A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Management Strategic Marketing 2016 / Context: Annually in South Africa, results of the Sunday Times Top Brands survey are released. Within this study is a ranking “brands that do the most to uplift the community” voted by the public, which is widely quoted by those brands included in the study. If this is the dominant study reporting on a “socially responsible organisation”, the study provides a guideline on how the organisation will be more likely to be thought to be in the top companies “doing the most to uplift communities”. A brief statement of the conceptual framework of the research: This, study employed the recently developed Porter and Kramer (2011) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vs. Creating Shared Value (CSV) model as a return on corporate social development programs framework. The study sought to assess whether management in companies that are highly ranked adopt the CSR paradigm constructs (where the value is doing good) or the CSV paradigm constructs (where the value is economic and societal benefits relative to cost) as proposed by the Porter and Kramer (2011) model [Abbreviated abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR2018

This dissertation focuses on workplace accidents, a chronic problem in Turkey. I conducted my fieldwork in İstanbul’s Tuzla shipyards, where approximately 160 workers have died in work accidents since 1992. The Tuzla shipyards are both a symbol of negative working conditions and chronic work accidents in Turkey, and a site where the definitions, causes, and effects of work accidents are problematized, examined, and contested. In my research, I explore the ways in which various conflicting actors describe, identify, and explain accidents at work in relation to contested understandings, discourses, and practices of development. To be sure, the definition of accidents at work as preventable or inevitable dramatically shape the evaluation of the problem and the ways in which work accidents were acted upon or not by contesting actors. While I examine the ways that work accidents are identified I also investigate how different actors legitimized their positions in relation to contested understandings of development. The enduring nature of workplace injuries in rapidly developing Turkey has caused many activists and academics to question the contemporary obsession with development and the belief that economic growth will inevitably lead to social justice. Following these critical insights, I investigate the relationship between the prioritization of national economic growth and the persistence of workplace injuries in Turkey. Although I analyze the critiques of work accidents as critiques of the obsession with economic development, I also observed a more complicated narrative of class mobility and the aspiration for development amongst the working class themselves. The Tuzla shipyards zone is not only a uniquely dense industrial zone where workplace injuries are common, but also a unique site where a few workers have been able to quickly form their own subcontractor companies and benefit from rapid economic growth in the shipyards. Based on my ethnographic observations I argue that the dominant discourse about development also affects working classes’ aspirations and their desires to have a better life.

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This thesis examines how globalization poses immediate and long-term challenges and opportunities for small towns and, as a consequence, for local economic development policy. The authors' perspectives raise vital questions about the shape, substance, and function of small towns in an increasingly interdependent and competitive global economy. The thesis provide both retrospective and prospective insights into the ways in which poverty, industrial migration, economic globalization, and technological innovation affect public-sector choices for small towns approaching the turn of a new century. The central theme emerging from this thesis is that the responses of the past will not necessarily provide a path to the future. Cities must innovate and adapt when seeking solutions to problems caused by rapid changes in their environment. Flexibility and creativity are key to designing public policies to deconcentrate poverty, increase opportunity, and furnish a better quality of life. For example, the continuing loss of jobs and population in many large cities can be reversed only with public policies that profit from the emerging global economy. Cities must strategically adapt to the information age by mobilizing public and private resources to be successful in the new, highly competitive economic environment by coming up with new locally designed economic development interventions in what has been termed local economic development (LED). LED in South Africa's small towns will be driven increasingly by forces of global economic interaction in the 21st century. Whereas the export sector is thriving, international trade and investment creating more and better paying jobs for developed, better-prepared regions, South Africa's small towns have yet to adjust quickly to these and other international forces. As they are unable to grow and prosper, and take advantage of global economic benefits, they are currently faced with numerous challenges of improving their local economic system to attract international investment, provide services and infrastructure to support globally competitive firms, and develop stronger entrepreneurial and technological capacity among small and medium-size companies. Local economic development and community action are essential to expanding and modernizing urban and rural infrastructure, strengthening mechanisms of community cooperation within small towns and fostering public-private partnerships to expand opportunities for employment. Demands for integrating the poor into economic activities has proven to be a vital element of local economic development that build on business-oriented approaches to community development. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies (triangulation), data was collected within the framework of participatory approach to social enquiry. Findings of this thesis provided a new perspective in dealing with local economic development and market failure. They also show that not all is worse, as community driven and locally designed economic regeneration programmes provide an alternative to global economic growth. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, [2005?]

