A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Development Studies in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University Of Zululand, 2018 / The aim of this study is to assess the role of NGOs in addressing poverty, and it was conducted in the Mpumalanga province, under Nkomazi Local Municipality. This study situates the development of NGOs within the theoretical frameworks of Keynesianism, the neo-liberal economic system, and from the theory of NGOs as a third sector. The Keynesian system holds that increased government expenditure results in a corresponding increase in economic output. The Keynesians welfare system supports the active participation of government in the economy. However, at the height of the Keynesian economy, NGOs did not receive due attention. The policies of the Keynesian economy did not support NGOs until the role of the multilateral organisations rose to prominence, and it was then that NGOs gained recognition. Problems with Keynesian economics led to the emergence of neo-liberalism, and neo-liberalism shaped policy in a way that favoured economic growth through the Market. It was within the framework of neo-liberalism that NGOs arose to prominence. This occurred under the auspices of multilateral organisations which encouraged the rise of NGOs. However, the poor performance of the State and the Market, with regards to poverty and development gave rise to the emergence of NGOs as a third sector. Literature relating to this study further shows that the operation of NGOs as a third sector depended on factors such as leadership, management, adaptability, financial capacity, corruption, and accountability. The present study adopts a mixed-method approach. This entails the integration of positivism and interpretivism into a philosophy of post-positivism. Therefore, this study uses both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data was collected through structured interviews, while quantitative data was collected by questionnaires. The qualitative data were analysed by content analysis, the quantitative data were analysed by SPSS. The findings of this study show that NGOs mostly experience the following challenges: high staff turnover, mostly because of low wages; limited resources, and a lack of permanent structures from which to work. Even though NGOs experience these challenges, the results of this study show that the NGOs in the study area are able to adapt and work in an environment characterised by limited resources. Lastly, regardless of the challenges experienced by NGOs, this study shows that NGOs have a role in poverty reduction. In terms of recommendations, this study recommends that NGO sponsors should pay attention to the challenges relating to the buildings structures where NGOs’ operate. The study also recommends that NGO sponsors have to review the wages of NGO workers against the wages of retails workers. Moreover, it is further recommended that NGO staff needed to be capacitated by developing some skills, such as proposal writing. Lastly, this study recommends that NGOs develop new strategies for sustaining themselves, such as starting other income streams. All-in-all, the study concludes that NGOs in the Nkomazi Local Municipality play a meaningful role in addressing symptoms of poverty.

Front-line service-providers are finding it challenging to address trauma-related issues within the confines of a shrinking neo-liberal environment. With larger case loads and increased focus on time and efficiency measures, front-line staff have less time available to address the more ambiguous aspects of practice, including trauma. To explore the challenges front-line staff face, a small qualitative study was conducted in which five service-providers took part. The study findings revealed that in working environments that have adopted managerial practices, the implications of 'quantity over quality' are experienced as frustrating and have various implications for the ways in which trauma is addressed. Participants in this study, expressed a deep investment in their working roles which generally has positive implications for service-users, however, the compounding results of a deep personal investment and a prescriptive case-management role may intensify the experience of working with trauma. Finally, while service-providers believe that trauma is something all service-users live with, there is a sense that the issue remains under-recognized in the mental health agency setting. This study suggests that increased trauma-focused education is essential for front-line workers, as is trauma-informed models of practice in the agency. Furthermore, there is a greater need for trauma advocacy and awareness as the issues remains stigmatized, even within the mental healthcare system. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Yes / South-South Cooperation SSC) has returned as a significant trope in the contemporary rhetoric of the aid industry. We compare the way that the idea of SSC is being currently constructed. In the 1960s and 1970s, SSC was discussed as constituting a challenge to the ideological dominance of the global north, presented initially as a counter-hegemonic challenge to neo-colonialism. Currently it is framed similarly as a challenge to neoliberalism. However, the current iteration of SSC differs fundamentally from the first round in the early 1970s, largely because of differences in assumptions about who is co-operating with whom and to what end, in the context of SSC. These differences are significant for the material practice of SSC and the ideological function of SSC rhetoric.

This study examines the South Korea President Park Geun-hye and United States President Obama respective administration's policy vis-à-vis North Korea. The scope is narrowed down to the year 2013, during which the regime in Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test. How to perceive and engage the regime in Pyongyang have been debated in the post-cold war era, divided into progressive (doves) and hard liners (hawks). Periods of policy discrepancy have occurred between Washington and Seoul, that have been observed to bear effect on North Korean behavior vis-à-vis South Korea. This study ties on to the contemporary policy debate in Seoul and Washington on North Korean engagement strategies. Moreover, expanding the scope and examines the respective administration's policy through a analytical framework based on a content analysis from a system level perspective. Furthermore, how neo-realism, neo-liberalism and the concept of reciprocity can shed light upon respective policies and give a sense of notion of alignment or discrepancy between Seoul and Washington.

