M.A. (Public Management and Governance) / In an effort to correct the injustices of the past, particularly the exclusion of the majority, the South African Government has developed scores of policy frameworks in order to address equity and redress, of which municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and the emphasis on public participation in these processes is central. The IDP forms the statutory basis for a municipality’s policy framework and is also aligned with other resources, including the municipality’s capacity to implement the plan. Although the IDP has been criticised and referred to as a ‘wish list’ in that it supposedly obliges municipalities to make unrealistic plans, it is nonetheless the corner stone of municipal plans, even if only in theory in some municipalities. Against this background, the question that the research seeks to answer is: What was the level of public participation in Midvaal Local Municipality’s 2011/12 Integrated Development Plan? This qualitative research made use of as questionnaire and individual interviews in order to interpret the phenomena of public participation in the IDP process. Although public participation is useful, there is no ‘one size fits all’ and as a result there is a need for a differentiated approach to its application. South Africa has an excellent regulatory and policy framework governing public participation and largely strives to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of local government affairs. However, even with such a comprehensive framework, legislation has at times proven to be inadequate in practice and the same can be said with the ‘credibility’ of the IDP. The research found that the most effective mechanism for public participation in Midvaal was the use of flyers and posters which were provided by the municipality, a method which was also reflected as effective and popular in the literature. To ensure people were fully representative, the municipality held consultations in all but one ward and provided the community with transport to get to the venues; however even with such measures the attendance was very low. Furthermore, it can be said that for public participation to be more effective Midvaal municipality needs to develop strategies to encourage affluent communities to attend meetings and also a need to ensure that the people that do attend the meeting understand what they are about and that they are not platforms for complaining. The research therefore recommends that: there should be enhance public participation mechanisms, the structure of the meeting should be better structured and there should be a focus on public education about the IDP process.

The aim of the study is to investigate effective strategies and processes for public participation in the IDP process in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. A qualitative study was undertaken and literature review on public participation in terms of the Integrated Development Planning was conducted. Relevant secondary data was sourced and structured interviews were conducted with three (3) ward councillors in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipal. Focus group interviews were also conducted with ward committee members from three (3) wards in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The findings of this research indicate that ward councilors have limited information on administrative processes. This could lead to ward councillors not be able to provide feedback on various service delivery issues and the progress of the municipal projects. Also ward councillors may not be able to influence public participation if they do not understand their role in administrative processes such as monitoring implementation of council decisions and policies. Ward councillors have no influence on the Integrated Development Planning especially the cost and budget estimates for municipal projects which are intended to benefit the members of the community. On the basis of the key findings, recommendations were made that ward committees should be empowered to deal with the complex developments in the Integrated Development Planning process and ward councillors should play a leading role in the Integrated Development Planning process.

Contemporary debates about development confer a prominent role to citizen participation and decentralization. Growing scepticism about the efficacy of narrowly conceived measures add pressure to reform development both theoretically and in practical terms. There is a greater understanding that ‘traditional’ development approaches and policies need to be reformulated and decentralization and citizen participation have been proposed as remedies to previous development failures. It is frequently argued that citizen participation will improve the efficiency and efficacy of public services. Citizen participation is meant to render local government more accountable and to contribute to deepening democracy, by reinforcing representative democratic institutions with participatory forms. At the same time, decentralization reforms have been proposed as a response to the failures of highly centralized states. From a political perspective, it is argued, decentralization reforms can help the central state gain legitimacy and have been seen as a strategy for maintaining political stability. It has been repeatedly suggested that physical proximity makes it easier for citizens to hold local officials accountable for their performance. From an economic perspective, decentralization can improve the match between the mix of services provided by the public sector and the preferences of the local population. It has also been noted that people are more willing to pay for services that respond to their priorities and that increased competition between local governments generates spaces for more creative responses adapted to local needs. But then, can decentralization and citizen participation live up to the faith and expectations that they have inspired? I argue that the literature commonly over-emphasises the role of citizen participation and decentralization in development and what these processes and reforms can achieve. Much of the evidence is anecdotal in nature and tends to neglect the specific contexts in which these processes take place. Also largely ignored are political economy considerations and a critical exploration of the relationship between these two key words. At best, when their interrelationships are addressed decentralization and citizen participation are conceived as based on a symbiotic relationship. I suggest, however, that the relationship between these two processes is not as straightforward as most of the literature assumes. The meanings of these two key words in current development lexicon are explored and critically assessed. I argue that whether or not the rising prominence of these two words actually means the emergence of a new development agenda is a moot point. It critically depends on the understandings of these ambiguous terms. The thesis adopts a political economy approach. Combined with this is an awareness of the broader historical and socio-economic context in which citizen participation and decentralization take place. The thesis applies these ideas triangulating diverse research methods and data sources. It combines a literature review and documentary analysis, a survey conducted with municipal authorities and civil society organizations in the Eastern Cape as well as structured interviews with Ward councillors and with key informants. From a theoretical perspective, the study lays a foundation for understanding the relationship between development policies outcomes and the nature of citizen participation and decentralization in developing countries. This, in turn, provides a basis from which citizen participation and decentralization in South Africa can be assessed and understood. The thesis presents evidence from a case study of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. By revealing how different dimensions of decentralization and citizen participation operate and intersect, the findings demonstrate, that contrary to common knowledge, citizen participation and decentralization are frequently at odds. Moreover, contrary to frequent statements, the research also shows that opening new spaces for participation in decentralized local governance can result in fewer changes and disappointing results at best, undermining the transformative potential of the concepts of participation and decentralization.

