4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions
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Item Evolution of Enforcement: United Nations Enforcement Actions Under Article 42 of Chapter VII(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Custer, Scott; Brosig, MalteThis dissertation presents a comprehensive examination of the evolution of peace enforcement operations under the framework of the United Nations Charter's Chapter VII, Article 42. Through a qualitative research methodology, incorporating in-depth case study analysis and process tracing, the dissertation explores the changing actor constellations in peace enforcement, highlighting the shift from predominantly Member State-led operations to more complex arrangements involving Regional Arrangement and the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO). By analyzing seven specific cases in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Libya, and Mali, the research identifies key causal mechanisms that have shaped the actor constellations of peace enforcement missions. The findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of the conditions under which peace enforcement operations are initiated and the strategic considerations that guide the international community's response to threats to peace and security. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these evolutions for future peace enforcement endeavors and the broader study of peace and conflict resolution within the field of International Relations.Item Composition and Decomposition: On Thornton Dial’s Aesthetics(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Siyothula, Nomalanga; Andrew, DavidIn this study I explore how Composition and Decomposition: On Thornton Dial’s Aesthetics can be theorised and understood within black studies but based on three selected assemblages in his art practice. The study will engage in three forms of Dial’s aesthetics: The aesthetics of the black social life, the aesthetics of ruins and disposability and the aesthetics of revitalisation and care. It is in this form that Dial’s work will be meditated upon. It will do so by centering Composition and Decomposition as the analytical tools. It is a study that will engage in the protocols of black aesthetics, making and unmaking for there to be generativity. So, for this to come into being it is important to understand Dial as a figure in order to arrive at new ways of decolonising black aesthetics.Item Missionary Conversions and Cross-Cultural Transla3ons in the highveld, 1820 to 1870(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mbala, MhlangabeziThis disserta8on examines missionary encounters, conversions and cross-cultural transla8ons in the Southern African Highveld during the nineteenth century. It primarily focuses on the effects of alterity, or ‘self’ and ‘other’ binaries, within the context of Robert Moffat’s encounters with the Batlhaping, or Batswana. The paper first iden8fies and examines historical theories of encounter, conversion and transla8on and then applies key aspects of these theories to the specific historical circumstances of the London Mission Sta8ons and Wesleyan Mission Sta8ons. It looks at the how missionary conversions, categoriza8ons and modes of classifica8on and transla8ons helped to create a seemingly universal but actually Eurocentric regime of truth. This regime was premised on the nega8on of Batlhaping cultures and customs, and ul8mately on their norma8ve assimila8on into idealized European cultures and norms. This assimila8on was never complete, since African peoples had their own ideas regarding faith and belonging, but it nonetheless played a major role in construc8ng new forms of African subjec8vity within a Eurocentric mirror, with a further bifurca8on between ‘converted’ and ‘unconverted’. A further component of this historical transforma8on was the ideological and ins8tu8onal role played by European missionaries from 1816 to 1857 in the crea8on and inven8on of tribal categories on the highveld. These tribal categories ended up superseding more fluid and overlapping forms of iden8ty, and thereby paved the way for essen8alist models of iden8ty and difference which had profound implica8ons for not only the nineteenth century, but also the twen8eth century and contemporary society.Item Protecting Independent Local Contemporary Fashion: An exploration of policies that shaped the South African fashion industry and approaches to protect local independent South African contemporary fashion as cultural heritage(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Atkinson, Kendall Lee; Desando, MarcusLocal independent South African contemporary fashion designers face a challenging market when entering the South African fashion industry to sell their products. Local independent contemporary designers are forced to compete with the overwhelmingly popular international fast fashion brands that populate malls nationwide with little to no support. This has created challenging and convoluted entry points for local independent contemporary designers and continuous challenges to stay in the market. Independent local contemporary fashion designers offer something different than chain stores: a specific creative and cultural design perspective. People are naturally influenced by their environments and identity; therefore, local independent contemporary fashion designers instinctively design from their cultural perspective. We are losing aspects of cultural identity and history by not supporting or protecting local independent contemporary fashion designers’ businesses. This paper investigates the challenges both the designers and consumers face in the industry and different methods of protecting local independent South African contemporary fashion designers to preserve their art and support the local fashion sector. The research methodology used was hermeneutical phenomenology, and my experience as a consumer of the South African fashion industry was not omitted due to the study method. Five interviews were conducted, three individuals participated in photovoice, and 84 participants were surveyed. The results show evidence of the innate interconnection of culture and cultural heritage with South African contemporary designers and the challenges that the designers face due to policy decisions by the South African government. In order to protect local contemporary fashion designers to allow them the opportunity for success, fashion should be declared as a cultural heritage by the South African government.Item Theatre of Resistance in Johannesburg, 1960–2010(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mukonde, Kasonde Thomas; Lekgoath, Sekibakiba Peter; Hlongwane, Ali KhangelaThis thesis explores the relation of art to politics, specifically how black theatre practitioners in South Africa responded to cultural imperialism. It