3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item A 'coloured' history, a black future: contesting the dominant representations in the media through hip-hop beats(2009-10-08T10:29:44Z) Marco, DerileneThis research will critically analyse “conscious” hip-hop music and the way in which it contests media and mainstream ideas in the media. Conscious hip-hop refers to rap music that critically engages with hegemonic discourses and popular culture. It is framed and named in this manner by both the performers/ artists themselves as well as by leading hip-hop scholars within South Africa and globally. This research uses the music of Godessa and Brasse Vannie Kaap to interrogate representations of Black identities and gender in society.Item Interracial intimate relationships in post-apartheid South Africa(2008-05-30T07:06:09Z) Jaynes, Claire LisaAlthough both the Immorality Act and the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act were repealed in 1985, for the most part, interracial intimate relationships continue to be fraught with controversy. It was hypothesised that discourses on interracial intimate relationships in post-apartheid South Africa would intersect with racist and/or antiracist discourses. This study sought to identify and explore discourses on these relationships, and to investigate the possible intersections with discourses on racism. Thompson’s method of depth hermeneutics (of which critical discourse analysis was a component) was employed to analyse data generated by two focus group discussions and two interviews with interracial couples. The study yielded a wealth of data. This research report presents significant findings in terms of how discourses on interracial intimate relationships in post-apartheid South Africa intersect with discourses on race and racism. The three main discursive themes were on race, whiteness, and interracial intimate relationships, with the latter theme dominating. Of particular significance was how discursive strategies were employed in order to deny, negate and justify racism. The most striking findings relate to how discourses on interracial relationships intersect with discourses on three main themes: i) experimentation, as depicted by discourses on developmental psychology, ii) geographical locations, socio-economic status, and class, as manifested in the discourse of “It depends on where you go”, and iii) the ideological construction of the family, which functions to maintain a racially stratified society that maintains the status quo.Item The use of hair as a manifestation of cultural and gender identity in the works of Tracey Rose(2008-04-08T10:58:15Z) Meyerov, Lee-AtABSTRACT This research report investigates the manifestation of hair as a symbol of cultural and gender identity as is seen in selected works of South African artist Tracey Rose, whose usage of her own culturally specific hair and body serves as metaphor through which she critically engages with issues surrounding the gendered and racialized body. The report will explore the ways in which Rose both in her video piece Ongetiteld (1996) and her performance video installation Span II (1997) challenges and subsequently deconstructs the rigidly defined monoliths of ‘Woman’, ‘femininity’, and the racially constructed category of ‘Coloured’, assigned and imposed on her during the Apartheid era. Rose’s work, highlighting the extent to which the conceptualization of gender and racial identity are bound and read off the body’s corporeality, relates to my own artistic practice, whereby I examine the metaphorical functioning of skin, as a corporeal ‘text’ and parchment, facilitating the inscription of my own cultural, religious and linguistic Otherness.Item A critical analysis of the iconography of six HIV/AIDS murals from Johannesburg and Durban, in terms of race, class and gender(2008-03-19T13:17:09Z) Khan, SharleneABSTRACT This research report is a critical analysis of the iconography of six HIV/Aids murals from Johannesburg and Durban, in terms of race, class and gender. The six examples are community murals which were used as a social awareness tool to disseminate information on HIV/Aids to a supposedly highly illiterate Black audience public. This research focuses predominantly on the issue of stereotypes, and how certain societal stereotypes of Others are manifested in these HIV/Aids murals. My analysis also tries to make evident, how difficult it is for muralists to visually represent HIV/Aids facts, in addressing ‘high-risk’ groups. This report also tries to show that key issues of HIV/Aids transmission are often overlooked or omitted for various reasons. I argue that, given the importance of HIV/Aids murals as educative tools, muralists have to be made aware of their role in the possible perpetuation of societal racial, gender and class stereotypes, and how such perpetuation of stereotypes can contribute to the continued stigmatization of the disease. The final chapter of this research examines my own practical work that was produced as a requirement for the MA (Fine Art) degree. It analyses my performance-exhibition Walking the Line. My commentary focuses on how the social phenomenon of street trade in the Johannesburg city centre and specifically the ‘refurbishment’ of the Johannesburg Fashion District influenced my