A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Cultural Policy and Management, 2016 / Without an audience, theatre is meaningless; however, getting that audience to the theatre can be challenging; especially for small scale independent theatre organisations that often don’t have access to the necessary skills and budgets. This research report considers the potential place of Facebook in audience development. It investigates whether Facebook, as a social networking platform, can function as an effective tool to help small scale independent theatre organisations to broaden, deepen and/or diversify audiences. Additionally, it explores audience motivations, key drivers and barriers, and how they influence theatre attendance especially in a South African context. The research report follows a mixed method approach which includes in-depth interviews, focus group discussions as well as an online (Facebook) survey to try and find ways to curb the issue of declining audiences. It concludes that audience development requires a thorough understanding of audience needs, drivers, trends and barriers as well as commitment from the entire organisation and sector; that developing audiences is about building on-going and mutually beneficial relationships between audiences and organisations, and that appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems need to be put in place. The report also concludes that Facebook can be effective in helping organisations to reach new audience segments, providing a platform for communication between organisations and their audiences, and for marketing; but proposes that Facebook should be included as one aspect of the holistic audience development plan. / MT2017

The World Health Organisation Commission for the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH, 2008) report calls upon the need to consider the social determinants of health, including migration in health planning. Unfortunately, the introduction of Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in South Africa is being framed as a stand-alone intervention without incorporating the social determinants of health i.e. migration and structural drivers of HIV, despite numerous evidence of failure of one-dimensional HIV approaches. The study aimed to explore the attitudes and knowledge (s) of HIV prevention amongst young, internal migrant, Black self-identifying gay men and its implications for PrEP. This study used an interpretive qualitative approach by conducting 12 in-depth interviews with both men who have sex with men (MSM) who self-identify as gay individuals and experts working in the field of HIV. Social determinants of health like migration and homophobic attitudes both within the health care system and beyond could impact the uptake of PrEP and continuity access for PrEP among MSM who self-identity as gay within the context of circular migration. Likewise, the study highlights structural drivers of HIV that if left unaddressed could also have a bearing on PrEP as an HIV intervention vis-à-vis PrEP uptake and continuity to PrEP access within a context of circular migration. Using Weiss (1979) interactive model, the study points out the need for all actors involved in policy making to take into account evidence, such as empirical data, best practices, insights from various stakeholders as a basis upon which South Africa’s PrEP policy/programme can be based on. / A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Development Studies), November 2017 / GR2018

This document is submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree: Master of Architecture [Professional] At the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in the year 2016 / Sound, in the form of speech and song was celebrated in all preliterate societies. Oral history has recently come back into prominence, with the realisation that it can be more inclusive than traditional academic history and contribute to a shared experience within a group. In Post-Apartheid South Africa it played an important role in the TRC hearings. Organisations such as StoryCorps, have discovered the important therapeutic value gained by the sharing of stories between individuals and groups. The Speak Memory Oral History Centre aims to encourage historians to engage with oral history as a medium for memory recollection and to create a body of populist oral history testimonies. Oral history deals with memory and so the relationship between architecture and memory was investigated, with a particular focus on the neurological mechanisms involved in memory. An approach to the design of an Oral History Centre used these neurological mechanisms as design tools for a building that would facilitate the recording and recall of memory. / EM2017

