<p>By presenting case studies from the village of Mahenye in Zimbabwe and the five villages of the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, the study looks beyond the objectives, discourse and contests of policy and undertakes an investigation of what actions rural people are undertaking inside the institutions established by policy makers, and of governance outcomes at the local level. These case studies reveal that unfettered devolution can lead to elite capture and the perpetuation of poverty / that rural communities themselves have agency and the ability to exercise it / and that there is limited and shrinking political space in both countries which is reducing opportunities for rural communities to engage with political processes. The Botswana case studies demonstrates that an imported and imposed devolutionary initiative which lacks links to higher levels of governance can reduce political space at local levels. The Zimbabwe case study demonstrates that political space may be more effectively created through decentralisation. The lesson drawn from these case studies is that institutional arrangements and roles should be determined by context specific issues and circumstances and move beyond the structural determinism that has characterized much of the CBNRM debate to date. The study concludes with policy recommendations. These include the need for recognition of the synergy between CBNRM and democratisation as mutually reinforcing processes and the need to be context-specific...</p>

<p>The general aim of this study is to undertake an assessment of the health care service provision in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre taking into consideration the underlying principles of the Primary Health Care. More specific objectives include: an overview and discussion of the framework approach to primary health care and its use / the documentation of the practice of primary health care in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre / an analysis of the results and findings which will highlight the obstacles in the pursuit of a better primary health care service. The perspective of the patients and nurses will be solicited and examined with a view to highlighting factors that facilitate and constrain the delivery of service / and finally to draw conclusions and make recommendations.</p>

The overall aim of this study is to describe and analyse some of the consequences of market forces and decentralisation in the educational systems of Sweden and England. Since the 1980s, many countries have restructured their educational systems and introduced decentralisation and market forces. The reasons have sometimes been the same and sometimes they have differed, but demands for better school performance and the need for economic cuttings in the public sector, including schooling, are two of the most common reasons. This study will describe the development towards market forces and decentralisation in some countries in the western world in general, and, in particular Sweden and England. The thesis makes a general overview of research on these issues in different countries and focuses on certain key concepts. Interviews and document analyses are the principal methods used, and case studies have been conducted in seven secondary schools in one Swedish municipality, and in ten schools in an English county. Interviews were made with 20 school leaders in the Swedish municipality and 20 in the English community in order to study their opinions on market solutions like competition and choice of school, as well as decentralisation and local management of schools. The findings indicate that the educational systems of Sweden and England differ in many aspects, even if both can be described as decentralised. While the Swedish system gives the schools a high degree of autonomy, whereby the school leaders are responsible for almost everything in the daily running of the school, the English system includes more aspects of centralism, and provides less local decision making. The findings also indicate that the school leaders in Swedish municipalities are more satisfied with both decentralisation and market forces in schooling than their English colleagues. Several plausible interpretations could be made of the interview answers from the school leaders, but it seems that the higher degree of decentralisation in the Swedish educational system is perhaps the most important factor in this case. Finally, the findings also indicate that the school leaders see positive aspects of choice and competition in schooling, like increased quality and better efficiency, as well as negative aspects, primarily the risk of segregation due to free school choice.

<p>The general aim of this study is to undertake an assessment of the health care service provision in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre taking into consideration the underlying principles of the Primary Health Care. More specific objectives include: an overview and discussion of the framework approach to primary health care and its use / the documentation of the practice of primary health care in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre / an analysis of the results and findings which will highlight the obstacles in the pursuit of a better primary health care service. The perspective of the patients and nurses will be solicited and examined with a view to highlighting factors that facilitate and constrain the delivery of service / and finally to draw conclusions and make recommendations.</p>

<p>By presenting case studies from the village of Mahenye in Zimbabwe and the five villages of the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, the study looks beyond the objectives, discourse and contests of policy and undertakes an investigation of what actions rural people are undertaking inside the institutions established by policy makers, and of governance outcomes at the local level. These case studies reveal that unfettered devolution can lead to elite capture and the perpetuation of poverty / that rural communities themselves have agency and the ability to exercise it / and that there is limited and shrinking political space in both countries which is reducing opportunities for rural communities to engage with political processes. The Botswana case studies demonstrates that an imported and imposed devolutionary initiative which lacks links to higher levels of governance can reduce political space at local levels. The Zimbabwe case study demonstrates that political space may be more effectively created through decentralisation. The lesson drawn from these case studies is that institutional arrangements and roles should be determined by context specific issues and circumstances and move beyond the structural determinism that has characterized much of the CBNRM debate to date. The study concludes with policy recommendations. These include the need for recognition of the synergy between CBNRM and democratisation as mutually reinforcing processes and the need to be context-specific...</p>

