Despite its many challenges and limitations the concept of in situ upgrading of informal settlements has become one of the most favoured approaches to the housing crisis in the ‘Global South’. Due to its inherent principles of incremental in situ development, prevention of relocations, protection of local livelihoods and democratic participation and cooperation, this approach is often perceived to be more sustainable than other housing approaches that often rely on quantitative housing delivery and top down planning methodologies. While this study does not question the benefits of the in situ upgrading approach, it seeks to identify problems of its practical implementation within a specific national and local context. The study discusses the origin and importance of this approach on the basis of a review of international housing policy development and analyses the broader political and social context of the incorporation of this approach into South African housing policy. It further uses insights from a recent case study in Cape Town to determine complications and conflicts that can arise when applying in situ upgrading of informal settlements in a complex local context. On that basis benefits and limitations of the in situ upgrading approach are specified and prerequisites for its successful implementation formulated. / Trotz vieler Herausforderungen und Beschränkungen gilt das Konzept des in situ upgrading informeller Siedlungen als eine der wichtigsten Herangehensweisen an die Wohnraumkrise im „globalen Süden“. Aufgrund seiner immanenten Prinzipien einer schrittweisen Entwicklung an Ort und Stelle, der Vermeidung von Umsiedlungen, dem Erhalt lokaler Existenzgrundlagen sowie demokratischer Beteiligung und Kooperation, wird oftmals angenommen, dass diese Herangehensweise nachhaltiger ist, als eine quantitativ ausgerichtete Wohnraumversorgung und Top-Down-Planungsansätze. Während diese Studie die Vorteile des in situ upgrading nicht in Frage stellt, zielt sie darauf ab, Probleme der praktischen Umsetzung dieses Ansatzes in einem spezifischen nationalen und lokalen Kontext zu identifizieren. Die Studie diskutiert die Herkunft und die Bedeutung des in situ upgrading auf der Grundlage einer Rückschau auf die Entwicklung internationaler Wohnraumpolitik und analysiert den politischen und sozialen Kontext der Einbettung dieses Ansatzes in die südafrikanische Wohnraumpolitik. Darüber hinaus macht sie sich Einblicke einer kürzlich durchgeführten Fallstudie in Kapstadt zunutze, um Probleme und Konflikte zu erfassen, die bei der Umsetzung des in situ upgrading in einem komplexen lokalen Kontext entstehen können. Auf dieser Grundlage werden die Vorteile wie auch die Beschränkungen des in situ upgrading näher spezifiziert und zentrale Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung des Konzeptes formuliert.

Churches have been prompted to rethink the format of preaching and the content of sermons since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictions on church gatherings. What does preaching look like, or what may it look like in times of crisis? These questions arose, specifically considering the content of sermons in the week before and after the national lockdown was announced in South Africa. Using Grounded Theory, the content of sermons delivered during this period was examined in order to identify an emerging theory regarding the homiletical content. From these findings, a homiletic praxis theory is formulated for preaching in times like these. The tension between proximity and distance that is experienced by hearers and proclaimed by preachers is explored. Habits of faith and discernment emerge as core concepts in mitigating this tension and in navigating the thin spaces that are created by liminal times such as these.

The fourth volume of the International Journal of Homiletics opens with an article from South Africa presenting first results of an empirical research on preaching in times of the pandemic. Marileen Steyn, Cas Wepener and Hennie Pieterse, all three from Stellenbosch University, conducted a grounded theory exploration on Preaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa analyzing 24 sermons preached on March 22 and March 29 2020- during the time of the South African lockdown. They convincingly show that in an experience of ‘distance’ (to God and the others) sermons primarily try to present a God who is ‘near.’ The authors explore the ‘hinges’ preachers use to help people on the threshold between near and far. They also point to the role liturgy plays together with the words of the sermon and suggest Holy Saturday/Silent Saturday as a metaphor for the homiletical endeavor of preaching in times of crisis. The article is presented in our volume in an English and an Afrikaans version.