The purpose of this dissertation is to show that socio-economic development can be better understood through an interdisciplinary approach.From the writings on socio-economic development and related disciplines., background information and theories are gleaned to provide the bases for the development of the concept of tri-dimensional technology (called residuals in economic theories of development). As the major focus in this study, tri-dimensional technology is divided into three major components: human, social and material. This concept, in addition to capital and labor, is shown to be the basis of productive potential in a society and as a crucial factor in explaining the socio-economic progress of a nation.In order to explore tri-dimensional technology, social psychology was chosen as the most relevant discipline since it concerns itself with individual as well as society. Within the three components of tri-dimensional technology, the human aspect is given priority and the social behaviorist model of man as a general model will be developed. References tech to explainthe rapid socio-economic development of Japan are made to relevant theories and literature to identify the social and material aspects of tri-dimensional technology.The concept of tri-dimensional technology is applied with emphasis on Meiji Restoration era. The implications of the Japanese experience for developing countries is suggested. Reference to the ethical analysis of tri-dimensional technology is also made.

This study examines the impact of conflict on the socio-economic development of Burundi. Conflicts, underdevelopment and poverty had marred most, if not all the post-colonial and African States contrary to the expectations of the world, especially after the end of the Cold War in 1989 when rivalry between Russia and United States ceased. International and other conflicts occurred paradoxically to the United Nations' claim that considerable progress has been achieved in resolving conflicts since the end of the Cold War and the creation of the United Nations. In almost every area the individuals. · nations, international communities, regional organizations, continental and global structures are working together in attempts to set the global agenda for peace and security. Burundi is one of the African States that has drawn the attention of the United Nations in as far as conflict and underdevelopment is concerned. The ethnically motivated tension between the Hutu and Tutsi is one example where socio-economic development has been affected and the communities are suffering, especially the vulnerable ones like women and, children and old people. Building lasting peace in Burundi will require that post-conflict regimes implement strategies that are explicitly aimed at addressing the root causes of the country's . contlicts and come up with best strategies for development. Therefore I examined carefully the causes of the conflicts that occurred in 1965, 1972, 1988, 1991 and the ongoing conflict that started in 1993, drawing from the literature on the social, economics and politics of civil wars in general and on existing studies on Burundi in particular. The socio-economic decline during 1960-1972 was due to political instability and the loss of Burundi's export markets in neighbouring Rwanda and Congo following decolonisation. During the period 1972-1988, socio-economic decline was fuelled by an increase in coffee export whereby the funds were used to create inefficient state firms used by the ruling elites as a source of economic rents and massive borrowing. During the third· sub-period, that is 1988 to date the decline was due a result of three civil wars, a total economic blockade, the freezing of aid by international donors and the collapse of investment and infrastructure. The study characterizes the conflicts in Burundi as distributional conflicts in the sense that they arise from institutional failure and unequal distribution of national wealth across ethnic groups and regions. I illustrate the argument with the case of education and military, two key tools of consolidation of the patrimonial state. Institutional failure was not a result of incompetence on the part of leaders, but that it was carefully engineered by the ruling ethno-regional elite to consolidate power and privatise the state. Characterizing the wars as distributional conflicts has immediate policy implications for post-conflict recovery and peace consolidation. The analysis implies that the emphasis should be on achieving equitable access to national resources and power sharing, and that the attention should move beyond the narrow confines of ethnicity to embrace all the dimensions along which discrimination has been engineered in the past, especially regionalism. On the whole, growth and socio-economic development has been a failure because it has not been the priority of Burundi leadership. Blending traditional macroeconomic growth analysis with microeconomic, institutional and political economy approaches, the study shows that socio-economic outcomes have been endogenous to political imperatives. Controlled access to education and to the civil service and the army, the creation of a large number of state corporations, monetary policy, trade policy and a myriad of other policies were used to ensure that resources were allocated to the members of the ruling elite. The overarching objective of the leadership was the government's desire to hold its grip over the different sources of economic rents It is therefore clear that if the new Burundian leadership is serious about building peace and developing the socio-economic situation in Burundi, it must engineer institutions that uproot the legacy of discrimination and promote equal opportunity for social mobility for all members of ethnic groups and regions. In the process, the protection of human life and the socio-economic integration of all Burundians without distinction based on regional or ethnic background should be the basic principle guiding political, social and economic reforms. / M.Admin. (Peace Studies and International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

