Background: The world is currently experiencing an economic and socio-political crisis causing the global environment to be characterized by increased uncertainty and risk (Carter et al., 2021). After severe years of the COVID-19 pandemic havoc, the world has been presented with yet another setback of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Assaf et al., 2023) resulting in significant inflation, increasing energy prices, and serious impact causing financial struggles for individuals. Together with an increasing awareness of environmental deterioration and environmentally conscious demanding sustainable products, consumer behaviors are being shaped (Du et al., 2014). Despite the increase in environmental consciousness among the public, a gap exists between an individual’s sustainable consumption intention and behavior becoming particularly apparent during times of uncertainty. To explore how individual sustainable consumption intentions/attitudes and behavior are affected by the current economic and socio-political uncertainty this study seeks to build upon previous research analyzing determining factors to better understand and strengthen sustainable consumption behaviors. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify how perceived risk and uncertainty due to economic and socio-political uncertainty affects individuals’ ability to act on the intended consumption behavior, to generate a better understanding of how sustainable consumption behavior can be supported during times of uncertainty. Method: This study is conducted using a qualitative research strategy through an inductive approach following a more positivistic epistemological stance and an internal realism from the ontological viewpoint, where ten semi-structured interviews have been collected. Conclusion: After generating data from our interviews and analyzing the results in connection to relevant studies and theories, different factors have become apparent to affect respondents during uncertainty. The results have shown that among the most determinant factors affecting consumption behavior during times of increasing uncertainty are price, quality, longevity, social norms, time, and energy. The study has thereby also identified factors with a tendency to encourage sustainable consumption behavior during times of uncertainty such as environmental concern and strong personal values and attitudes as well as behavioral motivation originating from altruistic values can enhance individual ability to act on one's intention even during times of uncertainty. These findings identify the need for and the importance of increasing the environmental knowledge and risk perception of how the environment is affected by production and consumption as well as developing personal norms and moral obligations by ascribing an individual responsibility for preventing environmental degradation with the belief that the sustainable consumption actions performed will generate the desired outcomes.

This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Baptist pastors in the early years of the twenty-first century find themselves in a challenging yet exciting period of South African history. Much has changed in the socio-political and religious contexts, yet Baptist pastors are still prone to operate according to earlier models of leadership and ecclesiology, with the result that they find themselves in situations of heightened conflict. Their position with respect to the laity, with whom they share a common priesthood of believers, is also an ambiguous one. After orientating the reader to the nature of the problem and various starting issues (chapter 1), this practical-theological thesis seeks to explore the nature of the changes in the socio-political milieu (chapter 2), as well as in the religious context (chapter 3). Baptist pastors are affected by a range of expectations that emerge from a particular view of the Bible and from the wider church community, as well as from the media and their own experience of pastors. Chapters 4 and 5 seek to understand these expectations, especially as these expectations have combined to produce role conflict and role ambiguity. In such a situation it is more understandable that ministry can lack a pastoral centre and an unclear identity. Pastors have adopted a stance in the midst of such competing demands on their role identity and chapter 6 attempts to make their position clearer through empirical analysis, before embarking – in chapters 7 and 8 – on a description of a new model of pastoral ministry that is founded on the theatrical notion of the antagonist. Several implications for future ministry are explored in chapter 9, as we look forward to a revised praxis. The pastor as spiritual antagonist is approached from the vantage-point of the world of drama, since this angle, in its metaphorical richness, is seminal for a new understanding of the provocative role of the pastor in a world that is steadily devaluing spiritual leadership. The spiritual antagonist is described in terms of his/her character and ministry actions as one who is profoundly spiritual in his awe of God and in his determination to live reflectively. At the same time the spiritual antagonist is one who has an imaginative grasp on the communicative possibilities of being with people, and alongside people, intensely and for the purpose of provoking decision and faith. Whatever conflict is generated by such a stance is deliberately incorporated for educational and transformational purposes. Whatever is modelled – in the mode of the spiritual antagonist – by ordained pastors / elders becomes facilitatory for fellow believers in the congregation to fashion a similar identity. Thus an old division in Baptist ecclesiology is healed. / Practival Theology / (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

The thesis aims to provide a critical assessment of Camilo Torres' concept of efficacious love in the light of a hermeneutics and ethics of liberation, to contribute theoretically to theological reflection upon the mission of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Colombia, and generally in Latin America. It proposes the thesis that the theology of Camilo Torres, viewed from the perspective of a hermeneutics and an ethics of liberation, can be foundational for seeking, constructing, and sustaining peace with justice in a context of oppression and violence. Based on the theological analysis, the academic and spiritual motivation should respond to two fundamental questions in our academic inquiry: what foundation exists in Camilo Torres' theology for the construction of a just, peaceful, liberative society and to enable proximity to the excluded, victimized, and poor population in Colombia to be achieved? And how can we as Christians respond to the grace of God in living efficaciously the values of the Kingdom of God, in order to bring structural changes in Colombia? The implications of the answers to those questions would result in the possibility to execute an integrating theological proposal for peace with justice for the church in Colombia. In an interpretative mode, we consider critically the multidisciplinary interaction of some of the theological foundations of liberation theology. Our task consists in clarifying and constructing theological presuppositions for a dialectical examination of the historical and current situation in Colombia, viewed in the light of the internal problems and realities. Thus, it is our intention in order to attempt a significant interdisciplinary juncture, to examine and interpret such relevant concepts as efficacious love, faith with works, kenosis, hypostatic union, hermeneutics and ethics of liberation, social justice, personal and collective socio-political conversion, and a praxis of faith as the church's mission in response to the Colombian context of poverty and violence.

