This study is based on research carried out at the request of the Community and Urban Services Support Project (CUSSP). The research formed part of the internship programme for the Practical Anthropology course at the University of Cape Town, and involved an investigation into the communication strategies employed by community based organisations in two selected areas in the Western Cape, namely, Franschhoek and New Rest (Guguletu). The thesis is a self-reflexive account of the research period and it explores how the acceptance of participatory approaches to development, and, conflicting interpretations of the term 'participation' can be constructed, maintained and reproduced; resulting in potential conditions which support processes of domination. Reflexivity involves a systematic and continuous analysis of the research process. To do this one should not necessarily aim to learn more about oneself (although this is an inevitable result of field work) but continuously to move from the 'intensely personal experience of one's own social interactions ... to the more distanced analysis of that experience for an understanding of how identities are negotiated, and [particularly for this thesis] how social categories, boundaries and hierarchies and processes of domination are experienced and maintained' (Wright & Nelson 1995:48).

Bibliography: leaves 80-84. / This dissertation is about the power of tradition to influence domestic behavioural norms in Swaziland. I set out to demonstrate that, although the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) has rendered itself indispensable to Swazi women, it still has a long way to go before realising its goal of the empowerment of abused women. This is due, primarily, to the organisation's adherence to international standards of women's human rights which cannot readily be applied in the particular context of Swaziland because they are resisted by those who seek to preserve what is claimed to be the traditional order. SWAGAA's counselling service is based on the premise that if an abused woman can be encouraged to make an informed, independent decision then she will have been empowered to take control of her life, and, ultimately, to free herself of the abuse. I argue that this approach, despite good intentions, is highly unrealistic in the locality of Swaziland. When a woman attempts to confront gender andlor domestic violence using the empowerment approach advocated by SWAGAA, she comes up against a number of entrenched ideological and practical constraints that undermine her power to negotiate. Foremost amongst these is the strong negative responses to any practice of 'airing dirty linen in public', such as consulting SWAGAA, for which a woman may be severely chastised. Women are reprimanded for seeking counsel beyond what are regarded as family boundaries because, they are told, by the police and by those around them, that this is inconsistent with acceptable and normative 'traditional' practice. I argue that the pressure placed upon women to adhere to practices of social organisation which are upheld as traditional, is rooted in a legacy of mistrust of foreign ideologies and practices. The leadership of the country has been, and continues to be engaged in an ongoing struggle to retain some semblance of what it regards as the traditional order. SWAGAA comes up directly against this legacy. Firstly, the women whom they counsel are constrained from making the individualistic decisions that SWAGAA wishes them to make. Secondly, women themselves are so embroiled in a social situation where men act as their advocates that they do not easily relate to the idea of individual empowerment. Yet SWAGAA persists with an approach that tries to undermine everyday normative practices, rather than working within the parameters of those norms. Its radical approach renders SWAGAA's counselling service too ambitious in Swaziland. What I thus advocate is an incremental approach that aims, gradually, to encourage women to empower themselves, given the persistence of the ideological and practical resistance to those attempts.

Bibliography: leaves 52-54. / This thesis critically reviews thoughts and experiences that arose out of a nine-week internship and post-internship volunteer work at Street Universe, a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working with 'street children' living in Cape Town's city centre and surrounds. It touches on two main topics, 'street children' and the NGO. Although I did not work exclusively with the 'street children', I interacted with them on a daily basis and therefore part of this thesis touches on issues pertaining to their lives. My main focus is the inner workings of an NGO and the context within which it strives to achieve its goals. I explore methodological and ethical aspects of doing fieldwork in an NGO setting, which coalesce with the problem of positionality, of situating myself as a researcher within webs of fluid interpersonal and professional relationships. Grounding my research in the day-to-day work of Street Universe allows me to identify how internal organisational matters affect the presentation and implementation of the organisation's aims. My aim is to link the two topics by showing how organisational matters are ,enacted in the relationship between 'street children' and Street Universe as a whole.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79). / By bringing together survivors of the genocide with released prisoners to discuss trauma, healing, and trust, Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) in Rwanda may help people to broaden their networks of support and rebuild everyday life. ... After 1994, Rwandans, particularly in Gisenyi, found that many neighbours were strangers and members of "the other side". Few Rwandans are able to meet their daily needs without accessing relationships of reciprocity, so how are such relation- ships established after genocide? In this thesis I argue that restoring relationships of reciprocity is critical to the restoration of the everyday in Rwanda. The genocide in 1994 was unarguably a traumatic experience for the population in Rwanda, and it damaged common modes of social interaction. But for those I spoke to, forgiveness was important to the process of healing...

Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-73). / In the context of rapid urbanisation and growing numbers of informal settlements in peri-urban areas of Cape Town, South Africa, a development project was undertaken by the municipality, to provide Kosovo Informal Settlement with a new communal water and sanitation system that uses vacuum sewerage technology. This ethnographic study sought to establish the level of social acceptability of the new infrastructure postupgrade; to monitor how residents used the new and old water and sanitation systems; and to identify any other social or institutional barriers to providing water and sanitation services in similar contexts. It was found that the development project was a complete failure. This dissertation describes the ways in which the municipality engaged with residents and other stakeholders and shows how they contributed to the project's failure.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-83). / In the context of rising unemployment, an NGO called Men on the Side of the Road (MSR) was established to provide men who stand by the side of the road waiting to be offered jobs with job opportunities and skills. The purpose of the ethnographic study described here was to assess members‘ experiences and attitudes towards the work or income-earning opportunities introduced to members by MSR. The overall goal of the report was to assess why a large proportion of the work opportunities introduced to members were not taken up with great enthusiasm. After completion of the study, the researcher found that the day-labourers used three different labels ('locals', 'networking workers' and 'struggling foreigners') to describe themselves and other roadside workseekers.

New discourses of foetal and infant development, individual well-being and population futures, argue that mothers matter during the first thousand days of a baby's life, which commences from conception to the age of two. Women, particularly (black, working class) pregnant women and mothers, have consequently become the target of several international and local interventions related to maternal and child health (MCH) and early childhood development (ECD). The Together from the Beginning video card is one such intervention that emphasises the value of MCH and ECD, as supported by the latest scientific research, and that presents diverse childcare knowledge and practices to parents and caregivers. The video card intervention was piloted and evaluated over a two-month period in the waiting areas of the antenatal clinic and Midwife's Obstetrics Unit (MOU) at a Community Health Clinic (CHC) situated outside of Cape Town. A total of eighty participants, including sixty pregnant women, eight partners or fathers of their babies, ten nurses and two counsellors, were interviewed and observed during this time. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the clinic, this thesis argues that while mothers do matter in the physical development of babies, mothers are 'developmentally constructed' and thus 'made to matter' through MCH and ECD development discourses and interventions that reinforce and normalise dominant discourses of motherhood. More specifically, it will be shown how three different maternal figures – 'the waiting mother', 'the educated mother', and 'the ideal mother' – were produced, developed and 'made to matter' within public healthcare spaces for the sake of development, which in turn reframed and undermined the time, knowledge, and experiences of these women.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-94). / Khomani San with access to 26,000 hectares of land in the national park for "symbolic and cultural uses", and is entitled a "Heritage Park". National parks have, in recent years, been required by legislation, popular opinion, and SANP policies to change how they interact with local communities. However, both staff in Kgalagadi and local residents consistently reiterate that "nothing changes in the Kalahari", and this is a dominant discourse in the Park. Experience of living in the region (including the National Park) has demonstrated to residents that little does change in their material social reality. Based on the experience of nine months in the Park as a volunteer with South African National Parks, complemented by a month of fieldwork, this study gauges the interpretation of a "Heritage Park" and co-management by the authority implementing the Agreement. Through interview and survey data this study argues that the power of discursive modes of communication and their control of knowledge and differing uses of and interpretations of the past limit the conceptualization of possible change. The emphasis placed by residents on racial difference restricts possible subject- positions and therefore, the possibility of multiple types of relations beyond apartheid-era categorization. While experience within the place creates its own set of limitations on social life. The Kalahari, I argue, is internalized by its residents and stifles a sense of possibility through a particular sense of the passage of time, the past, and different conceptions of its effect on the present. These factors combine as restrictions on any meaningful social change for the residents of Kgalagadi. I argue that it is the social dynamics within the Park that curb the success of the Ae!Hai Kalahari Heritage Park Agreement. The social world inside Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park can by extension, be seen as a microcosm of the larger South African picture; a nation scored by differences of race, access to information and meaning in knowledge, and influential but ambiguous discourses.

