Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Masters of Arts in the Department of Social Work in Community Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2000. / The history of South Africa is the history of conquest, dispossession, forced removals, unjust policies, detribalization and poverty. Development , on the land was seen as a prerogative of the White minority. Underdevelopment, on the other hand was considered a natural state for the overwhelming black majority class. This conflict relationship formed the foundation of the South African Society's social system over years. Order in the society meant the ability to sustain a status quo of the social system. Land has,in all respects, been the borne of contention. It is arguable that land has had a determinant role in the nature of the South African state and politics. The land redistribution programme will either improve these class antagonism or legitimase them. It pivotes upon the context under which the land redistribution is carried out and by whom it is being driven. The land redistribution programme needs to be Afrocentric in paradigm and Africans themselves need to drive the course of their own development. There are things which may be of value to Africans and which land redistribution programme, unless driven by themselves , may be found insignificant. For an example, African organization structures in rural areas are very important for self identity. Unless the land redistribution programme recognizes these problems and challenges, there will be a moving equilibrium or status quo with regard to social change. There will be apartheid order within a democratic social system. The land set aside for settlement under the new order will still resemble the then bantustan, and black sport lands.

Geophysical tomography allows for the measurement of stress-induced density changes inside of a rock mass or sample by non-invasive means. Tomography is a non-destructive testing method by which sensors are placed around a sample and energy is introduced into the sample at one sensor while the other sensors receive the energy. This process is repeated around the sample to obtain the desired resolution. The received information is converted by a mathematical transform to obtain a tomogram. This tomogram shows a pixelated distribution of the density within the sample. Each pixel represents an average value at that point. The project discussed in this paper takes the principle of ultrasonic tomography and applies it to geomechanics. A new instrumentation system was designed to allow rapid data collection through varying sample geometries and rock types with a low initial investment. The system is composed of sensors, an ultrasonic pulser, a source switchbox, and analog to digital converters; it is tied together using a LabVIEW virtual instrument. LabVIEW is a graphical development environment for creating test, measurement, and other control applications. Using LabVIEW, virtual instruments (VIs) are created to control or measure a process. In this application LabVIEW was used to create a virtual instrument that was automated to collect the data required to construct a tomogram. Experiments were conducted to calibrate and validate the system for ultrasonic velocity determination and stress redistribution tomography. Calibration was conducted using polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA or Plexiglas) plates. Uniaxial loads were placed on limestone and sandstone samples. The stress-induced density contrasts were then imaged using the acquisition system. The resolution and accuracy of the system is described. The acquisition system presented is a low-cost solution to laboratory geophysical tomography. The ultimate goal of the project is to further the ability to non-invasively image relative stress redistribution in a rock mass, thereby improving the engineer's ability to predict failure. / Master of Science

Le Paradoxe de la redistribution de Walter Korpi et Joakim Palme (1998) postule que les États-providences qui ont des dépenses sociales moins ciblées redistribuent davantage. Ive Marx, Lina Salanauskaite et Gerlinde Verbist (2013) ont toutefois constaté que le paradoxe démontré grâce à une corrélation entre un indice de redistribution et un indice de ciblage des dépenses sociales n'était plus valide dans les années 2000. En reproduisant les corrélations, il apparaît que l'augmentation importante du ciblage dans des pays qui redistribuent beaucoup comme le Danemark et la Suède est la principale cause de la disparition de la corrélation entre redistribution et ciblage. Lors des crises économiques dans les années 1980 et 1990, les prestations maximales déjà relativement faibles ainsi que la volonté de maintenir les prestations minimums et les taux de remplacement de la part des partis sociaux-démocrates ont poussé les gouvernements danois et suédois à réduire les prestations maximales afin de limiter l’augmentation des dépenses, augmentant ainsi le ciblage des dépenses sociales tout en préservant le caractère universel des programmes. L’augmentation du ciblage des dépenses sociales n’a pas eu d’effets négatifs sur la redistribution particulièrement au Danemark où la redistribution a augmenté et les inégalités diminué entre la fin des années 80 et le milieu des années 2000. / The Paradox of redistribution by Walter Korpi and Joakim Palme (1998) posits that welfare states that have less targeted social spending redistribute more. However, Ive Marx, Lina Salanauskaite and Gerlinde Verbist (2013) found that the correlation between the social spending targeting index and the redistribution index that demonstrates the paradox has weakened in the 2000s. By replicating the correlations, it seems that the increase targeting of social spending in countries with high redistribution like Denmark and Sweden is the main cause behind the weakening of the correlation between targeting and redistribution. During the economic crisis of the 80s and 90s, the already low maximum benefits and the will of social-democratic parties to maintain the minimal benefits and replacement rate led Danish and Swedish governments to reduce maximum benefits to restrain the increase of social spending, thus increasing the targeting of social spending without sacrificing universalism.