The chief purpose of this study was to determine the role of the rural communities in the food security initiatives of the government in alleviating food shortages in the Marange communal area of Mutare district in Zimbabwe. The focus was on local community empowerment; ownership of food security initiatives by the communities; communities‟ independent analysis of needs and priorities; their involvement in designing food security programmes and the role of the government in linking with the communities. The data was gathered using a case study research design with the qualitative method being the main research approach. The primary data was obtained from focus group discussions held in three wards of Marange area and some in-depth interviews conducted with selected key informants. The findings indicate that the government designs food security strategies without considering the input of communities. The communities are introduced and expected to adopt these pre-conceived food security plans at the implementation stage. The results also show that poor community participation in the food security initiatives of the government, specifically during the initial stages, is a significant contributing factor to the continual shortages of food in the communal lands of Marange. It is the view of this study that unless community input in decision making at the planning and designing phases is given preference in the food security interventions of the government in rural Zimbabwe, food security will seldom be achieved. While the government has a significant role to play in food security measures, such interventions can make an important contribution if the use and development of community participation is made central to food shortage alleviation strategies. The principal conclusion of this study is that if food security is an intended ultimate goal in rural Zimbabwe, the communities must participate fully in the conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the government-initiated food security programmes.

In this examination of citizen surveillance, I engage with Foucaultian and Deleuzian conceptualizations of surveillance, power, resistance, control, and desire, to explore the motivation(s) of community members who film and disseminate footage of the police. Methodologically, I conducted semi-structured interviews with community stakeholders to study the latent thematic ideas embedded in their responses. These themes represent the underlying motivational factors a citizen surveiller may have when filming the police. In my analysis of these themes, I explore: citizen surveillers’ logic for resisting power; citizen surveillers’ understandings of power; and, citizen surveillers’ reported approaches to both passive and active forms of resistance. Subsequently, there appears to be an underlying desire for power and a resistance to power when filming the police. However, given the exploratory nature of this study, there is a need to continue investigating the theoretical and under substantiated claims about citizen surveillance and its association with race, gender and socio-economic status.

