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Ph.D. (Education) / The effects of daily abuse and hardship on the streets lead street children to suffer from poor mental health resulting in them choosing ineffective and self-destructive coping strategies that then impacts their physical health and their overall sense of well-being. Facilitation of the mental health of street children subjected to daily threats to their survival is thus crucially needed. In my previous research, I indicated that street children are more vulnerable to impaired psychological health than any other group of children (Moolla, 2007:65-78; Moolla, Myburgh & Poggenpoel, 2008:597). The results of this research further confirmed that street children experience a vast array of negative feelings during their daily survival activities on the street which impact negatively on their mental and physical health. I also found that negative feelings of fear, abandonment, rejection, sadness, loss of trust, disillusionment and a sense of both hopelessness and uncertainty were experienced by all the street children in the study during their daily activities necessary for their survival. As a psycho-educational facilitator, I am equipped with the skills to provide the facilitation of the mental health of street children subjected to daily abuse and hardship on the streets. Psycho-educational facilitators are highly valuable in providing an integrated healthcare-social-psychological approach when working with vulnerable individuals. To date, they are not being utilized to benefit the community and social health services, places of care and institutions catering for the neglected and abused individuals in our society. The development of a model “Facilitating the mental health of street children” is the primary purpose of this research. The problem of street children suffering from challenges to their mental health due to their daily abuse encountered on the streets, made me realise that street children need urgent facilitation of their mental health. The fact that they made a decision to leave a usually abusive home and family environment for the street shows that street children already possess an inner resilience when it comes to self preservation. However, they frequently end up choosing destructive coping strategies which makes it more difficult for them to utilise their inner resources to enhance their lives. Thus, this model focuses on nurturing this inner resilience present in street children in order to facilitate them toward enhanced mental health. Other important aspects of this research are guidelines and recommendations for psycho-educational facilitators or any healthcare professional with regard to how they should implement the model.

This study investigated the relationship between use of Light Rapid or Light Rail (LRT) by persons with severe visual impairments and independence in orientation and mobility. Use of the LRT poses special problems to blind users and requires skill in mobility. The premise of the study was that blind persons who felt confident in travelling independently were more likely to use the LRT than those who do not. The study also examined the difficulties blind persons experienced in LRT use. The subjects were 63 persons between the ages of 19 and 65 who responded to a survey questionnaire. Thirty five of these individuals were male and 25 were female. All the subjects were registered as legally blind with the C.N.I.B. The range of visual loss included total blindness, light perception, tunnel vision, central vision loss and low vision. The results indicated that orientation and mobility training on the LRT system would resolve many of the difficulties that users of the systems encountered. Modification of the systems by transit companies to make the systems more easily accessible to visually impaired travellers are suggested. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

One of the key themes of this research document examines the changes in architecture and the urban environment in relation to an event-oriented society. The urban entertainment culture of the 21st century has spawned a host of event worlds. The marketing of cities and regions with spectacular presentations of history and culture and the redevelopment of city centers to create event spaces are an eloquent expression of this development. In ever fewer cases is this process of urban re-organisation the product of town planning schemes devised by the public authorities. The commercializations of cities is being accompanied by a loss of public space, increasing controls and a growing exclusion of the poor and destitute. The commercializations of culture is celebrating its triumphal march in the concept of the “event city”. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Cette thèse porte sur une comparaison des pratiques envers la propriété des graffeur.ses, street-artistes, militant.e.s anticapitalistes et antipubs. Partant d’une analyse de la littérature criminologique concernant le vandalisme, cette thèse interroge les figures du « vandale » ou du « casseur » en tant que constructions sociales. Dans la continuité des travaux interactionnistes en sociologie de la déviance et en criminologie post-marxiste, nous interrogeons les dégradations volontaires d’objets matériels à partir des trajectoires et expériences d’acteurs déviants, tout en replaçant ceux-ci dans l’imbrication des rapports sociaux de classe, de sexe et d’âge. L’enquête de terrain procède par ethnographie multi-située, rassemblant seize récits de vie combinés à des observations participantes. Les résultats montrent la formation et l’évolution de « sujets propriétaires » par effets de socialisation aux interactions entre individus, corps et objets matériels dans diverses sphères (familiale, scolaire, professionnelles, sous-culturelles, militantes). La propriété et la possession apparaissent comme des enjeux centraux des rapports sociaux et de la socialisation. Leur naturalisation au sein des rapports de pouvoir participe tant de la réaction sociale au vandalisme que des rapports aux objets et espaces des peintres ou militant.e.s interrogé.e.s. Malgré l’hétérogénéité de leurs positions structurelles ou de leurs trajectoires d’engagement, nous trouvons dans leurs rapports aux objets dégradés, aux pratiques de soin, aux techniques ou encore au contrôle social, une internormativité faisant dominer les normes de propriété formelle sur les normes de possession. Cette thèse explore les rapports de pouvoir contemporains traversant les atteintes à la propriété et apporte une contribution à la sociologie de la déviance, des rapports sociaux et des cultures dominées. / This study aims at comparing practices in relation to property among graffiti writers, street artists, anticapitalist and antiproductivist activists. Stemming from an analysis of the criminological literature on vandalism, this thesis explores the notions of “vandals” and “casseur” as social constructs. In line with the interactionnist works in the sociology of deviance and in post-marxist criminology, we question the willful damaging of property based on the trajectories and experiences of deviant actors, while integrating social class, gender and age dynamics in the framework. The fieldwork consisted in a multi-sited ethnography, gathering sixteen life histories combined with participant observations. Results show the formation and evolution of “owning subjects” through socialisation processes, shaping relations between individuals, bodies and material objects in many instances (family, school, work, subcultures, activism). Property and ownership appear as central stakes in social relations and socialisation. Their naturalisation in power relations affects social reactions to vandalism as well as the relations to material objects shown by the participants. Despite heterogeneous positions in the social structure and different trajectories in relation to deviance, we find in their relation to damaged objects, in their caring practices, in their techniques or in their relationship to social control, an internormativity ensuring the dominance of formal norms over informal ownership. This study explores power relations in contemporary France and in property crimes, and contributes to the sociology of deviance, sociology of social structure and critical criminology.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Social Work in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2009. / This study is about the research that the writer conducted based on how service providers could be helped to render effective services with special reference to street children. It is believed that this study will be considered as a field based social development practice concerned with child protection and improvement of antisocial behaviour. This research was conducted in order to firstly, establish the existence of reunification programmes in the shelters that secure street children after having been picked up from the streets. Secondly, it intended to investigate in the event the programmes were available, who were actually involved during their evaluation, for example, service providers, government officials, families of street children and street children themselves. The study also intended to examine the effectiveness of those programmes. If they were available what remedy can be employed in order to improve the relationship between the reunified vulnerable street children and their families. During data collection in June 2006 concerning this study it emanated that six (6) 89% service providers did not have reunification programmes. Only one (1) 11% Government Place of Safety uses the monitoring forms to assess the progress of the street children during institutionallsationperiod. Even the said forms do not reach the objective of rehabilitating the children because children abscond before the end of the monitoring exercise. And without the direction file of the child's home, it is hard to track down the child and get response from the family about the progress of the child. In terms of Sec 69(i) of Social Welfare White Paper 1997 the State had planned to develop programmes concerning provision of safe environment and taking care of homeless young adults and those surviving on the streets. But these goals have not yet been achieved. The service providers even confessed that they lacked skills on how to deal with problematic children other than providing safety and security until the child decides to reunify with his or her family. The study was conducted in Durban, Empangeni, Richards Bay, Eshowe, Nqutu, Nkandla and Newcastle in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. (Due to research confidentiality ethical reasons, the real names of institutions visited will not be revealed). Lastly, the researcher prepared standardised Reunification Program Manuals (hereinafter called Behaviour Modification Treatment Model Manual) and Participation Action Research Manuals and issued them to the service providers for future use.