En djupdykning i att forska inom filosofin som är posthumanismen har utförts för att se hur den kan appliceras på den fotografiska processen. Flera aspekter av posthumanismen har identifierats som sedan har gjort ett försök till att skapa en alternativ metod för att få ett fotografi att uppstå. Några av de största svagheterna för bildskapandet är att fotografen har givits diktatoriska egenskaper om vad och hur något gestaltas, att motivet är endast en liten del av omvärlden som får plats inom bildens restriktiva ram, och kamerans oförmåga att representera en ständigt skiftande natur. Genom olika metoder så som en posthumanistisk vandring, texturering, bildanalys, och en performativ gestaltning skulle den konventionella fotografiska processen utmanas. Senare i designprocessen kom reflekterande objekt fram som en aktör som mycket väl utmanande problemen som ett fotografi annars lider av i sin skapelse. Spegelfragment placerades slumpmässigt framför kameran för att försöka fånga en oavsiktlig del av omgivningen som annars inte hade gestaltats inom bildens restriktiva ram. Designprocessen använde sig även av andra metoder som var mindre lyckade i sitt mål, men som ändå spelade en kritisk del i att leda fram till den slutgiltiga metoden för undersökningens gestaltning. Slutsatsen för arbetet blev att en alternativ process har uppnåtts, men att den gärna hade kunnat utvecklats mer för att bättre använda sig av posthumanismens verktyg. Det mänskliga skulle inte uteslutas ur fotografins skapande, men decentraliseras för att tillåta andra aktörer att ta plats inom fotografins arkiverande värld. / A plunge has been made into the world of posthumanism to investigate its merits to be applied to the process that creates a photography. Several aspects of the posthuman have been identified that would allow for the creation of an alternative photographic process. Some of the major weaknesses of image creation are that the photographer has been granted dictatorial powers over what can be captured by the camera, how the picture only captures a limited view of the world, and the cameras inability to represent an everchanging nature. Through different methods such as a posthuman hike, texturing, image analysis, and a performative design the conventional photographic process were to be challenged. Later in the design stage reflective objects would prove to be a useful actor in challenging the problems that a Kandidatarbete i Medieteknik Oscar Idberg (osid15) Sida 2 av 46 photography faces. Mirror fragments were randomly placed in front of a camera to capture an unintentional part of the surroundings that otherwise would have not fit within the images restrictive frame. The design stage used several other methods that were less successful in their goals, they did however still play a critical role in leading up to the final method for the investigations product. The conclusion acknowledged that an alternative process for the creation of an image had been achieved, it did however not take the investigation far enough and could have better used the posthuman tools available. The human should not be excluded from the photographic process; however, it needs to be decentralized to allow other actors to take their place within the archiving world of photography.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / By presenting case studies from the village of Mahenye in Zimbabwe and the five villages of the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, the study looks beyond the objectives, discourse and contests of policy and undertakes an investigation of what actions rural people are undertaking inside the institutions established by policy makers, and of governance outcomes at the local level. These case studies reveal that unfettered devolution can lead to elite capture and the perpetuation of poverty; that rural communities themselves have agency and the ability to exercise it; and that there is limited and shrinking political space in both countries which is reducing opportunities for rural communities to engage with political processes. The Botswana case studies demonstrates that an imported and imposed devolutionary initiative which lacks links to higher levels of governance can reduce political space at local levels. The Zimbabwe case study demonstrates that political space may be more effectively created through decentralisation. The lesson drawn from these case studies is that institutional arrangements and roles should be determined by context specific issues and circumstances and move beyond the structural determinism that has characterized much of the CBNRM debate to date. The study concludes with policy recommendations. These include the need for recognition of the synergy between CBNRM and democratisation as mutually reinforcing processes and the need to be context-specific. / South Africa