This thesis examines the opportunities for public participation in the federal Environmental Assessment and Review Process (EARP) and the influence of intervenor funding on that input; the application of EARP to Military Flying Activites in Labrador and Quebec is used as a case study. The analytical approach is critical and based on a public interest perspective. Five research questions are posed based on an interpretation of four normative objectives for the EAR Process and identification of several areas of EARP that restrict public access to decision making. The research questions ask to what extent intervenor funding would increase overall participation in the Process; whether funding would affect the ability of intervenors to be involved in stages of the Process where public input is limited; whether intervenor funding would ensure that the values and interests of public groups are more actively considered at each stage of the Process; how intervenor funding affects the quality and quantity of public input to the Process; and how the administration of the funding program affects public participation in the case study. Questionnaires were developed from these questions and three participant groups in the case study were interviewed. The results of these interviews are summarized and evaluated against the normative objectives and a set of six evaluative criteria - representativeness, educational, accountability, fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency. The criteria are developed from a theoretical rationale for financially supported public participation in EARP. The first general conclusion of this research is that the EAR Process is fundamentally flawed. Notwithstanding incremental reforms like intervenor funding, the assumptions of Environmental Impact Assessment and the structure of EARP treat project assessment as a project specific venture amenable to prediction and technical analysis. In fact is is inseparable from a value-laden and political development planning process. The EAR Process understates this essentially political character yet vests the most significant decision making author^ in the hands of those with the most to gain from project development. After recognition of this problem, this analysis makes recommendations, based on the analysis of the case study, that could assist EARP in approaching the normative objectives. First, while the proponent improved public consultation by 1985, and in the formal review, public involvement in the Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) in 1981 was inadequate. I therefore recommend that the affected publics be involved in decision making at the initial assessment stage of EARP and allowed an avenue of appeal. To support this recommendation the information used for initial assessment decisions needs to be comprehensive and readily accessible. In addition FEARO should provide an independent audit of these decisions. Second, while financial support to caribou research by the proponent since 1986 is laudable, project monitoring should have occurred since the release of the IEE. I therefore recommend that project monitoring be a required element of any application of the EAR Process, after an IEE and a formal review; it should include the affected publics in an advisory capacity and during implementation. Third, the EAR Process does not effectively deal with issues of fundamentally differing values; in this case study the viability of territories under land claims negotiations and the militarization of the Canadian arctic are avoided and unfairly unrepresented. To deal with this problem I recommend that public input be sought when drafting of the Panel's Terms of Reference for a public review. Fourth, information was withheld from intervenors from several government departments during the review. All government departments should be legally required to supply prompt and complete responses to reasonable information requests when they pertain to any stage of the EAR Process. Fifth, the funding program has so far been well administered; while funding has increased public access to the Process for remote settlements, further study is required to assess whether funds were sufficient to allow adequate regional representation. Finally, the credibility of the funding program is thrown into doubt by the participation of the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion in setting up an independent funding committee, their withdrawal from the same, and later support for a pro-development group after the funding was disbursed. An intervenor funding policy is required to regularize funding allocation from one independent agency for the duration of the review. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Citizen science is when ordinary people help with scientific research, e.g. within biodiversity, molecular biology and astronomy. At Artdatabanken, which is an organization that observes biodiversity, citizen science is used to enable data gathering of species in Sweden. Previous research has investigated how to maintain long-term engagement by observing motivation for citizen scientists regardless of skill-levels. In this study, the motivations of experienced citizen scientists are investigated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with citizen scientists at Artdatabanken, and thematic analysis was used to find themes in the answers.  The participants were open both to increase contributions and to report other species. The results showed mainly extrinsic motivations, which could be due to a lack of reflection of intrinsic motivation. Three main themes were found in the interviews. The first theme, Efficiency, was connected to usability-issues, mainly focusing on time-efficiency and simplifying the reporting tool. The acknowledgement-theme involved motivation to receive recognition for the contributions. The third theme, Knowledge and Understanding, was connected to motivation for increased knowledge regarding species and data. Some suggestions for implementation are presented to make the motivations feasible for design implementations of citizen science systems.

The aim of this study is to explore how one citizen journalist, Joakim Lamotte, reflects on codes of journalistic standards and ethics. Lamotte is a Swedish citizen journalist who publishes texts reporting on events in society on his Facebook-page. From the Facebook-page, five texts have been sampled for analysis in this study. This is done through using Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis as a methodology. The analysis is supported by Erving Goffman's theory of self presentation and Rom Harré and Luk van Langenhove's positioning theory as theorethical frameworks, to explore Lamotte's self presentation and how he is positioning in his role as a citizen journalist. Some of the main results of the study are that Lamotte uses the term independent journalist in the self presentation of his role, but at times includes himself in the group of the public (his audience). Throughout the samples he positions himself against professional journalists and mainstream media, as a way to reinforce his position as an independent journalist. While doing so, he criticises their choices and justifies his own choices relating to codes of journalistic standards and ethics. The study is an example of one citizen journalist with a large audience, in a Swedish context, reflects on codes of journalistic standards and ethics.

