Thesis ( M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2002. / The Department of Health And Welfare

South Africa has undergone a remarkable political transformation since the birth of democracy in 1994, yet it remains plagued by extremely high levels of socio-economic inequality, violent crime and social unrest. Although inequality is often regarded as a major driver of many social problems, the evidence base concerning inequality in South Africa is relatively limited, consisting primarily of national level Gini coefficients or General Entropy measures based upon household income, expenditure or consumption data. In this thesis I argue that these broad national level measures say little about people's actual day-to-day lived experiences of inequality and how these individual experiences of inequality may be shaped by the local geographical areas in which people live and go about their daily lives. I construct a series of empirical measures of exposure to socio-economic inequality which reflect the socio-spatial environments in which people live. I argue that these new measures can be used as explanatory factors in the study of other social outcomes, both at an individual level (for example, individuals' attitudes) and at an area level (for example, rates of violent crime). Exposure to inequality is measured both from the perspective of the 'poor' population and the perspective of the 'non-poor' population and the measures are constructed and presented at small area level using the Datazone statistical geography. I analyse the spatial distribution of exposure to inequality and find that exposure to inequality is typically highest in urban neighbourhoods, particularly in the major metropolitan areas. I develop a measure of intensity of exposure in order to highlight areas with both high exposure and high levels of deprivation. I also present one example of how my new measures can be used to explore associations with other outcomes, specifically looking at the relationship between people's lived experience of inequality and their attitudes towards inequality and redress.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research question answered by this study is what policy and strategy would give the necessary direction to Swartland Municipality’s (SM’s) social development programmes to maximise its impact on the social well-being of the community? The motivation for the study is the need to prioritise social development projects in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in this field. The methodology used was a qualitative study by means of a conceptual analysis of the term social development, a literature study of international, national and local legislation and policies as well as group interviews with internal and external stakeholders. Social development was defined for the purposes of this study as the process of strengthening the relationships/ partnerships and linkages between people, resources and/or systems within the scope of poverty reduction, expansion of employment opportunities and social integration, with the goal to achieve well-being for individuals, groups and/or communities. Furthermore a literature study explored relevant legislation and policy documents to give clarity on the municipality’s role of social development. Main findings were that the SA Constitution as supreme law, clearly states the municipal objective is to promote social development and states four functions that relate to social development namely child facilities, basic infrastructure, public amenities and sports facilities. Furthermore social development functions in all municipal departments need to co-ordinate to maximise social development resources. Lastly the municipality’s social development programmes must be supplementary and supportive to the work of the Department of Social Development. Furthermore, engagements were held with internal and external stakeholders of Swartland Municipality and the strategic direction was determined by means of a vision, mission and strategic focus areas. The vision identified is: We build and create sustainable social development partnerships with all our people for strengthening the social fabric of the Swartland community. The social development mission is: We initiate, build and promote social development opportunities with the focus on sustainability, which specifically refers to financial viability in the long term, forming partnerships with the community and service providers, not harming the environment and operating within legal powers and functions. Five strategic focus areas flowing from the vision and mission were identified. To promote collaboration and co-ordination is the pivotal focus area. Social development has to be co-ordinated by means of a social development forum represented of all sectors (government, NGO, faith-based, business, agriculture). The other focus areas were: promoting child development/establishing child facilities, lobbying for the vulnerable, facilitating access to the economy and promoting youth development. The impact of service delivery according to the five focus areas must be measured in totality by means of the Human Development Index and reflected in the integrated development plan.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

PhDGEO / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Sciences / See the attached abstract below

No abstract available / Social Work / M. A. (Social Work)

No abstract available / Social Work / M. A. (Social Work)