This research project focused on the narrated lives of woman informal street traders. Ten women from the Warwick Junction market in Durban, South Africa, of varying ages, were interviewed. The women selected participated in two interviews, one narrative interview and a follow up in-depth open-ended interview based on their life narrative. Thematic analysis was conducted thereafter; through this process recurring themes relevant to all participants were identified and discussed. Five dominant themes resulted from the thematic analysis: ‘Economic challenges’; ‘Politics, police and permits’; ‘Work’; ‘Being a woman’ and ‘Support’. The findings of this research showed that economical challenges were a substantial issue for several of the women, many of who grew up in poverty and remain trapped in the poverty cycle. Disturbingly, several women highlighted how local authorities and corrupt police showed little regard towards trader’s opinions and several women nostalgically recollected trading conditions before 1994. Many of the women were the sole breadwinners for their families, supporting children and grandchildren and great emphasis was placed on the importance of their work as a means of economic survival and financing their children’s education, as schooling was understood to be leverage out of the poverty cycle. The supportive role of the women’s communities was a significant feature in their lives. Several overarching social networks became resources in times of crises. The need to utilize the community as a supportive network was largely due to the lack of formal support women informal street traders received from local authorities. This research raises concerns over the City’s perceptions of, and approach towards, informal street traders, specifically in the last decade. Furthermore, this study highlights the need to broaden understandings of the means of coping used by women in contexts of poverty, constant vulnerability, and exposure to frequent psychologically disturbing trauma.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects frequenting the street had on the social-emotional development of children in Cuenca, Ecuador. While the study sought to discover who these children were, it primarily observed the levels of trust these children felt in the various contexts of their lives, their level of safety, where they saw themselves in the future, what made a place feel like a home, their sense of self-esteem, and how they saw themselves contributing to their future. The research instrument used in this study was a modified youth questionnaire previously developed by Tyler and Tyler (1991) in a study with street children/youth in Bogóta, Colombia. The results are presented in 11 case studies of children who ranged in age between 7 and 12 years.

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Informal street trading has played a role in the decline of the inner city. In restoring the inner city to its splendor and attracting people plus investments back into it, there has been an acknowledgement of informal street trading and a move to organise the activity. The City of Johannesburg has taken action towards dealing with informal street trading within the CBD by having trading and non-trading zones, constructing markets and providing stalls along pavements in busy streets from where traders can sell. This study was carried out as a response to the major issue at hand of cleaning up the city and ridding the streets of informal traders and only letting them trade in a controlled manner preferably in enclosed markets. While not dwelling on matters of whether regulating traders is good or bad, the main purpose of the study was to probe into the systemisation of informal street trading in the CBD, further investigating the alternative of a street market as that which can be done in other parts of the inner city as a means of keeping the vibrancy of the city through the provision of minimal infrastructure. Hence, this study explored the functionality of a street market plus certain issues pertaining to informal street trading in terms of what is being done in regulating the activity, whether trading permits are being issued and whether traders are more secure trading from designated trading areas. The outcomes were then used to outline any lessons learned from the case study that can in turn be applied or be used as an insight to other parts of the inner city. In analysing informal street trading in the inner city and Kerk Street, street market it was shown that the provision of minimal infrastructure through a street market enables informal street trading to be controlled and managed in a well organised open environment while maintaining a vibrant area in which both traders and passer-bys are able to interact.