The adoption of the neo-liberal model in the mid-1980s has forced the governing elites to reconfigure the Mexican State. However, the consolidation of a neoliberal State continues to be incomplete and it has been problematic to fully integrated the Mexican economy in the global market due to the increasing organized crime, the dismantling of previous post-revolutionary control mechanisms, and the growing mobilisation of organised indigenous opposition ranging from the peaceful obstruction of hydroelectric mega-projects in their territories to armed struggle. In view of the State crisis, this thesis argues that there has been a shift in the system of control mechanisms of the State that is leaning towards a more recurrent use of open violence to implement its neo-liberal State project. From a theoretical perspective, the research proposes an innovative approach to understanding the formation of the post-revolutionary State, which transcends the State violence dichotomy established between the ´corporatist´ and the ´critical´ approaches in the contemporary literature. The research highlights the wide spectrum of control mechanisms from hegemonic domination to violence used by the governing elites to compensate the unfinished State formation process in order to maintain socio-political stability without profound structural changes. It explores the enhanced tendency of State violence to replace incorporation in Statesociety relations since the efforts to restructure the economy from the 1980s onwards. The thesis analyses how this tendency has grown particularly in response to indigenous movements in the South of Mexico. The argument is substantiated empirically with two case studies undertaken in the sub-region of Costa Chica-Montaña of Guerrero with data from 79 semi-structured interviews with a wide range of social and political actors, and participant observation in ten indigenous communities. The case studies explore the different State control mechanisms used to advance the State formation model in the post revolutionary period; the impact of the crisis of those mechanisms in the sub-region; the violent resistance of local bosses to the loss of power, and the multiples indigenous responses to the implementation of neoliberal policies in their territories. This research also includes a comparative study to explain some factors that strengthen indigenous articulations, as well as their limits in an era of neoliberal globalisation. One of the most important research findings is that neoliberalism has further weakened the 'civilianisation' power of the State to deal peacefully with civil society sectors, particularly with indigenous peoples, while it has strengthened its 'centralised-coercive' power to carry out the imposed State model. Another finding is that the indigenous initiatives that have reinvented themselves through a new version of their practices and broader alliances have consolidated their alternative models. In contrast, the indigenous responses that have reproduced their traditions have failed.

Young people are arguably facing complex life situations in their transition into adulthood and navigating their life trajectories in a highly individualised way. For youth in post-compulsory education, their training years have been extended, their years of dependency have increased and they have greater individual choice compared to previous youth generations. This study develops an understanding of the process of individualisation applied to youth in late modernity and explores it in relation to the neo-liberal climate. It compares the life situation of this youth generation with youth in the early 1960s, brought up with more predefined traditional conditions, cemented in traditional social structures. The processes that led to generational changes in the experiences of youth in the last forty-five years are examined, linked to structural transformations that influence subjective experiences. Specifically, the shifts of the conditions of youth in post-compulsory education are studied in relations to socio-economic, technological and cultural changes. This study discusses the Western Anglo-American model of changes in youths life experiences and examines how it (mis)fits in a more conservative Catholic Mediterranean setting. The research investigates conditions in Malta, an ex-colonial small island Mediterranean state, whose peculiarities include its delayed economic development compared to the Western setting. The core of the research comprises of primary data collection using in-depth, ethnographical interviews, with two generations of youth in different socio-historical context; those who experienced their youth in the early 1960s and youth in the late 2000s. This study concludes that the concept of individualisation does indeed illuminate the experiences of youth in late modernity especially when compared to the experiences of youth forty-five years ago. However the concept of individualisation is applied in a glocalised manner in line with the peculiarities of Malta that has lagged behind mainstream developments in Western Europe and still retained traditional features. Building on the individualisation concept, I use an empirically grounded concept of compromised choices to describe the increase in the bargaining of choice happening at different fronts in the life experiences of youth, especially in the life biography of women, choices in education and the job market and choices in consumption.

Depuis la crise de stagflation des années 1970 et la chute du mur de Berlin à la fin des années 1980, le néolibéralisme s'érige comme un paradigme idéologique et hégémonique de développement à l'échelle planétaire. Ce contexte international et les facteurs internes ont poussé le gouvernement Mozambicain à abandonner, au milieu des années 1980, le socialisme et à adopter les principes néolibéraux. Cette thèse cherche à identifier, à analyser et à expliquer les effets et les implications de l'adoption des principes néolibéraux sur la sélection et l'organisation des curricula et savoirs scolaires au Mozambique. / Since the stagflation crisis in the 1970's and the fall of the Berlin's Wall at the end of the 1980's, Neo-liberalism has become an ideological and hegemonic paradigm of development worldwide. This international context and the internal factors have led the Mozambican government to abandon, in the midst of the 1980's, socialism and to adopt neoliberal principles. This thesis seeks to identify, analyze and explain the effects and implications of the adoption of neoliberal principles on the selection and structuring of school curriculum and knowledge in Mozambique.

