This dissertation demonstrates and illustrates the challenges involved in the construction of new realities when Duhl's (1983) idea of using metaphor to apply the ecosystems concept of wholeness of systems, was exercised in two ways. Firstly, the study was written in the form of an imaginary conversation between the author in the role of researcher and an imaginary peer consultant, about making sense of ways of thinking. Through presenting her observations to other observers, who are actually herself, a new reality was constructed for the author. Secondly, new individual and group realities were constructed by a group of social workers in the SANDF, who encountered their own ways of thinking through metaphorical means such as sculpting. Recommendations, co-constructed by the author, the imaginary peer consultant and two more imaginary colleagues, suggest possible uses of the ecosystems perspective in social work including in settings such as the SANDF. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

Thesis (DPhil (History))—University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This thesis presents, from the perspective of socio-environmental history, a case study in forced removals and their ramifications from 1905 to 1977. The focus area is a township called Lady Selborne in South Africa, near Pretoria, and Ga-Rankuwa, where some of those displaced were relocated. The thesis demonstrates that forced removals did not only result in people losing their historical land, properties and material possessions but also their sense of being and connectedness. The focus is thus on the changing perceptions of people in the midst of their land loss, an area of study that is generally under-examined in academia. The research provides a complex picture of the ramifications of forced removals on the former inhabitants of Lady Selborne. Lady Selborne was a “home”, a place for being human where the residents managed to engage in food production and owned properties in a multiracial area. Forced removals emanated from the National Party government’s desire to control African land ownership, and the manner in which land dispossession took place resulted in environmental injustice. This thesis applies theories of environment, power and injustice to explore how the people related to their environment and how that relationship was defined by class, gender and race. In Lady Selborne, black Africans were displaced from an area that was fertile, close to the city centre of Pretoria and relocated to infertile Ga-Rankuwa on the outskirts of the city. This resettlement resulted in many of those relocated being prevented from engaging in food production which was in turn an affront to Sotho-Tswana culture and religion with its emphasis on land as lefa: a bequest that has to feed its inhabitants. This thesis thus argues that successive governments (and many scholars) have downplayed black African environmental ethics, dismissing them as ‘superstition’. This mindset once resulted in forced removals and they in turn led blacks to disregard environmental issues. Ga-Rankuwa became degraded with litter, soil erosion and dongas, especially in the 1970’s, as people realised that there was no hope of returning to Lady Selborne. Environmental apathy emerged unconsciously as a response to forced removals. The thesis concludes by considering the idea of a ‘usable past’ and proposes that socio-environmental history can play a role in realising environmental justice.

This dissertation demonstrates and illustrates the challenges involved in the construction of new realities when Duhl's (1983) idea of using metaphor to apply the ecosystems concept of wholeness of systems, was exercised in two ways. Firstly, the study was written in the form of an imaginary conversation between the author in the role of researcher and an imaginary peer consultant, about making sense of ways of thinking. Through presenting her observations to other observers, who are actually herself, a new reality was constructed for the author. Secondly, new individual and group realities were constructed by a group of social workers in the SANDF, who encountered their own ways of thinking through metaphorical means such as sculpting. Recommendations, co-constructed by the author, the imaginary peer consultant and two more imaginary colleagues, suggest possible uses of the ecosystems perspective in social work including in settings such as the SANDF. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape, memory and heritage. It aims to establish that landscape is not only an inseparable part of the intangible process of memory, but also the formation and perpetuation of cultural and individual identity. The composition of heritage, including the sociocultural and biophysical, is therefore a complex result of varying interactions between memory and landscape, as perceived by the living custodians. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, are traced back to the tangible fabric of place. Through means of qualitative and quantitative anthropological fieldwork methods and an extensive literature review, the sociocultural profile of the Mpondo is briefly documented. The subsequent case study explored a site in the Eastern Cape on Ngquza Hill, where the oral traditions and memories connected to the site are mapped. These elements were accessed through employing the theories of mnemotechnics. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape, memory and heritage. It aims to establish that landscape is not only an inseparable part of the intangible process of memory, but also the formation and perpetuation of cultural and individual identity. The composition of heritage, including the sociocultural and biophysical, is therefore a complex result of varying interactions between memory and landscape, as perceived by the living custodians. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, are traced back to the tangible fabric of place. Through means of qualitative and quantitative anthropological fieldwork methods and an extensive literature review, the sociocultural profile of the Mpondo is briefly documented. The subsequent case study explored a site in the Eastern Cape on Ngquza Hill, where the oral traditions and memories connected to the site are mapped. These elements were accessed through employing the theories of mnemotechnics. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

In their article ―Naturing the Nation: Aliens, the Apocalypse and the Post Colonial State (2001) Jean and John Comaroff look at ―the contemporary predicament of South Africa through the prism of environmental catastrophe. Through it they reveal the context in which alien plants have become an urgent affair of the state. Following their lead, I show how alien plants (particularly Australian wattle) continue to provide grounds for new social and political aspirations in South Africa, though in a different setting. With reference to a group of private landowners on the fringe of a World Heritage Site -- the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa -- I show how an increasingly apocalyptic and xenophobic environmental agenda has influenced local activists seeking to address social and ecological issues in tandem with alien-eradication. These local activists adhere to a particular brand of environmentalism which Milton (1993) argues can be considered a social, cultural and religious phenomenon. The subjects of my main empirical investigation offer practical ways of achieving a transformational end through a new ritual activity in relation to a spread and exchange of environmental ideas and practices on a world-wide scale. On the ground this group practices ecosocietal restoration through which they aspire to mend the bond between people and the land in a spiritual and moral sense, bolstering intrinsic incentives for environmental stewardship and achieving ―cultural reconciliation in an attempt to reimagine what South Africa could be.