contributes to the historiography of adversarial theatre in South Africa by tracing the establishment and growth of a genre of theatre termed the Theatre of Resistance. The thesis uses the cases of the People’s Experimental Theatre, Mihloti Black Theatre, Bahumutsi and the Soyikwa Institute of African Theatre to provide rich empirical detail on how the work at these theatre companies was a form of cultural resistance. It begins by showing how the Soweto poetry movement and the Black Consciousness Movement were foundational to the development of Theatre of Resistance. Plays that are exemplars of this genre are analysed in the context of the oral history testimonies of the theatre practitioners themselves. Additionally, the issue of censorship is addressed by looking at the deliberations of the Directorate of Publications, whose archives are extant and have only been accessible within the last twenty years. The thesis also shows how the groups negotiated the segregated township spaces of Soweto and Alexandra in Johannesburg to create theatre that was agile and politically relevant. Finally, the thesis discusses Theatre of Resistance after the end of apartheid and beginning of democracy.Item The Legacy of Parental Divorce as an Adverse Childhood Experience on Emerging Adults(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Presence, Jewel ChristinaThe impact of parental divorce on children is well documented, yet there is a significant gap in literature regarding its long-term effects on emerging adults. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring how emerging adults narrate and make meaning of their experiences of parental divorce during childhood. The study aims to understand how emerging adults interpret their childhood experiences of parental divorce and how it has affected their emotional, psychological, and social development in emerging adulthood. The study uses Arnett’s theory of emerging adulthood and Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development as theoretical frameworks. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 11 emerging adults, aged 18 to 24 years, who experienced parental divorce during childhood. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. Three overarching themes emerged from the study: (1) navigating interpersonal relationships, (2) developmental transitions and parental divorce impact; as well as (3) family dynamics and support shifts. Findings reveal that parental divorce, during childhood, has emotional implications, leading to maladaptive coping strategies, difficulties within the home environment, and challenges in forming secure attachments in emerging adulthood. Despite these hardships, participants demonstrated resilience and adaptability, often reinterpreting their experiences in a positive light as they navigated self- identity and emerging adulthood. The effects of parental divorce on emerging adults were deeply embedded in their individual experiences including how they related to their parents during their childhood. This study provides valuable subjective insights into the long-term impacts of parental divorce on emerging adults by presenting data derived from participants’ experiences and includes recommendations for future research and practical applications.Item The Role of Social Networks in Destination Selection Among Urban Refugees in Kampala, Uganda(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ayanzu, Francis; Wet- Billings, Nicole DeThe rampant displacements due to armed conflicts, torture, gender-based violence, human rights abuse, and all other forms of displacements increased the number of forced migrants residing in urban areas. This study is about the role of social networks in the destination selection of urban refugees, including asylum seekers. Although asylum seekers differ from refugees in terms of status determination, this group is included under refugees because choices about destination occur prior to arrival in Kampala, the place of asylum, not upon arrival. Destination selection refers to the decisions regarding where to go. Existing studies have pointed to the role of social networks, defined as interpersonal relationships through which resources such as information and social support flow, in facilitating the refugee movements and settlement in urban areas. Studies on urban refugees particularly in the Sub- Saharan Africa showed that refugees use their social networks to access livelihood opportunities upon arrival at an urban area. Related to destination decisions, refugee studies in Uganda and Kenya have shown that strong social networks formed in camps and countries of asylum sometimes affect humanitarian interventions regarding returning refugees to countries of origin or relocation of refugees to new refugee settlement areas. Much of these influences have been attributed to the presence of either refugees from the countries of origin at a particular camp or relationships build through shared ethnic membership with local communities in which the refugees reside. However, not all ethnic members have equal weight in exerting influences on a refugee and not every actor in the social network supports the choice of a destination. Moreover, actors who exert influences are not only at the places of origin or destination, but also those encountered on transit or those living elsewhere in another country or camps. The details of who actually influence the refugees to move to city is important because it enables us to answer the question whether refugees make decisions on where to go and if so, what enables their decision-making capacity. This is a critical aspect in the context of Uganda where refugees are associated with settlements in the rural areas. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the role of social networks in the selection of Kampala, actors involved in the social networks and how they influenced the refugees’ decisions to specifically move to Kampala. Specifically, study explored the associations between social 17 networks and destination selection and how actors in the social networks influence the decisions of the refugees. The study also investigated the profiles of the refugees associating with destination selection, and patterns of movement to Kampala.Item Unheard Narratives: theatre-making that celebrates Coloured stories(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Claasen, Estee LaurenIn South Africa, the Coloured ethnic group is considered as either as a creation of apartheid or as an indistinguishable group (Mills, 2018). This research challenges these concepts and intends to adopt the principles that guide Playback Theatre, such as fluid sculpture and sharing stories with an audience present. Playback Theatre aims to honour each teller by providing a space for multiple viewpoints and voices to be heard (Rivers and Chung, 2017). This research report