Magister Artium - MA / This research is a discourse analysis of a Christian ‗coloured‘ youth group, from the area of Mitchell‘s Plain, Cape Town. The aim of the analysis is to explore the ways in which the interlocutors construct their identities and gender positions and how they are able to affirm, challenge and perpetuate dominant discourses. The role of this context, namely the social and religious context is pivotal to shaping this interaction.The analysis of the data uses the Appraisal framework particularly the attitudinal and engagement systems to analyse how the interlocutors strategically communicate their attitudes,evaluations, feelings and judgements. Ultimately, this research shows how the males and females use language to negotiate identities and socially position themselves.In addition, the research indicates that the male interlocutors in most instances exert a strong influence on the discussions, which result in females showing tendencies to allow for the male ideologies to dictate, thus perpetuating the dominant ideologies about male and female behaviour.

Magister Artium - MA / This ethnographically-orientated intervention explored how members of a Cape Flats reading club “took hold” (Street, 2009) of digital literacy in their engagement with online fictional stories accessed by a mobile phone. The Masifunde reading club takes place inside the premises of a church located in one of the most impoverished and resource-constrained communities on the outskirts of Cape Town. The club is connected to a bigger sets of clubs under the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign seeking to create nurturing spaces for learning by introducing children to literacy through story-telling. I wanted to diversify and increase the literacy material available by introducing mobile phones to the club. This research paper is theoretically grounded in the New Literacy Studies (NLS) framework which argues that the social turn and digital turn to literacy have transformed literacy. I adopted an ethnographic approach to literacy in order to understand how mobile reading is ‘taken hold’ of within an already established activities of the club which are conceptualized using Goffman’s (1983) “interaction order”. Goffman’s (1983) “interaction order” was used to map the established print-based interaction order and then to examine the practices of reading online fiction and the materiality of the mobile phone as taken hold of within this interaction order. The notion of ‘taking hold’ of was further extended to reveal the ways in which mobile stories were resemiotized in the shared practices of the club members. The introduction of mobile phones is viewed within Prinsloo’s (2005) “placed resources” concept that pays attention to the specificity of the context in how the phone was taken hold of. What is more, through Goffman’s (1956) back stage and front stage concept, I was able to trace using Ker’s (2005) “text-chain” concept, how interactions in the back region WhatsApp group chat moved across space-time to the front stage interactions in the Saturday club event. This revealed the ways in which the uses and valuing of the phone changed across these spaces, with the phone being naturalised in the back stage, but being treated as a difficult object in the front stage sessions by the volunteers, while the children took up the phones in easy ways consistent with the existing interaction order and therefore as placed resources. The study reveals that triumphalist claims about uptake of digital technologies in resource-poor contexts and dismal internet connectivity need to be treated with caution.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / The objectives of this study were: To review and understand flow and transport processes in unsaturated zones. In this study, particular emphasis is placed on understanding mechanisms that cause non-uniform (preferential) flow for two casestudies, namely the Cape Flats sandy environment and the Mpumalanga Highveld fractured rock environment. To evaluate the adequacy of models, in particular MACRO 5.0, in simulating flow and transport in the vadose zone, by making use of two case study sites (Cape Flats and Mpumalanga Highveld). Of particular importance is the evaluation of transfer coefficients to represent fluid and solute exchange between macropores and matrix. To run a sensitivity analysis with MACRO 5.0 in order determine which input model parameters are the most relevant in describing the effects of preferential flow in water and solute transport.

Magister Artium - MA / Adolescent substance abuse is a widely researched area both internationally and nationally. It has been known to affect many problems which are prevalent in most low socioeconomic communities such as crime, school truancy and family fragmentation. It is of particular concern in low socioeconomic communities within the Cape Flats District which continues to be plagued with social ills such as gangsterism, adolescent criminal behaviour, and high rates of school dropout. The problem of adolescent substance abuse cannot be explored in isolation, but rather, in conjunction with all other spheres which it affects such as family relationships, dynamics and functioning. Parents fulfil an important role in managing their adolescent's addiction problem. These parents often feel helpless, hopeless, guilty, and angry, and are inclined to blame themselves for their child's delinquent behaviour. In some cases spouses blame one another for their being too permissive or too stern. However, there is a dearth in research of parents' lived experiences and the ways in which they attribute meaning to their situations. The aim of this study was to explore parents' lived experiences of their adolescent's substance abuse. More specifically the study explored parents' perceptions of the ways in which one family member's substance abuse affects the dynamics and the functioning of the family. At a theoretical level, this study aligned with Bowen's Family Systems theory, as it allowed the researcher to explore the ways in which family roles, dynamics and functioning are affected by a relative's substance addiction. The current study was conducted within the qualitative methodological framework, as the aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of parent's lived experiences of managing their adolescent's substance abuse. Furthermore, this study was positioned within the phenomenological epistemological framework as it aligns well with the aims of this study, which is to acquire an understanding of parents' lived experiences of their adolescent's substance abuse.