1 SUMMARY The present thesis deals with cultural and cultural-political journals published between May 1945 and February 1948, as well as polemics that went on during that period. The thesis consists of two interconnected parts - the journals' profiles and the literary-historical introduction that analyzes certain important issues and problems in regard to the journals and selected personalities, placing them in the contemporary social context.

Ph.D. Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / This study analyses the manner in which animals are represented in selected poetry from Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It discusses the various modes of animal representation the poets draw on, and the ideological influences on their manner of animal representation. It explores the kinds of poetic forms the poets employ in their representation of animals and examines the manner in which ecological or environmental issues are reflected in the poetry. Further, the study determines the extent to which the values expressed in the poems are consistent with, or different from, current ecological orthodoxies and the ways in which the metaphors generated in relation to animals influence the way we treat them. The study shows that in the selected poetry animals occupy a significant position in the poets’ exploration of social, psychological, political, and cultural issues. As symbols in, and subjects of, the poetry animals, in particular, and nature in general, function as tools for the poets’ conceptualisation and construction of a wide range of cultural, political, and philosophical ideas, including among others, issues of justice, identity, compassion, relational selfhood, heritage, and belonging to the cosmos. Hence, the animal figure in the poetry acts as a site for the convergence of a variety of concepts the poets mobilise to grapple with and understand relevant political, social, psychological and ecological ideas. The study advances the argument that studying animal representation in the selected poetry reveals a range of ecological sensibilities, as well as the limits of these, and opens a window through which to view and appreciate the poets’ conception, construction and handling of a variety of significant ideas about human to human relationships and human-animal/nature relationships. Further, the study argues that the poets’ social vision influences their animal representation and that their failures at times to fully see or address the connection between forms of abuse (nature and human) undercuts their liberationist quests in the poetry.

La thèse porte sur les usages sociopolitiques de l’actualité en ligne par les profanes sur Facebook. Initialement conçu pour l’échange privé, ce réseau social est également devenu un espace pour s’informer, partager et commenter les nouvelles. Ces pratiques sont analysées à partir de trois entrées : les spécificités du dispositif technique, le rapport au politique des participants et, enfin, le rôle du genre dans les prises de parole sur Facebook. Ce travail se fonde sur l’analyse comparée de la participation sur une sélection de pages Facebook de médias et de profils personnels sur ce réseau. La méthodologie repose sur une observation ethnographique en ligne et sur une enquête qualitative par entretiens.Les principaux résultats démontrent que les actualités politiques débouchent sur des réactions davantage fondées sur l’émotion que sur la rationalité et sur des affrontements de camps d’opinion. Ces débats se déroulent essentiellement sur les pages publiques des médias alors que les Timelines sont plutôt des espaces de diffusion et de partage d’actualités. Les femmes manifestent autant que les hommes un intérêt pour les questions publiques et Facebook est un espace commun d’indignation. En dépit d’opinions affirmées, les modes d’interaction des participantes sont plutôt modérés à l’inverse de ceux des hommes, plus investis dans des confrontations. Si Facebook contribue, en un sens, à un élargissement de l’espace public, la participation étudiée demeure limitée et ne s’apparente pas à des débats susceptibles de revivifier la démocratie. / The thesis focuses on the socio-political uses of online news for laymen, specifically on Facebook. Originally designed for the private exchange, this social network has also become a place to access, share and comment the news. These practices are analysed through three inputs: the specifics of the technical device, the relation to politics by participants, and, finally, the role of gender in speaking out on Facebook.This work is based on a comparative analysis of participation around political events on selected Facebook media pages and on personal profiles of the social network. The methodology is based on an online ethnographic observation and on qualitative interviews.The main results show that political events lead to reactions based more on emotion than on rationality and on opinion camps clashes. These debates mainly take place on the media public pages while the timelines are rather dissemination areas, by sharing news. Women manifest as much as men their interest for public issues and Facebook is a common area to express indignation. Despite asserted opinions, women get involved in more moderate forms of interaction unlike men who are more invested in conflictual exchanges. In a sense, if Facebook contributes to an extension of the public space, participation remains limited and does not akin to discussions that are likely to revive democracy.

<p>The general perception today is that the Shashi-Limpopo Basin in southern Africa is hot and dry and not conducive to human habitation. Today there is no doubt that the Shashi-Limpopo Basin has been home to many communities throughout the pre-historical period. A study of the changing ecological conditions in the Mateke Hills and the Shashi-Limpopo Valley as well as historical and present day land-usage offers an alternative explanation of how prehistoric communities could have interacted with this changing landscape. The archaeological record, historical sources and recent land-use patterns show that settlement location has always been orientated towards the rivers and circumscribed environments. The mosaic of floodplains, wetlands, drylands and circumscribed zones provided the ideal ecological setting for the development of socio-political complexity in southern Africa. The resilience of these semi arid savanna regions together with human innovation and local knowledge ensured that societies continued to derive subsistence even in the face of seasonal variability in rainfall and even climate change.</p>

The general perception today is that the Shashi-Limpopo Basin in southern Africa is hot and dry and not conducive to human habitation. Today there is no doubt that the Shashi-Limpopo Basin has been home to many communities throughout the pre-historical period. A study of the changing ecological conditions in the Mateke Hills and the Shashi-Limpopo Valley as well as historical and present day land-usage offers an alternative explanation of how prehistoric communities could have interacted with this changing landscape. The archaeological record, historical sources and recent land-use patterns show that settlement location has always been orientated towards the rivers and circumscribed environments. The mosaic of floodplains, wetlands, drylands and circumscribed zones provided the ideal ecological setting for the development of socio-political complexity in southern Africa. The resilience of these semi arid savanna regions together with human innovation and local knowledge ensured that societies continued to derive subsistence even in the face of seasonal variability in rainfall and even climate change.