Climate change poses serious challenges to households in informal settlements located in marginal areas such as flood plains that are sensitive to extreme weather events. This thesis explores the complex interrelationship between climate variability and informal settlements using two city-level case studies in Johannesburg, viz., Msawawa and Freedom Charter Square. The main objective of this study was to establish the nature of household adaptive capacity in informal settlements in relation to climate change. This entailed assessing household vulnerability to the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as strong winds, extreme cold, extreme heat, floods, drought and fire, as a basis from which to understand household adaptive capacity. Methodologically, the thesis applied a mixed method approach combining quantitative and qualitative instruments to explore household adaptive capacity in relation to climate change. This methodology was used to understand how households have coped and adapted to extreme weather events in the past. Secondary research involved analysing a range of published and unpublished documents, while the primary research component consisted of a survey of two hundred households across the two settlements as well as key-informant interviews with local leaders in the two informal settlements and relevant officials from the City of Johannesburg. The results of this study show that in Msawawa and Freedom Charter Square, households’ social and economic conditions such as those relating to employment, income, assets and health play a role in their vulnerability to climate change. The ability of households to improve their adaptive capacity is influenced by a range of factors that include access to physical capital, social capital, financial resources and governance. The research found that households in the two informal settlements rely mainly on coping mechanisms such as repairing their shacks after disasters related to extreme weather. They have very limited ability to address underlying causes of vulnerability such as weak dwellings. Social capital is one of the drivers, although not very significant, for coping and critical to efforts for improving household adaptive capacity. The study also found that governance is a contested terrain in which it is difficult to recognise a positive impact on household adaptation to climate change. The study highlights the importance for policy-makers to recognise the need to improve household socio-economic conditions as well as building relationships of trust as drivers that could help in improving adaptive capacity and addressing household vulnerability to climate change.

A green palisade fence is not all that separates the urban, kinetic Braamfontein from it’s dormant cemetery. It’s a long-standing perception that the two spaces are not related despite their proximity. And for this reason, you too have likely driven past it’s sixty metre long edge without having given it too much acknowledgement. Granted, it’s easier to overlook a space supposedly devoid of rational markers from their neighbours because of rhythmic disturbance in function and social experience or even their inability to mirror their adjacent counterparts: a derelict building, a desolate parking lot in the evening, a twenty one hectare cemetery in a city. However, what makes the green, park-like Braamfontein Cemetery different from any other in Johannesburg is that it was the first cemetery in the city. As a result, is the final resting place of significant contributors of the country’s history. It is then, currently a commemorative landscape in which events, social and burial practices of Johannesburg and South Africa are recorded. For this reason, one could say that this cemetery is very much a part of urban Braamfontein in 2014. How then to negotiate the de-alienation of this remarkable space while preserving its beauty.

This thesis is being submitted for the Degree of Masters In Urban Design at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / Current understandings of Urban Design point towards the fact that it is the art and science of city making. Like other aspects of Architecture, it begins with a site analysis, followed by the formulation of a vision for the built environment and thereafter a process of transforming the vision into reality (Carmona et.al, 2003). Thus, Urban Design is perceived as a discipline that gives rise to the form and defi nition of the full spectrum of forces including social, economic, cultural, ecological, political and aesthetic dynamics (Dixon, 2005). The role of the Urban Designer can therefore be understood as central to a number of other stakeholders such as Traffi c Engineers dealing with vehicular movement, Civil Engineers concerned with structural design, Architects designing built form, Landscape Architects designing open space, Urban Planners formulating policy and the Property Developers involved in aspects of land investment. However, as urban populations grow, become more diverse and fragmented, the function of Urban Design and the role of the Urban Designer becomes questionable (Madanipour, 1996). The past tradition of thought in Urban Design (visual artistic approach) incorporated a fi rm belief in the physical aspects of city making relying on built form as a primary informant. This tradition has, however, been replaced by a more recent tradition (social usage approach) which incorporates a fi rm belief in interpreting phenomena occurring in public space. This served as a response married to the phenomenon of increased population density and rapid urbanisation persistent in the developing city context due to global migration patterns (Watson, 2009). Consequently, in its plight to reframe Urban Design to sequence developing cities, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis between developed and developing world cities regarding national migratory, population density and urbanisation trends and the effects that it poses on regions, cities and localities. In so doing, it progresses to a realisation that increased living densities in turn spills over into the public realm and onto the street edge for retail and social service access purposes. Thus, a greater mix of uses in the built environment is forged. The increased density of people on sidewalks in essence stimulates transport movement as a collector service which structures street connectivity systems around retail facilities and social services. From the analytical fi ndings here, this thesis recognises that there exist relationships between built form confi guration and socio-economic activities occurring in public space. In light of the above, the thesis employs the combination of the visual artistic and social usage approaches to form the making places approach, which can be appropriate for Urban Design in developing cities. After establishing a new approach, the thesis structures the above-mentioned operations into an evolved conceptual framework. Thus, the conceptual framework recognises that time change in developing cities in conjunction with population density and migration cause overlapping relationships between building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales and within the formal, semi-formal/semiinformal and informal realms. With this being the case, the thesis analyses current literature which argues that the broader problem is the fact that the interrelatedness of the above-mentioned concepts is negated in theory. It develops the problem statement further by stating that a lack of the interrelatedness of the concepts contained in the conceptual framework has in turn infl uenced a lack of such in current research and urban design practice in developing cities. This is confi rmed through measuring the extent to which three South African Urban Design practice case studies consider concepts of building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales and acknowledging the lack thereof. As a means of responding to the problem identifi ed above, a set of research techniques is investigated using a Yeoville/Bellevue, Johannesburg site-specifi c case with the aim of assisting designers to better apply the evolved conceptual framework. Simultaneously, the thesis uses Yeoville/Bellevue as a focus area to illustrate the manner in which building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity can be considered across various scales. This essentially progresses into the creation of an Urban Design Framework for Yeoville/Bellevue that strengthens the linkages between housing and social services, retailing and transport/movement through using principles of street connectivity, land use mix and building density creation. An implementation strategy for the Design Framework is then established. Through the execution of the above process the collective consideration of building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales serves as the basis for reframing Urban Design to suit developing cities.