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The general aim of this study is to undertake an assessment of the health care service provision in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre taking into consideration the underlying principles of the Primary Health Care. More specific objectives include: an overview and discussion of the framework approach to primary health care and its use; the documentation of the practice of primary health care in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre; an analysis of the results and findings which will highlight the obstacles in the pursuit of a better primary health care service. The perspective of the patients and nurses will be solicited and examined with a view to highlighting factors that facilitate and constrain the delivery of service; and finally to draw conclusions and make recommendations. / South Africa

Decentralisation remains a preferred instrument of education reform policies throughout the world. In theory, decentralisation shifts power and authority from the state at national level to the school community at local level. In South Africa, a decentralising initiative in education was the promulgation of the South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, which provided parents with an opportunity to share in the governance of a public school by being elected to serve on its school governing body. In this context, it appears that members of school governing bodies hold unique sets of expectations when serving on a school governing body. Expectations may influence the nature and type of education to which a particular school community aspires and may consequently influence the workloads of the educators at that school. A primary search of national and international literature on governing bodies provides numerous descriptions of governmental intentions with respect to governing bodies but the expectations that governing body members have of educators, appears to be a neglected field of empirical enquiry. This study therefore examines public primary school governing body functions in the light of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law. The findings emerging from open-ended questionnaires completed by members of school governing bodies, time-use diaries recorded by educators and interviews with principals together with an analysis of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law consistently show that the workloads of educators who teach at public primary schools situated in middle-class contexts have intensified. There appears to be a variety of factors, which singularly and collectively contribute to the intensification of educators’ workloads. Among these are the increasing expectations of parents, differences in the conceptual understanding of professionalism, marketisation and managerialism arising from decentralisation and the principal’s leadership style. The findings point to sport and professional development as the core duties, which demand a great deal of educators’ time and appear to militate most on educators’ private lives. Moreover, this research has provided conclusive evidence that despite the fact that school governing bodies’ expectations of educators are aligned with prevailing education labour law and other relevant law, the open-ended nature of such law, together with omissions and silences, allows legal space for individual and contextual interpretation and implementation. It is therefore, the most prominent factor contributing to the intensification of educators’ workloads. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

The main aim of this thesis is to examine the processes and procedures for promoting local government democracy in post-apartheid South Africa. This study principally investigates the extent to which local government reforms empower women in local politics, given the context, constraints and contested discourses in the historical meaning of „women‟, as well as the history of institution making in South Africa. In order to achieve this, the study explores local government reforms processes‟ contribution to the nature of women‟s political participation and representation in local politics. The study further explains the relationship between political parties‟ and that of government in the participation of women in local politics. Lastly, the study identifies ingrained factors shaping women‟s participation in local politics prevalent in spite of reforms. The study has adopted an institutionalist approach and uses critical theory in order gain deeper insights about women‟s participation and representation in local politics. The study adopts a qualitative research strategy, due to the fact that it favours particular instruments that are suited to explore some of the experiences and practices of the main actors involved in local politics. It triangulates both secondary and primary sources of data gathered in South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 interviewees from two selected municipalities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and two sampled political parties as an endeavour to obtain a diversity of viewpoints about the political reforms. Furthermore, the secondary data from government sources and political parties‟ sources was used. Archival research was complemented with municipal reports and policies in order to establish the relationship between national directives and local implementation on institutional development. These methodological approaches were used due to the fact that they highlight the multiplicity and diversity of political institutions that exist even at local level. The findings show that there are political spaces opened through reforms for women to participate in political processes in local government politics. The study found that there are local municipalities led by women mayors and some were under women‟s political leadership from the beginning -- following the second reorganisation of local government. Nonetheless, the levels of state (national, provincial and local) and diverse interests of societal actors in local politics challenged the democratisation processes. Basically, the government has contradictory dominant roles in the reform processes. However, societal actors, which comprise political parties and traditional authorities influence reforms (in) directly. Further findings show contradictions among institutions, which favours other actors in local politics, while restricting women‟s long-term political careers. Overall, this study concludes that the reform process has achieved the objective in opening political spaces for women in local politics. However, these new spaces in a post-apartheid society seem to be depoliticised, which eclipses how the political system remains prone to the influence of multiple discourses of liberation, as well as the partial historical convergence of interests at the local political level.