Social policy has been transformed in Mexico during the last two decades. Social insurance programmes on which welfare provision was based throughout the twentieth century have been retrenched and new social assistance programmes have been introduced and expanded. This thesis aims to reveal the redistributive potential of these social policy reforms. The research maps the changes in the welfare policy architecture and estimates their vertical and horizontal redistributive effects. The study identifies the winners and losers of the reform process, the specific changes in the structure of the architecture that benefited different population groups and characterises the welfare model that emerged from the reform process. The research consists on the hypothetical simulation of the effects of changes in the tax/benefit system. The thesis adapts the ‘model families’ method to estimate and compare the effects of taxes and benefits at the household level before and after the reforms. Findings highlight that the productivist/residual logics adopted in the design of the reforms neglects the welfare of families who do not qualify for social assistance, and results in minimal benefit levels insufficient to raise families above poverty lines. The reforms have reproduced the tax/benefit system’s fragmentation and the unequal levels of protection offered by the state, which block the formation of redistributive coalitions. The outcome is a system of low redistributive potential to reduce high levels of poverty and inequality. The thesis represents an original contribution at the empirical level, because it provides a comprehensive assessment of recent reforms in terms of the population segments favoured by them; at the methodological level, since it applies the micro-simulation logic to the study of social policy in the country; and at the theoretical level, because it characterises the welfare model that has emerged from the reform process.

<p>This study was about disability organisations opinion concerning ICF: s importance in their work to receive the same recognition and human rights for their members as citizens. The aim has been to elucidate disability organisations awareness about and use/non use of ICF and to increase the understanding of ICF: s importance for recognition and redistribution. Three different methods have been used: literature study, questionnaire survey, both on counties' (27) - and national (26) level and interviews (5) on national level. There is also a distinct difference between the disability organisations that represents people with visible impairments, who don’t think that ICF is so useful and they that represent people with invisible impairments, who thinks that ICF is a useful tool. This difference exists both in the use of ICF and the classifications importance for recognition but not ICF: s importance for redistribution. The main conclusion of the study is that awareness about and education around ICF is needed among disability organisations. A restructuring of ICF is also needed, the language should be simplified and the codes should be faded down so that the focus will be on ICF: s intention and the mind map that the classification offers. This is also necessary so that ICF becomes accessible for everybody.</p>

This study was about disability organisations opinion concerning ICF: s importance in their work to receive the same recognition and human rights for their members as citizens. The aim has been to elucidate disability organisations awareness about and use/non use of ICF and to increase the understanding of ICF: s importance for recognition and redistribution. Three different methods have been used: literature study, questionnaire survey, both on counties' (27) - and national (26) level and interviews (5) on national level. There is also a distinct difference between the disability organisations that represents people with visible impairments, who don’t think that ICF is so useful and they that represent people with invisible impairments, who thinks that ICF is a useful tool. This difference exists both in the use of ICF and the classifications importance for recognition but not ICF: s importance for redistribution. The main conclusion of the study is that awareness about and education around ICF is needed among disability organisations. A restructuring of ICF is also needed, the language should be simplified and the codes should be faded down so that the focus will be on ICF: s intention and the mind map that the classification offers. This is also necessary so that ICF becomes accessible for everybody.

<p>When do individuals feel that economic inequality needs to be corrected through redistributive government policy, such as progressive taxes or social spending? Using a cross-national data set of public opinion across both developing and developed countries, this dissertation finds that political context plays a key role in determining how individuals view economic inequality and their support for redistributive social policy. An overarching theme throughout the dissertation is that political elites are key in making inequality a prominent issue for the public. This is done by framing individual attributes such as income, ethnic identity or geographic local (urban vs. rural) in a way that will either maximize or minimize support for redistribution. When political elites lack incentives to mobilize public opinion on the issue, it becomes unlikely that individual attributes such as income or ethnicity will predict support for redistribution.</p> / Dissertation

This study examines the impact of governing parties in changing patterns of income inequality in three liberal democracies with 'Westminster' systems - Australia (1981-1990), the United Kingdom (1979-1986) and Canada (1971-1981). Extensive analysis of the Luxembourg Income Study datasets for these countries and periods suggests that structural factors, such as changes in the market sphere or alterations in the demographic profiles, can account for only a part of the overall inequality trends in these periods. By using income decomposition analyses, this study indicates that government redistributive policies played an important role in changing inequality trends. Governments in all three countries are single-party operations, and policy responds strongly to partisan processes and considerations. The main question involved in assessing policy changes is therefore why party actors may be willing to increase or decrease income inequality. Applying conventional 'unitary' models of party behaviour (such as the median voter convergence hypothesis) to try and explain decision-making on income inequality also cannot explain these examples. It seems that redistributive policies can only be understood by taking account of the bargaining processes which take place within the organization of the party in power. Explanations of how parties intervene on income inequality should explicitly incorporate the organizational dimension as a key to their behaviour.