presents a creative research process with a group of elderly Coloured women from Belhar, Cape Town. During the creative process, principles of Playback Theatre were used to enable the women to share their personal stories, transforming these into a public performance with the larger community. The performance became a celebratory moment for the participants as well as the audience members. It was a moment to witness the stories of the older generation in the community and for the women, it was a moment to be witnessed and heard by the younger members and males of the community. By researching and undergoing this creative process, it became evident that storytelling and story sharing not only allows people to be heard and seen, but challenges preconceived assumptions of a homogenous group. This research report presents concepts of Coloured Identity, The Culture of Silence and Storytelling in an attempt to celebrate unheard narratives. According to narrative identity theory, stories often convey a sense of purpose and furthermore internalized family narratives can influence one’s sense of individuality (Clemons, 2018).Item MUCUS (Music Composition User System): Infectious Flexible Creative Interaction with an Algorithmic Music Composing Application(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Armstrong, Douglas Connolly; Crossley, Jonathan; Harris, CameronRecent research in the field of computational creativity and interaction design suggests new ways in which computers can contribute to a creative process. Computational creativity has necessitated new rigour in theoretical definitions of creativity for computational applications. Interaction design has evolved from a focus on efficiency and productivity to a user-centred focus on the emotional and hedonistic aspects of interaction with a computer. I set out to design an interactive algorithmic music composing tool that implements co- creative strategies for a human–computer collaboration, as described by Kantosalo and Toivonen (2016). This interactive tool would play the role of a creative collaborator in the development of musical material by the use of rule-based algorithmic music composing models, steering the co-creative composing process using high-level musical descriptors and capturing user sentiment to build a model of the user’s musical preferences. It is suggested that, through this process, an engaging creative interaction between human and computer can be sustained. Three versions of the software were tested in three different settings. The results suggest that a variety of co-creative and creativity support approaches are required to cater for a computational agent that does not match a musically trained human’s ability to identify musical merit in a developing idea. In this respect, it was found that there is further scope for exposing details of the computer decision-making process for development alongside the process of musical development, as a black box process of computational reasoning was found to be mysterious and at times frustrating. A rule-based system of music generation was found to be effective in a steering mechanism that matched higher-level descriptors of the musical variation process to music generation parameters. Engagement was sustained for longer when the duration of the musical output was longer in form. This included the ability to integrate the output of the application with existing digital audio workstations.Item Factors Influencing Listener Comprehension in Multicultural Dysarthria(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Jones, DilysThe dysarthrias are a group of motor speech disorders which may be congenital, or may be acquired due to neurological injury or disease. Dysarthria frequently affects the intelligibility of speech, that is, the ability of the listener to decode the signals produced by the speaker, as well as the ability of the listener to understand the meaning of the speaker's message. As such, it has a great impact on the ability of the speaker to function in daily life and on quality of life. Most research is focused on the speaker with the impairment, but the listener plays a key role in the chain of communication. This study examined listeners in an attempt to describe some of the variables which may affect their ability to comprehend dysarthric speech. Given the multilingual and multicultural environment of South Africa, a particular focus was on language mismatch between speaker and listener. A mixed methods design was used in which the main aim was to identify barriers and facilitators of listener comprehension in dysarthria. Sub-aims were to compare the performance of listeners on tasks of intelligibility evaluation and comprehension; to identify the role of second language use in listener comprehension and intelligibility; to identify the role of experience in listener comprehension and intelligibility; to evaluate whether a training programme could be effective in improving listeners' comprehension and to describe the strategies used by a small group of successful listeners to decode dysarthric speech. The research comprised three sub-studies: The first quasi-experimental sub-study examined the variables of language use and experience in groups of listeners (n=93) on tasks evaluating the intelligibility and comprehensibility of the speech of four speakers with dysarthria; The second, qualitative sub-study focused on the listening strategies used by a small group of people (n=3) identified as being “successful” listeners; The third was an experimental study to investigate the effect of a training intervention, in which a group of 15 listeners were evaluated on intelligibility and comprehension tasks before and after receiving training. The results indicated that neither speaking the same language as the speaker nor previous iv experience with dysarthric speakers was a predictor of success in comprehending dysarthric speech. However, the combination of experience and matching language was a significant facilitator. The group who underwent the short training programme performed significantly better than the untrained control group, suggesting that training could be an important facilitator of comprehension. These results provide a very preliminary understanding of how the comprehension of dysarthric speech may be affected in the multilingual environment, a completely neglected area of research, and thus have potential theoretical implications as well as raising several implications for future research in the area. They also have important clinical implications, especially for resource-limited populations who do not have access to intensive rehabilitation, and for those whose dysarthria is progressive and whose speech will thus deteriorate. For both of these groups, greater focus on the listener, rather than the speaker, is likely to be more effective in improving communication.