Die Dissertation untersucht sechs südafrikanische Romane, die in einer Zeitspanne von wenigen Jahren um das Ende der Apartheid entstanden sind. Was sie zu einem Korpus eint, sind auffällige Merkmale, die in dieser Arbeit als Formen von Heimsuchung analysiert und differenziert werden. Heimsuchung meint dabei nicht nur die Suche nach einer Heimat, sondern auch störende Eindringlinge innerhalb der Grenzen des Eigenen: Dies können sowohl unheimliche Phantasmen als auch Gäste sein, die sich nicht an die Regeln derjenigen Ordnung halten, in der sie nun stören. Somit beschäftigt sich die Dissertation mit unsicheren Grenzen zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, zwischen Räumen des Eigenen und des Anderen, zwischen innen und außen sowie zwischen real und irreal. Die Analysen zeigen, dass Heimsuchungen in den Texten als Subversion einer zeitlichen, räumlichen oder psychischen Ordnung fungieren, als Bedingung sowie zugleich Unmöglichkeit eines „Schlupflochs“ − und als Orientierungsversuch der weißen unsettled settlers. / This dissertation examines six South African novels written towards and after the end of the Apartheid regime. All texts have certain characteristics in common which I analysed and differentiated as forms of Heimsuchung. This German term refers at the same time to the search for a home and to disturbing intruders, like an uncanny phantasm or a guest who does not follow the given rules of the place it resides in. The dissertation thus deals with ambiguous boundaries between past and present, between spaces of one''s own and of ''the other'', between inside and outside, and between real and unreal. The analyses reveal that Heimsuchungen function as a subversion of a temporal, spatial or psychological order, as both a condition for and impossibility of a loophole − and as an attempt at orientation for white „unsettled settlers“.

No description available.

The hosting of the FIFA Football World Cup has been perceived in South Africa both as a challenge of accelerated social, economic, and spatial transformation, and as an opportunity to showcase the nation’s ability to successfully provide the structures and capacities for one of the biggest sports tournaments in the world. The thesis of ‘festivalisation’ sees mega-events (like the Football World Cup) as a form of translocal dynamics which is embedded in the context of increased inter-urban competition in the era of globalisation. This paper aims at investigating some effects of such globalised forms of festivalisation (Häußermann and Siebel 1993) on the urban sphere in South Africa. The focus is on identifying key actors and key topics in relation to urban governance in the host cities. The method applied is a mix of various strands of discourse analysis, since every approach has its shortcomings and a combination might point out directions of how to systematically link these perspectives in future research. To a certain extent, the path presented here remains methodologically explorative. Still, the paper shows that an analysis of language-based communication, or more specifically, an approach that takes media representations as a point of entry to the field of urban dynamics, might produce insights otherwise overlooked, and thus adds a critical angle to the study of urban governance.

Den Queer Studies verpflichtet ist der kunstwissenschaftliche Beitrag „Zeitgenössische queere Kunst in Südafrika am Beispiel von Zanele Muholi“ von Anna Zorn (M. A.). Am Beispiel der Künstlerin Zanele Muholi (*1972), die sich selbst als ‚visual activist‘ bezeichnet, wird ein Einblick in die zeitgenössische queere Kunst in Südafrika gegeben. Muholi thematisiert in ihren Fotografien, Fotobüchern, Filmen, Installationen und Performances die gegenwärtige Situation der physischen und emotionalen Bedrängnis der queeren Community. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung steht die Serie Faces & Phases (seit 2006). Sie macht Muholis Ästhetik und Technik, die Verhandlung zwischen (Un-)Sichtbarkeit und Hypervisibilität minorisierter Gruppen, besonders deutlich. Die Fotografien machen, so die Argumentation, queere Personen im gesellschaftlich-politischen und künstlerischen Kontext auf eine spezifische Weise sichtbar, sodass über positive Einzel-Bilder hinaus ein Bild-Archiv queeren Lebens geschaffen und eine ‚radical black queer visual history‘ geschrieben werden. Dabei ist Muholis ‚visual activism‘ nicht unpolitisch und wirkungslos, sondern nutzt, im Sinne einer Gender-Agency, das Potenzial queerer Kunst erfolgreich, um festgefahrene Situationen und Formationen zu dynamisieren.

No description available.

During the last decades “Climate Change” has become a vital topic on national and international political agendas. There it is presented as an irrevocable fact of global impact and thus of universal relevance. What has often been neglected are local discourses of marginalized groups and their specific contextualization of “Climate Change” phenomena. The aim of this project, to develop another perspective along these dominant narratives, has resulted in the research question How is social reality reconstructed on the phenomenon of “Climate Change” among the “Emerging Black Farmers” in the Swartland region in Western Cape, South Africa? Taken as an example, “Climate Change Knowledge” is reconstructed through a case study on the information exchange between the NGO Goedgedacht Trust and local small-scale farmers in the post-Apartheid context of on-going political, social, economic and educational transition in South Africa. Applying a constructivist approach, “Climate Change Knowledge” is not understood as an objectively given, but a socially constructed “reality” that is based on the interdependency of socio-economic conditions and individual assets, including language skills and language practice, sets of social norms and values, as well as strategies of knowledge transfer. The data set consists of qualitative data sources, such as application forms and interview material, which are triangulated. The rationale of a multi-layered data analysis includes a discursive perspective as well as linguistic and ethical “side perspectives”. Epistemologically, the thesis is guided by assumptions of complexity theory, framing knowledge around “Climate Change” as a fluid, constantly changing system that is shaped by constant intra- and inter-systemic exchange processes, and characterized by non-linearity, self-organization and representation of its constituents. From this point of departure, a theoretical terminology has been developed, which differentiates between symbols, interrelations, contents and content clusters. These elements are located in a system of spatio-temporal orientation and embedded into a broader (socio-economic) context of “historicity”. Content clusters are remodelled with the help of concept maps. Starting from that, a local perspective on “Climate Change” is developed, adding an experiential notion to the global narratives. The thesis concludes that there is no single reality about “Climate Change” and that the farmers’ “Climate Change Knowledge” highly depends on experiential relativity and spatio-temporal immediacy. Furthermore, analysis has shown that the system’s historicity and social manifestations can be traced in the scope and emphasis of the content clusters discussed. Finally the thesis demonstrates that characteristics of symbols, interconnections and contents range between dichotomies of direct and indirect, predictable versus unpredictable, awareness and negligence or threat and danger, all coexisting and creating a continuum of knowledge production.

