3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Human rights are not enough: a critical assessment of challenges of inequality and care for international human rights(2019) Harbour, SophieThis thesis takes human rights and presents two contemporary critiques that find fault in the ability of the concept to adequately address current moral crises and to found a theory of moral reasoning moving forward. What will develop is an argument that human rights are not enough to be the starting point from where we form our ideas of moral theory and political and social policy. They do not provide a framework that recognises the indelibly dependent nature of human existence embodied by the ethics of care and they are ill-equipped to adequately counteract the growing radical inequality which has considerable social, political and moral consequences. Aside from critiquing human rights, an ethics of care also serves as a potential starting point from whence to reassess how we understand political and social realities. It offers insights into how we might approach the question of ‘why inequality matters’ and it is a lens through which I see possibilities of expanding our ideas of motivation, power, vulnerability and language, amongst othersItem Memory, slavery, nation: an analysis of representations of slavery in post-apartheid cultural and memory production(2016-02-29) Cloete, Nicola MartheThe continuing role of South Africa’s past in the reconstruction of present-day identities is an area of study and investigation that crosses political, social, cultural and racial boundaries. It is also a field which, despite the post-apartheid political period and South Africa’s change to a democratic dispensation, has not necessarily provided neat categories, instances or guidelines into which identity-formation can fit. As a result, studies abound which attempt to track, respond to, reflect on and reposition how this history of slavery, colonialism and apartheid may be viewed in relation to present-day society and socio-political circumstances. This dissertation considers how and why representations of slavery emerge in discussions of what constitutes a national discourse of race and reconciliation in postapartheid South Africa. I argue that these resurgences of interest in slavery are tied to the symbolic work that the multiple memories of slavery are able to do in the postapartheid period. The study is broadly situated in a globally emerging interest in historic formations of slavery packaged in popular culture, and the current increase in human rights politics dealing with re-emerging and new forms of slavery. As a result, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to both the content and methodological focus of how representations of slavery re-emerge in post-apartheid South Africa; providing a consideration of the phenomena of power in relation to discursive and cultural constructions of slavery, memory, identity and nation-building. Each of the areas considered (wine farms, museum and memorial practices and walking tours), suggest that the memory of slavery is able to function in relation to the immediate needs of those proposing and implementing the remembering and remembrance.Item Encounters with the controversial teaching philosophy of the Johannesburg Art Foundation in the development of South African art during 1982-1992(2015-05-25) Castle, ElizabethThe Johannesburg Art Foundation (JAF), founded in 1982 by Bill Ainslie, maintained a teaching philosophy which opposed any form of discrimination and stressed that art education should be a possibility for everyone. There was no prescribed curriculum and the programme was not dependent on an external educational authority. I argue that particularly in the decade 1982-1992, the South African apartheid government's educational policy towards cultural activities was prescriptive, stifling and potentially paralysing for many artists. Nevertheless, the teaching at the JAF sustained a flexibility and tolerance of ideas combined with an emancipatory ambition that promoted exchange. The philosophy was infused with a social justice and a political activism agenda squarely in opposition to the separatist apartheid education laws. This study contextualizes the impact and efficacy of the teaching approach at the JAF in terms of its intellectual, social and political perspectives during the years 1982-1992. This teaching approach prompted acerbic encounters within the competing systems of formal and informal institutions. It is this controversial anomaly signifying elements of collision in the pursuit of developing modernism that are investigated to some extent. Personal involvement as an artist and teacher, during the period 1982-1992, allowed my contribution and participation in the development of the teaching philosophy. The paucity of available literature on the subject has stimulated a comprehensive preliminary investigation of the way in which the JAF cultivated alternative educational policies. The individual methodologies and personal experiences extracted from interviews with artists, Council Members and members of staff are documented in order to provide a detailed characterisation of the values of the JAF. In addition, original documentation representative of the genealogy of the JAF forms part of the curatorial practice for the exhibition Controversial ways of seeing at the Bag Factory Gallery. The JAF declined from 1992 and finally ceased to exist in 2001.Item Discourses of whiteness and masculinity in conscripts' talk about the South African 'border war'.(2014-02-25) Caforio, DaniloThe primary aim of this research was to explore the experiences of formerly white conscripted combat veterans during the ‘border war’ and furthermore, to uncover discourses of whiteness and masculinity embedded in their recounted experiences. This research made use of a qualitative research design. This study drew on the experiences of white male South Africans who were exposed to some form of active combat during the ‘border war’. The sample consisted of 8 white South Africans who were born roughly between the 1960s and 1970s. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using discourse analysis. For the purpose of this research, a hybridised version of discourse analysis was used. This contained elements of critical as well as the discursive approaches to discourse analysis. This study concluded that both whiteness and masculinity are unstable constructs with no absolute definition. This study also found that many of the participants seemed conflicted and unsure of where to position themselves in relation to the ‘border war’, apartheid and contemporary South Africa as white men. For many it would seem it is easier to simply ignore those years of their lives. In terms of the intersectionality of whiteness and masculinity this research confirms the fact that both whiteness and masculinity, as socially and culturally constructed categories, work together and interact on multiple levels to either empower or marginalize individuals. However, in some instances it was also found that these discourses also function independently of each other. Ultimately it can be said that white masculinity exists in a space that is both troubled and unsettled. This study has illustrated that white men in South Africa have gone from a position of omnipotent power during apartheid to one of contested instability in present South African society. It is evident from this research that whiteness and masculinity are both complex and diffuse constructs that still warrant a great deal of exploration. That said, the future prospects for these individuals are both challenging and possible.Item First year students' narratives of 'race' and racism in post-apartheid South Africa.(2012-02-10) Puttick, KirstanThe democratic elections in 1994 marked the formal end of apartheid. During apartheid 'race' was, for the most part, a somewhat rigid construct which, despite many nuances and complexities, typically seemed to frame whiteness as dominant, normative and largely invisible, and blackness as subordinate and marginalised. The transformations brought about in post-apartheid South Africa have heralded many positive reformations, such as macrolevel institutional changes. However, many of apartheid's racialised patterns of privilege and deprivation persist and 'race' continues to influence the identities of South Africans. Furthermore, an inherent tension exists in South Africa's social fabric, where ‘race’ and racism are often juxtaposed against narratives of the Rainbow Nation and colourblindness. This study, which is framed by critical 'race' theory and social constructionism, aims to explore the extent of the fluidity and rigidity of 'race', racialisation and racialised identities in post-apartheid South Africa by exploring the narratives of black and white first year students. This study collected the narratives of seven black and seven white first year South African university students. It was found that South African youth identities can be seen to be functioning in relation to and reaction against both South Africa’s racialised past as well as its present socio-cultural context. It was found that the racialised patterns which characterised apartheid still impact on black and white youth identity in contemporary South Africa. For instance, despite the many disruptions to whiteness post-1994, it was noted as still being a normative and dominant construct to some extent. Similarly, despite attempts to rectify power imbalances in the new South Africa, blackness is still constructed as being somewhat other and inferior. However, many alternative voices emerged which subverted these narratives, suggesting that identity is in a state of flux. Thus, despite the continued influence of apartheid’s racialised patterns of identity, shifts and schisms are appearing in post-apartheid racialised identity, where issues of racialised dominance and power relations are no longer as clear cut as they once were.Item The discourses on the right to housing in Gauteng Province, 1994-2008.(2010-05-25T09:15:57Z) Thomas, Christopher GeraldThe post-apartheid government of 1994 is a product of the ‘Age of Rights’. Statemaking processes and the exercise of state powers is managed by the rule of law based on a constitution. Constitutionally recognised rights, and rights protection institutions, animate a transition from a legacy of Black political exclusion and underdevelopment. Intensifying class stratification and inequality constrain Black’s formal realisation of citizenship rights, placing great pressure on creative interpretation of constitutionally legitimated claims. My thesis examines the rights discourse informing the Constitution, particularly issues about the realisation of social and economic rights. I examine the unfolding of discourses on the right to housing between 1994 to 2008, to illustrate of the complexity of the discourse. Episodic housing protests suggest significant degrees of alienation, marginalisation, and disappointment with expectations of citizenship and the non-realisation of social and economic rights. Housing rights is an issue that will affect the democratic consolidation and political stability prospects of the new political order. I examine the interface between macro-economic policies, budgets, and the realisation of housing rights, and assess the impact of an identifiable configuration of forces expected to play important roles in realising a rights culture and broadening the discourse. My study draws on a spectrum of qualitative, interpretive, and analysis of discourse approaches, using data from: published articles, annual reports and archives, speeches, court proceedings and statements, interviews with persons whose scope of activities impact the unfolding of the concerned rights, namely, representatives of government departments, private sector developers, financing institutions, and civil society formations. My main findings are that few actors in the configuration support the view that the Constitution should be changed to make explicit the state’s obligations on the realisation of social and economic rights. Nevertheless, there are isolated cases of people expressing an absolute entitlement sense of rights --- the state should deliver when demands are made. My conclusions are that considerable political unrest about non-realisation of these rights will persist, but will not cause a collapse of the post-1994 political institutions and processes. More likely, political actors, legal scholars and jurists, will persistently engage the prevailing rights discourse and the variety of institutions acting towards their realisation, without effecting drastic changes to these, but always invoking positions about how they still are suited for a post-apartheid transformation project yet need critical interrogation and improvisation.