Thesis (M.Arch. (Professional))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016. / The landscape of Parktown tells a story of possession, dispossession, building and demolition. This thesis challenges the history of the Parktown ridge as always being a place that has been associated with hegemony, elitism and uncertainty. Instead, it asks: Can the ridge become a nurturing environment, a place of ‘meditative pause’? Can it become a cathartic place that reshapes new territorial orders? In order to do this, two main contextual issues are explored; institutions and land... Institutions - Parktown forms a large part of the institutional belt of the city. However, these institutions lie like an archipelago; they are urban islands that do not interact with one another. This project challenges and deconstructs the traditional notion of the institution as being trapped in a modernist paradigm - caught up in a late modernist definition of health, body and mind that speaks of authority, control and isolation. The building thus becomes the antithesis of this; it is an open, permeable structure that becomes a public space. The programme of the building aims to re-conceive the institutions’ role in the city. It provides a framework for the currently separated health, education and business communities of Parktown to interact with one other and cross pollinate their knowledge in the hope that new transgressive orders will emerge. Being sited next to the largest institution, the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, allows it to become a central gathering space in Parktown and provides the opportunity for the new structure to start interacting with the hospital. It focuses on the importance of mental health in two manners; it provides a framework where visitors and outpatients can deal with their trauma, loss and illness in a holistic environment. Secondly, it explores the myth that the hospital is a contained object, and looks to explode the issue of health and allow the hospital to have a reciprocal relationship with the city. The building becomes a central hub where research experiments are carried out in the city by citizens to study the mental health of the city. Land - Parktown lies on the Witwatersrand ridge; the founding and defining feature of the Witwatersrand. However, the ridge’s narrative of mining has perhaps remained stagnant and has not evolved after mining. Man has become disconnected from the land and the project sees the ridge as a device through which this relationship can be repaired, as the ridge moves into a new generation. This thesis emerges when architecture is used as the method through which these two issues, of institutions and land, interrogate and interrupt each other. Harmony between nature versus geometry is explored, which results in a ‘lyrical brutalist’ style. ‘Land’ or nature is used to humanise the ordered, authoritarian nature of the institution as it carves itself into the building and fragments and softens the rigidity of the gridded concrete structure. Symbiotically, the building gives new importance to the traumatised landscape of the ridge. With nature becoming such an important part of the building, man is encouraged to reconnect with the land. The ridge no longer becomes a barrier between the north and the south, but a connector, bringing communities together. The intervention becomes a place of refuge, a sanctuary in the modernist landscape. It is a landscape of re-cognition and encourages one to think more holistically; to break away from the traditional geometries that have dominated how we think and have new embodied experiences with the land. In so doing, the project not only acts as a catalyst in the rehabilitation of the scarred natural landscape but also speculates on an alternative future for technology, health and education. It gives a new level of social and cultural significance to the hospital and surrounding institutions, while reclaiming a land we feel disconnected from. Key words: Parktown, ridge, nature, concrete, land, landscape, institutions, hospital, education, communities / EM2017