A healthy democracy is generally seen as one in which citizens participate regularly in formal political activities. Citizens’ participation in governance has come to be accepted as an expression of their rights and the manifestation of citizen agency. Access to information remains a crucial component of the right to participate. Transparency, as a normative and constitutional value, represents a means, not an end. The means is the mechanism of access to information. Within the South African context, there is evidence of an increase in participation of a variety of interest groups by means of different processes, as well as through the establishment of numerous consultative bodies and mechanisms for popular participation at all levels of the political structure (Houston, 2001:1). However, accountability to citizens can best be gauged by assessing citizens’ opportunities to influence legislation between elections. Ultimately, the effectiveness and sustainability of mechanisms aim at improving citizens’ participation in policy formulation in order to become effective when they are “institutionalized” and when the state’s own “internal” mechanisms are rendered more transparent and open to civic engagement. Furthermore, the success depends on some form of effective interaction between the state and civic society. In the case of South Africa, whilst the political context and culture for participation exist in the form of the constitutional provisions and several pieces of legislation, a discrepancy exist whereby many South Africans are excluded or devalued by the vast differences in wealth. Citizen’s votes may count equally, but they are still not able to participate on an equal basis between elections. Participatory mechanisms established to ensure citizen’s participation, access to information and monitoring inside and outside the legislature, remain ineffective. These unequal opportunities mean that the poorer and less organised segments of society are prejudiced in terms of influencing legislation and policy. Their lack of full and meaningful participation means legislative outcomes are less representative of, and responsive to, the interests of the poorer segments of society (Habib, Shultz – Herzenberg, 2005: 144). The focus of this study is limited to the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The aim is to, firstly, assess the extent to which citizens can control those who make collective decisions about public affairs. Secondly, it assess the extent to which citizens participate in the existing participatory mechanisms, and thirdly, the study explores the possibilities of the synergy between the state and civil society in promoting effective participation by its citizens. The study, therefore : 1. Assess the theoretical and policy framework for citizen’s participation in South Africa; and 2. Evaluate the level of participation and effectiveness of participatory mechanisms inside and outside the KwaZulu - Natal Legislature. The study introduces the theoretical and conceptual framework of citizen participation through a literature review; followed by an empirical study of citizen participation in the legislative process in the kwaZulu Natal legislature. The study makes the following findings: 1. The literature review concurs that South Africa has one of the most progressive and liberal constitutions in the world. This is coupled with a sound policy framework demonstrating genuine political will for citizens’ participation in policy formulation. 2. Within the political context and culture for citizen participation, the main question of how much control citizens have over the actions of their government remains. Another issue is whether existing mechanisms in the legislature are effective in engendering citizen’s participation and quality input in public policy – making processes. 3. The study showed that ultimately the effectiveness and sustainability of citizen participation mechanisms is improved when they are “institutionalised” and when the state’s own internal mechanisms of accountability are rendered more transparent and open to civic engagement. The study also highlighted the need for synergy between the state and civil society. This includes, among other things, participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, monitoring of public service delivery, investigative journalism and citizens’ advisory boards. The study, therefore, makes two recommendations: 1. A comparative Citizens Education and Outreach Programme be developed and spearheaded by both the legislature and civil society in kwaZulu-Natal; and 2. A further study needs to be undertaken to investigate the possible structural nature of the synergy (relationship) between the state and civil society in the province.

Secure property rights are a major predictor of economic growth, yet property rights in much of the world are a function of political power. Those with political connections have privileged access to state institutions, benefit from preferential contract enforcement, and face fewer risks of expropriation in the private sector. This dissertation examines how consumers and firms navigate the complex interaction between formal and informal institutions in these environments of selectively enforced rule of law. I use original experimental data from Senegal, a state that epitomizes political property rights. In Paper 1, I argue that political connections produce moral hazard in exchange and introduce biases in judicial enforcement. I present evidence from a field experiment in which I created and operated a sales company, randomizing political connections and formal contracts during transactions. The results show that asymmetric political connections decrease buyers’ propensities to trade and that formal contracts only increase exchange among connected buyers. This work challenges conventional wisdom and extant literature on the value of political connections and formal contracts in the private sectors of developing countries. Paper 2 examines how political connections and formal contracts, among other state and nonstate influences, affect the behavior of firms under selective rule of law. To illustrate the complicated decision calculus that firms face when social, formal, and political factors all motivate exchange, I implemented a conjoint experiment with 2,389 firm managers. The results show that firms avoid deals with partners that have low-to-mid-level political connections, yet seek out deals with the most highly connected firms—despite believing they are more likely to breach contracts. These results demonstrate the countervailing effects of political connections and suggest why consumers and firms may react to them differently. Finally, Paper 3 asks how firms enforce their property rights when deals go astray. I argue that contract formality can shape firms’ property security strategies and demand for rule of law, and test this using evidence from a survey experiment administered to firms in both the formal and informal economies. I present descriptive evidence that enforcement strategies differ by firm formality status and political connections. The experimental findings show that while formal contracts increase the use of legal enforcement institutions, they also widen the enforcement gap between formal and informal firms. Together, these papers present theory and evidence of politically determined economic behavior under selective rule of law. The results imply that political connections are a form of rent-seeking that can suppress overall trade and produce market inefficiencies. Under these conditions, state institutions may unintentionally exacerbate political and economic inequalities.

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