art practice. My analysis is further extended to the use of my own body in the performance, to consciously engage notions of hybridized identity.Item Human rights and the construction of identities in South African education(2007-02-16T12:08:55Z) Carrim, Nazir HoosainThis thesis is based on an exploration of human rights (in) South African education. In order to do so, however, it has been necessary to explore the origins of the notion of human rights in both its philosophical and legal senses. It covers the ways in which the claim of an equality of all human beings has developed historically and the ways in which they are articulated in the Universal Declaration of human rights and in the “new” South African Constitution. However, the argument in this thesis is that human rights tend to be generalised and universalised, and as such do not adequately address the ways in which human rights are experienced in specific social formations and in the contexts of particular people’s lives. In order to make human rights more specific and personal, I apply a sociology of human rights using Stuart Hall’s “theory of articulation” and demonstrate what this sociological analysis means in the context of South Africa under apartheid. In addition, to prevent reifying social categories and privileging particular types of human identity, I explore human rights under apartheid in relation to ‘race’, gender and sexual orientation. Throughout, I point to ways in which these identities and social categories interconnect with each and balance micro and macro approaches to an analysis of apartheid. Methodologically this thesis uses Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot’s approach of “portraiture” in order to capture personal lives within a macro context and I provide accounts in this respect of Nelson Mandela and Simon Nkoli. I have also used a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches in my investigation of experiences of human rights in South African education. Teachers’ and learners’ questionnaires were conducted in schools in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in South Africa between 1996 and 1998. In addition, individual interviews with Grade 9 teachers were conducted and group interviews with Grade 9 learners in these schools were also done. Classroom observations in three schools, one in each of the provinces, were also conducted, and individual interviews with two gay learners also form part of the empirical data of this study. A national survey of what human rights programmes were used by educational institutions and organisations was also conducted. The thesis also contextualises the sampled schools experiences within the post-apartheid dispensation in South Africa, providing an account of how human rights are framed in South Africa generally and in the South African educational system in particular. Approaches to human rights (in) education are also covered, as are the principles of a human rights education. The conclusions that I arrive at in this thesis are that there are interventions in regard to human rights in South African education which tend to be located within legalistic and integrated approaches. In addition, experiences of racism in the sampled schools are prevalent within an assimilationist mode. In regard to sexual orientation, sex, gender and sexuality are conflated but the provision of human rights in terms of sexual orientation has had a positive impact on the sampled gay learners in this study. Finally, I argue that the sociological approach to human rights is useful and generative and has enabled this study to access an understanding of human rights in generalised macro terms and in specific contexts of people’s experiences.Item Managing diversity and attitude change in a South African food-processing company(2006-11-03T08:34:34Z) Friedman, MichelleThis is a retrospective case study of an intervention aimed at transforming communication and interpersonal relations in a small company in South Africa. The objective was for the Innergize consultancy to integrate black factory workers and white office staff across race and class into one team by healing the psychological effects of Apartheid. The research questioned how change would be recognised and if it could be sustained within an organisation. The workshop method used by Innergize separated the two groups so that conflict within the groups could be resolved, personal growth facilitated and attitudes towards race surfaced. Then the staff joined together and continued the process through communication, cultural exchange and gender awareness. The staff developed on a personal level, interpersonally, and a climate of trust resulted. The success was partly due to individual attention given to each person, clearing the past before addressing the present, and offering tools for sustaining the process. Structures were set up to sustain changes at the organisational level, however the project ended abruptly, due to a number of factors. The study concluded that in order for a transformation process to be successful at both interpersonal and organisational levels, management must remain committed to a longterm process. Keywords: managing diversity; attitudes; healing; race; organisational change; personal growth; South Africa; workshops; communication.