Citizen Science (CS) ist eine Methode, die in den letzten Jahren in der Wissenschaft weltweit an Bedeutung gewonnen hat. Obwohl viele Studien diese Daten mit denen von akademischen Forschenden verglichen, gibt es immer noch Bedenken hinsichtlich ihrer Qualität. In meiner Doktorarbeit zielte ich darauf ab die Methode CS für eine Vogelart mit einem großen Repertoire, der Nachtigall (Luscinia megarhynchos), als Anwendungsfall auf der Grundlage der Dialektforschung zu evaluieren. Ich untersuchte, ob die drei vermeintlichen Hauptgründe für schlechte Qualität (Anonymität, Unerfahrenheit und fehlende Standardisierung) zu unvollständigen, zeitlich oder räumlich verzerrten und ungenauen bioakustischen Daten führten. Dazu analysierte ich nicht-standardisierte CS-Aufnahmen, die mit einem Smartphone über die 'Naturblick' App erstellt wurden, welche einen eingebauten Mustererkennungsalgorithmus enthielt. Ich konnte in meiner Doktorarbeit zeigen, dass mit der Methode CS valide Daten für die bioakustische Forschung gewonnen werden können. Meine Ergebnisse zeigten, dass Anonymität, mangelnde Erfahrung und Standardisierung nicht zu geringer Qualität führten, sondern zu einem großen Datensatz, der genauso wertvoll war wie jene von akademischen Forschenden. Die Ergebnisse sind von großer Bedeutung für künftige CS-Projekte zur Verbesserung der Qualität und des Vertrauens in diese Daten. / Citizen science (CS) is a method that has been increased in science worldwide in recent years. Although many studies have compared these data with those of academic researchers, there are still concerns about their quality. In my doctoral thesis I aimed to evaluate the method of CS for a bird species with a large repertoire, the nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), as a use case based on dialect research. I investigated whether the three main assumed reasons for poor quality (anonymity, inexperience and lack of standardisation) led to incomplete, temporal or spatial biassed and inaccurate bioacoustic data. Therefore, I analysed non-standardised CS recordings, which were generated with a smartphone via the 'Naturblick' app, which contained an in-built pattern recognition algorithm. In summary (Chapter V), my doctoral thesis showed that the method CS could be used to generate valid data for bioacoustic research. My findings showed that anonymity, lack of experience and standardisation did not lead to low quality but in fact to a large dataset, which was as valuable as ones from academic researchers. The results are of great relevance for future CS projects to improve the quality and the trust in these data.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo proponer un plan de gestión local participativa para mejorar la seguridad ciudadana local en Santa Rosa. Se utilizó un enfoque de naturaleza cualitativa de tipo de caso de estudio, debido a que no existen investigaciones locales sobre la variable estudiada. Primero se elaboró un cuestionario para estudiar los factores de análisis, que fueron: gestión local municipal, ciudadanía y acciones de redes los cuales se usaron para desarrollar una entrevista semiestructurada, donde cuenta con 13 preguntas de acuerdo con los tres factores de análisis previamente determinados. Se tomó como muestras a los actores claves que fueron: alcalde distrital, subprefecto, representante de las rondas campesinas, coordinador de las juntas vecinales, comisario distrital, jefe de seguridad ciudadana y cinco ciudadanos del distrito de Santa Rosa. Los resultados mostraron que la inseguridad ciudadana se vio afectada en mayor porcentaje por la violencia familiar, violencia contra la mujer y los robos debido a la falta de políticas de seguridad por parte de la municipalidad a los ciudadanos. Asimismo, se evidencio la falta de participación de los ciudadanos en las mesas de diálogo y en la elaboración del plan de acción. Los pobladores percibieron que la falta de convenios, alianzas y apoyo logístico debilita el trabajo de patrullaje integrado en la lucha contra la inseguridad en todo el distrito. Se ha propuesto un plan de gestión participativa con el fin de reducir este flagelo que afecta la convivencia social entre las familias del distrito de Santa Rosa. / This research aims to propose a participatory local management plan to improve local citizen security in Santa Rosa. An exploratory-type qualitative approach was used, since there are no local investigations on the variable studied. In the first place, a questionnaire was developed to study the analysis factors, which were: local municipal management, citizenship and network actions, which were used to develop a semi-structured interview, where it consists of 13 questions according to the three factors previously determined. Key actors were sampled: district mayor, sub-prefect, representative of the peasant rounds, coordinator of neighborhood councils, district commissioner, head of citizen security, and five citizens of the Santa Rosa district. The results show that citizen insecurity was affected in a higher percentage by family violence, violence against women and robberies due to the lack of security policies by the municipality for citizens. Likewise, there is evidence of the lack of citizen participation in the dialogue tables and in the preparation of the action plan. Neighbors perceived that the lack of agreements, alliances and logistical support weakens the patrol work integrated in the fight against insecurity throughout the district. A participatory management plan has been proposed to reduce this scourge that affects social coexistence among families in the Santa Rosa district.