AIDS and HIV infection rates are climbing amongst young people in South Africa in the last decades, despite various intervention initiatives by National Government and Non-governmental organisations alike. This dissertation explores the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards condom use amongst young people in the Northern and Western Cape in an attempt at understanding some of the cultural factors that inform sexual behaviour. It aims to explore issues of knowledge and the institutional culture of the clinic that invariably impacts on the sexual practices of individuals being targeted by such policies. It also hoped to investigate and offer an insight into the persistence of high-risk sexual practices amongst young people despite their having access to barrier contraceptive methods, condoms. I illustrate my argument through the analysis of data acquired in fieldwork earned out in two government clinics through the use of multi-faceted methodologies. The research applied anthropological, qualitative and quantitative research methods including focus group discussions, participant observation and in-depth follow-up interviews through the use of a detailed questionnaire. The questionnaire lent itself to the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data, through its structured, semi structured and open-ended questions. The overall findings of this research show that firstly, young men chose to use condoms selectively and the type of relationship they find themselves in appears to impact directly on this selection process. Secondly, younger women in this study seem to use condoms more regularly than their older counterparts and there appears to be a general dis-use of condoms within 'stable' relationships. Thirdly, lack of empowerment amongst women has a direct impact on their ability to negotiate condom use within sexual relationships. This research has also shown that there are some real and perceived challenges and constraints facing intervention strategies in terms of condom procurement and overall access to reproductive health services. Lastly, the overall aims of this research attempts to highlight the important contributions applied anthropology can make to the understanding of the various beliefs, practices and culture of condom use so as to better inform existing policies in the field of AIDS and HIV.

Includes bibliography. / The aim of undertaking the project was to investigate the activities of the University of Cape Town Campus Control unit. The study is based on the premise that there is an underestimation of Campus Control work. A number of basic questions were examined in the field. The researcher sought to determine, among other things, the extent to which the unit's work is invisible, and the extent to which the university community's reported ambivalence and indifference to Campus Control practice a result of a lack of clarity regarding the role of the unit within the university. The research also moved from the premise that there is too great an emphasis on the use of crime statistics as indices of the unit' effectiveness. The racial and gender configuration of assignments was also investigated as was the training offered to new and old recruits. Participant observation as a body of different methods and techniques of research was used. The researcher spent six weeks in the field with the campus control officers in order to experience the demands of policing from "the native's point of view". The unit is in the process of transforming. It seeks to embrace the discourse of community participation with a view to getting the entire community involved in the provision of its own safety and security. The community involvement initiatives are also designed to improve the relationship between the unit and the community. In the past, the relationship has been a very traumatic one, fraught with mistrust and had far-reaching consequences for the unit's performance. The study comes to the conclusion that both women and blacks in Campus Control are a case of structural marginality. The unit does not reflect the racial and gender composition of the community it serves. It was also discovered that some of the unit's glaring shortcomings are played out in the sphere of training. The study should help members of the university community to understand and appreciate the role of this indispensable unit within the university community.