ETD Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/104


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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Power, identity and agency at work in the popular economies of Soweto and Black Johannesburg.
    (2011-06-21) Krige, Paul Friedrich Detlev
    This thesis investigates a number of economic and financial practices, processes, relationships, actors and institutions prevalent in the residential areas that form part of Johannesburg that is known as Soweto, all of which have in common the exchange, hoarding, spending and risking of cash money. It describes actual flows of monies between actors and through popular economic institutions which are embedded in social relations of friendship and kinship, neighbourhood life and socially constructed identities. Building on the anthropological literature that seeks to show how money flows carry meaning as well as having function, it inquires into the meanings such flows of money - between popular institutions and social groups and across social classes - have for a range of differently situated participants in the popular economies. It explores the ways in which institutions and practices within the popular economies are deployed by actors and groups so as to direct flows of monies into certain social networks and relationships while redirecting it away from others, highlighting the agency of actors and groups in relation to their position in the local and larger political economy. Employing elements of practice theory, as well as perspectives from both political economy and cultural economy approaches to everyday life, the thesis offers arguments about power, identity, agency and state sovereignty in the context of the history of Black Johannesburg under apartheid and makes a contribution to our understanding of the material and symbolic structures of everyday life in contemporary Soweto and Johannesburg.
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    Complexities of organisational change: the case of the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDE)
    (2009-09-15T13:59:44Z) Ngoma, Wendy Yolisa
    For rational theories of organisational change, organisational dysfunctionalities are nothing more than the inadequacy of organisations to maximise on their goals or lack of co-ordination of different types of inputs and processes. Usually, such observations are made in exclusion of the analysis of organisational realities and the experiences that are part of their daily realities. This thesis explores the experiences of organisational change in a single case of the provincial department of education, namely the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDE). Using the qualitative and exploratory methods of interviews and document analysis, it asks how and why the department was perceived to be in a state of crisis in terms of service delivery, eight years after its initial transformation. To explore these questions, the thesis looked at the interplay between context, organisational design and internal skills and capacities, as the triad of processes that influenced the patterns for organisational change in this context. Broadly, the findings revealed that issues of organisational efficiency and service delivery cannot be debated and analysed outside of the political processes that influence them. The ECDE revealed that it was caught in endless politics of networks of coalition which influenced the pattern of service delivery. As a result this thesis concluded that organisational change and service delivery debates have to extend beyond the rational inputs and outputs paradigms to look at the complexities of networks that were a coincidence of transitional politics. It therefore proposes a focus on relational and network analysis of organisations to unravel their politics and pattern of influence on service delivery.
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    Effects of grinding media shapes on ball mill performance
    (2006-10-31T06:53:13Z) Lameck, Niyoshaka Nistlaba Stanley
    Comminution is an important process in mineral processing, power plants, cement production and pharmaceutical industries. It is costly and an inefficient process in terms of energy requirements and steel consumption related to grinding media and liners. Spherical grinding media are predominantly used in final stages of ore grinding. The spherical balls change shape through breakage and wear. Though this is universal in milling, its contribution and effect on milling kinetics, load behaviour and mill power is not fully established. One area that is usually ignored is the relationship between media shape and mill power. The objective of this dissertation was to investigate how media shape affects grinding. Ball size distribution inside an industrial mill was analysed in terms of shapes and sizes. Load behaviour, mill power and breakage as affected by media shapes were studied in a pilot laboratory mill. An inductive proximity probe, light emitting diode, phototransistor and video photographs were used to determine the load orientation in terms of toe and shoulder positions. A load beam was used to measure the torque exerted by the charge. The variation in load orientation and mill power with speed among different media shapes was observed. Higher shoulder positions were noted with cylpebs than with worn and spherical balls. The power increased to a maximum with increasing mill speed for all media shapes reaching its peak at different mill speeds for the three shapes studied. Variations of breakage rates with media shapes were found; higher breakage rates were noted with spherical media but the differences narrows with decreasing feed size and increasing material fractional filling U. Considering that worn balls in an industrial mill charge constitute about 15 to 40 percent and that the highest difference in breakage rate observed being nine percent for purely one shape charge; it is very doubtful whether it is worthwhile in attempting to develop techniques for removing worn balls from the mill.
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    Tickling the Ivories: Power, Violence, Sex and Identity in Elfriede Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher.
    (2006-03-22) Petersen, Kendall
    This study examines the role of power and its manifestation in social and inter-personal relationships, violence, sex, and sexual identity – the construction of identity as well as the perception of identity – in Elfriede Jelinek’s novel The Piano Teacher (1988). The location of the study within a contemporary text, is intended to examine the manifestations and implications of power in contemporary society, using the relationships indicated within the text as case studies. The study attempts to indicate that social and inter-personal relationships cannot be divorced from the dynamics of power which demonstrate themselves in acts of physical, psychological and sexual violence. In light of this, the research attempts to examine the relationship between gender and power, and the manner in which it demonstrates itself in relationships. Power is also examined in light of the concept of generational conflict, through an examination of the exchange between the principal character, Erika, and her mother, and the relationship between Erika and her students, specifically a male student by the name of Walter. Furthermore the study attempts to establish the extent to which women are complicit in, and consequently perpetuate their role as victims. The examination of the relationships serves to indicate the consequences of the female adoption and consequent internalisation of traditional male power roles. Although the study is located specifically within an Austrian text, the issues raised within the text and the study are relevant to many contexts.