Time-lapse passive seismic velocity tomography was conducted utilizing data from three underground longwall coal mines to produce a better understanding of the processes that lead to ground failure in mines, especially large, violent failures, such as bumps. Two of the datasets, US Western I and US Western II, were collected at bump-prone underground longwall coal mines in the Western United States using surface mounted receiver arrays, while the third data set was collected at an underground longwall coal mine in Australia utilizing an underground array. The Australian mine was experiencing problems with periodic caving and subsequent wind blasts, rather than bumps. Seismic velocity tomography allows for non-invasive imaging of a rock mass and inference of stress redistribution from the velocity images. These tomograms are unique as they are generated using source data that was collected remotely and the sources are mining-induced. Tomograms were generated using three inversion methods: simultaneous iterative reconstructive technique (SIRT), double difference least squares event relocation, and least squares event relocation. The three methods were compared and contrasted to determine if one is superior and if event relocation improves the image. Also, the tomograms were analyzed to determine if passive seismic velocity tomography is an appropriate technology for the study of stress in mines and assistance in forecasting of bumps. The tomograms were compared with known roof events, face advance, and fall locations at the mines to establish if expected stress features can be imaged with velocity. Finally, synthetic tomograms were generated using a starting velocity model that approximates the predicted "true" model for each mine to determine if the velocity images produced correlate with the theoretical stress state at the mine. Results indicate that high velocity zones correlating with high stress abutment regions can be imaged for the US Western I data set with all three inversion methods, but the SIRT method provided the best agreement when the synthetic tomogram was generated. Additionally, a low velocity zone that correlates with the gob is consistently imaged. These features also redistribute with face advance. The US Western II data set was not as densely sampled as the US Western I data set. A low velocity region was consistently present in the gob area and redistributed with face advance, but abutment stress features were not evident. Additionally an unexplained high velocity feature was evident on several of the tomograms. Synthetic tomography indicated that the double difference least squares event relocation method is most appropriate for this data set. Finally, the Moonee Colliery results, which were also not as densely sampled as US Western I were uncertain. While velocity anomalies were often present in the vicinity of a fall, the anomalies were not reliably high or low. Again, synthetic tomography indicated that the double difference damped least squares event relocation method was most appropriate for this data set. The tomograms presented indicate that source-receiver configuration and density and variable gridding are extremely important in the application of passive seismic velocity tomography to mines. The source-receiver configuration and density determine how well various areas of a model are constrained, and the variable gridding allows areas that are not well sampled to still be adequately constrained. As a result of this work several things can be drawn about requirements that must be met in order to utilize seismic velocity tomography for inference of stress in underground mines. First, typical longwall stress abutment patterns can be inferred from velocity images of underground coal mines. Second, synthetic tomography and analysis of this tomography, in addition to some knowledge of the general location and frequency of microseismic events, is necessary prior to designing receiver arrays for passive seismic velocity tomography. Suboptimal source-receiver configurations may be used for passive seismic velocity tomography, but there is a minimum threshold for the number of raypaths that must be met that is unique to each site. Finally, a good understanding of the mechanics of stress and failure at the site is necessary to interpret the tomograms. / Ph. D.

Underground mining has one of the highest fatal injury rates among any of the industries in the United States, which is more than five times the national average of the other industries (MSHA). Many of these incidents take place due to stress redistribution resulting from mine workings. Thus it is very important to develop some tools to predict this failure in advance and prevent any fatalities arising from the failure. The current study uses two tools — numerical modeling and laboratory tomography - to image the stress distribution in laboratory rock samples as they are uniaxially loaded. The discrete element code, PFC3D, is used. The laboratory properties of the rock sample need to be converted to the micro-properties of the particles in the model. Currently no theory exists for this conversion. In the current study an equation has been developed for this process. Based on the users' input, the equation determines the micro-properties for the model. Further, various techniques to study the stress redistribution from these models at the particle level are discussed. Tomography is a non-destructive technique through which the interior of a body can be imaged without penetrating the surface by any physical means. In the current study sensors were attached around the rock sample and tomograms were obtained at certain intervals of the load. Initially, an indentation load was applied on a rectangular block to study the comparison between the stress and the velocity in two dimensions. In the last part of the study three-dimensional tomograms were obtained from the rock samples as they were loaded to failure. / Ph. D.