3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item 'Reading between the lines' : exploring the telling, hearing, reflective and relational components of women traders' narratives.(2014-02-24) Coats, TamrynThis research project focused on understanding the narratives of women informal street traders in Warwick Junction, Durban. This is a diverse and vibrant trading community and the five women interviewed have been working in the area for many years. This means that these research participants offer a unique window in on the intersections between individual (psychological) realities and historical, sociopolitical and economic life. The project adopted a narrative approach, analyzing the ways in which 1) particular incident narratives (PINs) within each life narrative reflect key aspects of the life story and draw on narrative principles to convey this; 2) the ways in which narratives are interactively constructed between the researcher and participants in the interview situation; and 3) the relational construction of individual lives in networks of communities. The results highlighted the inherently interwoven nature of identity construction between individuals and the communities with which they associate. The overarching factors of poverty, gender and trauma were shown, in all three levels of analysis, as key elements that tied the women together through relationships of shared experiences. The stories that the women chose to share were strongly influenced by the presence and responses of the interviewer and the researcher and thus, the ways in which power, entrenched in history and culture, influenced the narratives became most evident. The ways in which the women connect and disconnect with relational others was shown to influence their sense of belonging within various communities, both real and imagined. This contributed to the women’s development of resilience and salient identities as cohesive communities were shown to be buffers against adversity and influencers in the construction of identity.Item What are the experiences of service workers in urban informal economy workplaces? : a study of informal hairdressing operations in the Johannesburg CBD.(2013-10-03) Mpye, Dipalesa XoliswaThis research study examines the experiences of service workers in the informal economy by exploring informal hairdressing operations within the Johannesburg CBD. Drawing on ethnography at a hairsalon in Braamfontein and semi-‐structured interviews with hairdressers, customers, hairsalon owners and City of Johannesburg officials, it argues that the emotional and affective labour in this kind of work offers hairdressers an important basis for them to weave meaning into their work. The affective relationships that they create through hairdressing present them with the potential for the self-‐constitution of their work and lives.Item Local labour procurement practices and policy : a case study of Kusile power station.(2013-08-08) Tshabangu, Nqobile NkotitshiThere is a general conformity in employment discourses that informal employment is not welcomed in the employment circles regardless of how well marketed it could be. The government of South Africa on its state owned projects in the construction industry introduced policies that promoted local labour procurement of employees a process that has resulted with heavy contestations due to its application. This study examines the impact of local labour procurement policy on locally recruited employees and those who got retrenched purely for the purpose of accommodating the policy requirement. This is done through the use of Kusile power station as a case study. It adopts qualitative research approach using interviews and document analysis. The study also examines this policy in conjunction with the current labour legislation and the effects it has on the existing labour and the proposed amendment labour bills. It also examines the motive behind the introduction of the policy and who has benefited from it. However the findings reveal that there is inconsistence in the application of the policy. The purpose why the policy was introduced is to reduce unemployment poverty in the areas where these projects are being constructed. Further also the study reveals that in as much as the policy promotes informal employment, this type of informal employment is different from the commonly well-known informal employment purely on the aspect of remuneration and benefits compared to the common one.