratory concept is critical for any institution, most notably for universities where teaching, learning, and research are advanced/achieved/leading. Living laboratories improve project outcomes, maintain policy alignment, and help boost green campus initiatives and energy policy discussions. The living laboratory approach provides innovation in planning, development and policy establishment and implementation in mitigating climate change challenges. Universities are leading in sustainable studies thus offer knowledge on climate change mitigation strategies. Global warming has resulted in climate change. Additionally, we have universities, which increase the demand for energy and water, which are already limited resources. This problem is a direct risk to mitigate climate change challenges. Via their students' - staff research outputs, universities produce knowledge that includes mitigation strategies for addressing sustainability issues. Students and staff at Wits University cannot integrate their work output on campus to create real-world climate change solutions. By their role as a beacon of hope, universities cannot evade their responsibilities to model society's image. Thus, the main focus of this study is to test the hypothesis that universities' implementation of their students and staff green campus research outputs on campus is possible through implementing university-specific projects inside a living laboratory setting. The study's primary objective is to determine the pathways and barriers that hinder universities such as Wits University from adopting green campus policies and the concept of living labs. The study employed various methods to achieve a "humanistic orientation," including qualitative analysis, deductive analysis, and inductive analysis. Significant findings or themes identified in this study include the following: Siloed approach of working, a lack of coordination, and the inability of diverse departments to share knowledge and expertise became apparent as a problem. A shortfall in funding for green campus initiatives is one cause for concern that must be address by the University. Universities have sought to integrate ethical values into their core activities in light of the climate change and sustainability agenda. Failure to implement and preserve green campus planning throughout its lifecycle is not sustainable for any institution or society at large. Wits University should establish an architect-led living laboratory to promote planning and development focused on win-win strategies. This initiative will pave the way for future growth and facilitate the establishment of an eco-campus. When combined with the University's green campus initiative plan, the idea of a living laboratory would foster innovation on campus. The future University is a complex living organ that needs complex system management to deliver and influence the concept of future smart and sustainable cities. Creating a Campus Sustainability Lekgotla at the University would alleviate their primary difficulty of siloed approaches and allow for the flourishing of transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary concepts across the organisation's structures.