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / In the early 1990s, at the height of the Washington Consensus, its hegemonic model of neoliberal development was strongly challenged by Japan, the U.S.’s greatest ally. The key event characterizing this challenge occurred when Japan’s Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) began criticizing the World Bank’s famous Structural Adjustment Loans (SALs). This subsequently led to the publication of the “East Asian Miracle Report” by the World Bank financed by the Japanese government. This poses a great puzzle considering Japan’s historically submissive and politically deferential relationship with the U.S. since the end of World War II. I address two questions in my thesis to solve the above puzzle: (1) why did the Japanese state choose to oppose American ideological hegemony in the 1990s? (2) how did the ideas involved in this challenge develop within and beyond the institution of Japanese policy bureaucracy? The theory and methods used in this paper are inspired by the historical institutionalist tradition in sociology and political science. I argue that the shift in Japan’s foreign aid strategy in the late 1980s was driven by a mixture of economic, institutional and political factors. This along with the escalating influence of the Washington Consensus and its interference with Japanese aid policy, drove Japan to oppose American ideological hegemony in the 1990s. Furthermore, tracing the policy discourses of the OECF during this period revealed that not only economic and political factors, but also the developmentalist idea that valued the central role of the state in its economic development was essential in instigating Japan’s construction and promotion of its own development model. I conclude that Japan’s challenge was both a local and a global social construct, developed in the processes of transnational interaction with other states and their actors, and drawing on internationally available economic ideas. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has emerged as the premier policy instrument to redress the socio-economic inequalities created by the apartheid system in South Africa. BEE has evolved from a rudimentary concept that was casually coined outside government in the 1990s to being the policy instrument du jour of the post 1994 democratic dispensation. BEE has received critical attention culminating in its institutionalization through a BEE Council, an Act of Parliament, and a policy framework to facilitate its implementation. The institutionalization of this concept across government policy and practice settings, including, in particular, the government’s drive to restructure its enterprises, has accentuated BEE’s important role in the government’s reconstruction and development agenda. However, the evolution of BEE has not been a smooth journey. Its capacity and direction to respond to dire socio-economic demands has raised a deluge of questions and remarks, often negative, from many fronts. The purpose of this study is to critically examine the extent to which BEE produces the targeted results through its implementation via the restructuring of state owned enterprises (SOEs). What is also of significance is that the restructuring of SOEs and the implementation of BEE is occurring against a backdrop of a conspicuous neo-liberal drive. Whilst setting the scene with a theoretical background to the South African economy before and after 1994, the practical focus of this study is limited to the implementation of BEE using Eskom, an SOE, as a case study. Just as this study indicates a successful implementation of BEE through Eskom, questions remain as to how much widespread the benefits have been amongst the targeted previously marginalized black majority.

The aim of the study is to analyse the role of democratic school governing bodies in promoting school improvement in four High Schools in Pimville and Klipspruit locations in Soweto. The study presents two arguments, one is theoretical and the other is methodological. Theoretically, there is no clear-cut relationship between democratic SGBs and school improvement. Methodologically, the relationship between SGBs and school improvement can best be understood based on a critical analysis that specifies the context within which democratic SGBs promote school improvement. Such an analysis reveals the complex nature of the school dynamics within which SGBs have to promote school improvement. The role of SGBs is mediated by various local and global socio-economic and political factors. This study articulates these factors as inputs, context, complexity and mediation. Consequently, understanding the nature of the role of SGBs in promoting school improvement requires an elaboration of the specific articulation of these factors. Input factors important for school improvement include the school infrastructure, learning and teaching material, financial resources, quality of teachers and standards of teaching methodology as well as parental participation. The context and complexity factors indicate that school improvement efforts must appreciate the conceptual and historical contexts that shape the conception and practice of school improvement. SGBs emerge out of a particular historical moment. SGBs have features of both apartheid school boards and committees and the people‘s education‘s PTSA‘s. These features render the role of SGBs precarious because it is framed within contradictory ideological discourses. Other context factors are relationships within the school, leadership and socio-economic factors. Finally, the role of SGBs is mediated by how school improvement is understood in these schools, by legislation and the complex nature of school dynamics. The study concludes that schools do not operate outside of a history of unequal provision of resources and SGBs do not exist independently of the incessant conflict among social forces. Schools operate within a social context. When narrowly focused within the school and in isolation from the historical legacy, school improvement initiatives reproduce and perfect the features that define their context.