Report submitted to the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Architecture 2014 / Architecture is the appreciation for story-telling; fiction and literature, history, culture and conversation. It entails the unfolding of a plot, unfamiliar places and eccentric characters. These do not merely exist on dusty old pages in books but are an integral part of our imagination - our subconscious design. This report explores the role of the architect as the reader; and so, this thesis forms what I have ‘read’ this year. This thesis aims to interpret literature as a design methodology in order to understand site and develop a suitable architectural language. The process of oral traditions, written text and digitalised technology are used to deconstruct systems and principles that document change in architecture and the city. This project, The Doorn Paperback Project is located in a contested area set within the in-between yard spaces of New Doornfontein. The unsightly nature of the site gives rise to ephemeral slumming. The cracks that exist within the formal urban fabric are atypically inhabited by the marginalised. These hidden narratives of the people living on the site create new meaning to these abandoned and derelict spaces. The way in which people ‘hack’ the site and use it in ways opposed to what was originally intended forms the reality for which the architecture exists. The architecture needs to ‘tear down’ and ‘dismantle’ formal conditions on the site in order to mediate a space in which ‘life’ can be reinvigorated into the space. Thus the introduction of a literary program responds well to the educational and industrial conditions on the site.

M.A. (Psychology) / Research investigating the connection between Functional Hemispherical Asymmetry (FHA) and perception of affect in clinical as well as normal populations, is characterised by contradictory findings with regard to the role of the different hemispheres, especially as regards the perception of various valencies of emotions. Although a majority of studies indicates that the right hemisphere (RH) is superior in the perception of all valencies and emotions - positive as well as negative - there are numerous studies indicating a possible differential processing of positive and negative emotions by the hemispheres. Although various researchers try to lay the above contradictory findings and the general lack of consensus at the door of methodological problems/inequalities or error variances, the literature is increasingly pointing to the existence of evidently reliable individual differences between people as regards their hemispherical functioning. The problem investigated in the current study, is to determine the possible role of the organismic variables in FHA, i e variables seated in the individual who is making the observation. In this study, the focus is specifically on the role of sex and the temperament dimension of introversion-extraversion. The objectives of this study are to determine whether there are significant differences in the direction of these hemispherical differences, as well as the relative performance, of groups divided according to sex and temperament characteristics, and whether the relevant organismic variables offer a possible means of explaining the contradictions in research results on FHA and the perception of emotion. In this study, the measuring of FHA is operationalised in terms of the differential performance, measured in terms of accuracy and speed of observation (response latency) of the hemispheres in the perception of different valencies of emotional stimuli (positive versus negative, and approach versus avoidance emotions).. The subject population comprised a group of students selected in terms of sex and temperament (introversion-extraversion). Selection in terms of introversion-extraversion was done on the basis of subjects' performance in the Personality Questionnaire Form B (Schepers, 1991): persons falling in the lower and upper three stanines of the scale respectively were identified as introverts and extraverts. Only right-handed subjects with no history of brain injury were used for the study. Differential hemispherical performance in terms of response accuracy and latency was determined by means of the Divided Visual Field Technique (DVFT). Although the reliability data of this technique are generally not entirely satisfactory when measured in terms of psychometric test standards, an effort was made to enhance the reliability of the technique in this study by controlling specific stimulus and response variables (inter alia the exposure time and the use of both hands for a response) during the experimental design.

School-Based Violence (SBV) is prevalent in South Africa and globally. SBV is one of the challenges that the South African education system is facing resulting in a new deep-rooted culture of unsafe and insecure schools. Teachers are expected to teach learners, who display antisocial behaviour. These learners swear, back chat, verbally and physically abuse and show total disrespect for teachers. The presence of such learners has turned schools into battle field. This violence is not exclusively directed to teachers, but learners are also the common victims of bullying in particular. This study therefore sought to investigate how intergroup violence impacts on the schoolbased violence. The concepts, Intergroup Conflict (IC) and gangs/gangsterism were used interchangeably to describe actions of individuals who take part in the social conflict, driven by competition, antagonism and aggression within the school context.