Moore in Südafrika sind wichtige, aber bedrohte Ökosysteme. Etwa 20.200 ha, zwei Drittel der südafrikanischen Moore, befinden sich auf der Maputaland Coastal Plain. Eukalyptusplantagen und gängige Anbaumethoden, die Dränung beinhalten, bedrohen die Existenz der Moore. Ein besseres Verständnis von Prozessen und Eigenschaften der Moore Maputalands ist dringend erforderlich, um effektive Schutzstrategien zu entwickeln. Diese Dissertation untersucht die Moorbildung in Maputaland aus einer bodenkundlichen Perspektive, um Voraussetzungen für effektive Schutzmaßnahmen und Renaturierungsmaßnahmen abzuleiten sowie Ratschläge für nachhaltigere Anbaumethoden auszuarbeiten. Per Großrestanalyse wurden Moor- und Torfbildungsprozesse untersucht. Auf Grundlage von 141 in Feldarbeit untersuchten Bodenprofilen wurden 15 unterschiedliche Moorsubstrate beschrieben und in genetische Substratgruppen sowie botanische Torftypen kategorisiert. Für diese Substrate wurden die folgenden physikalischen und chemischen Bodeneigenschaften bestimmt: Kohlenstoffgehalt, C/N Verhältnis, elektrische Leitfähigkeit, pH-Wert, Trockenrohdichte, Porenverteilung, gesättigte und ungesättigte hydraulische Leitfähigkeit sowie maximaler kapillarer Aufstieg. Zudem wurden die Auswirkungen von Degradierung auf die physischen und chemischen Eigenschaften der Moore untersucht. Hierfür wurden die eben benannten Kenngrößen für Substrate in verschiedenen Degradierungsstufen gemessen. Auf Grundlage der Veränderungen der Bodeneigenschaften werden die Verluste von Ökosystemfunktionen durch Degradierung diskutiert. Anhand der Häufigkeit der Substrattypen in den unterschiedlichen hydrogeomorphologischen Moortypen werden angepasste Empfehlungen für Schutz, Renaturierung und nachhaltigere landwirtschaftliche Nutzung der Moore erarbeitet, basierend auf den ermittelten Substrateigenschaften. Darüber hinaus werden auf Grundlage aktueller Klimaprognosen zukünftige Stresssituationen für die Moore durch den Klimawandel analysiert. / Peatlands in South Africa are important and threatened ecosystems. They are of great socio-ecological significance, as sources of freshwater, fertile land, material for construction, medicinal plants, habitat for specialised plants and animals, and as an attraction for ecotourists. Some 20.200 ha, about two thirds of South Africa’s peatlands, are located at the Maputaland Coastal Plain. Eucalyptus plantations and common cultivation practices which include drainage are threatening the existence of the peatlands. This dissertation investigates peatland formation in Maputaland from a soil-related point of view, in order to identify the requirements for effective conservation and restoration measures, as well as more sustainable cultivation practices. Insights into peat formation processes were obtained through a macrofossil analysis. Based on the field examination of 141 soil profiles, 15 different peatland substrates were described and categorised into genetic substrate groups, and botanical peat types. Mean values for the following physical and chemical properties were determined for each substrate: Carbon content, C/N ratio, electrical conductivity, pH-value, bulk density, pore size distribution, saturated hydraulic conductivity, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and maximum capillary rise. Moreover, the effect of degradation on the physical and chemical properties of South African peatlands was explored. Therefore, the aforementioned properties were measured for substrates at different degrees of degradation. Based on the changes in the soil properties thus established, the loss of ecosystem functions through degradation is discussed. By considering the frequency of occurrence of the substrate types in different hydrogeomorphic peatland types, adapted implications for conservation, restoration and cultivation are derived. In addition, based on the actual projections of climate change, estimations about future stress on the peatlands were derived.