<p>This thesis explores the shifting cultural identities of young Owambo migrants living in Babilon, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Windhoek, Namibia. Through an investigation of their social, cultural and economic lives, I show how these young people invoke their Owambo-ness, but how they also transcend their ethnic identifications through engaging in an emerging Namibian youth culture, which cuts across rural-urban, ethnic, and socio-economic divides. I argue that young migrants from Ovamboland, who intend to escape their poverty stricken rural homes and arrive on packed busses, bringing with them few possessions and great expectations, constantly shift and resituate their cultural identities while trying to make a living in the city. These young people are eager to engage fully in a better life and hope to find employment in the urban economy. For many, however, this remains just that &ndash / hope. In their daily lives, the young migrants replicate, reproduce and represent rural Owambo within the urban space. Using the examples of &lsquo / traditional&rsquo / food and small-scale urban agriculture, I explore how their ideas of Owambo-ness are imagined, enforced and lived in Babilon. I argue that although migrants identify themselves in many ways with their rural homes, and retain rural values and practices to a large extent, this does not mean that they would remain &ldquo / tribesmen&rdquo / , as earlier, how classic studies in Southern African urban anthropology argued (Mayer 1961 / Wilson and Mafeje 1963). They also appropriate &ldquo / ideologies&rdquo / and practices of the emerging Namibian youth culture, especially popular local music and cell phones. My study thus shows that the migrants develop multiple, fluid identities (with reference to Bank 2002) / they identify concurrently with the urban and the rural and develop a synthesis of both. The thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between February and May 2008. During the fieldwork, I engaged daily in informal discussions with many residents of Babilon, and carried out life history interviews, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with key research participants.</p>

The pattern of a classical hyperinflation is an acute acceleration of inflation to levels above 1000% generally associated with printing money to finance large fiscal deficits due to wars, revolutions, and the end of empires or the establishment of new states (Coorey et al, 2007: 3). After World War I, a handful of European economies succumbed to hyperinflation. Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Russia all racked up enormous price increases, with Germany recording an astronomical 3.25 million percent in a single month in 1923 (Reinhart and Savastano, 2003: 1). Since the 1950s, hyperinflation has been confined to the developing world and the transition economies. Zimbabwe currently has the highest rate of inflation in the world with an annual rate of 7982.1% in September 2007 (RBZ Website, 1/11/07). This paper examines the impact of hyperinflation on Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Harare, Zimbabwe with aims of revealing how SMEs were affected by hyperinflation and other factors linked to the phenomenon. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

Very little research evidence exists with respect to the informal sector in African countries. Although (mixed) theoretical evidence does exist that postulates a relationship between formal sector employment and informal sector employment, very little is understood about the exact nature of such a relationship. The research problem to be answered by this study thus constitutes two parts: Firstly, to estimate the relationship between informal sector employment and formal sector employment in selected African countries, and, secondly, to compare and contrast the estimated coefficients for the sample of countries with respect to statistical significance, sign and magnitude of such estimated coefficients. The study makes use of a fixed effects or least squares dummy variable (LSDV) panel data regression model, in double-log form, that comprises observations for informal sector employment, formal sector employment and exports (as a possible proxy for the "trade cycle‟ effect on informal sector employment). The sample of countries includes: South Africa; Kenya; Namibia; Zambia; Botswana and Mauritius, for the study period, 1998 – 2008. Theoretically, the expectation is a negative relationship between informal sector employment and formal sector employment as these are (plausibly) "substitute‟ activities in the labour market. However, there is mixed evidence to support/negate this hypothesis. Further, the expectation is a positive relationship between informal sector employment and exports. Including formal sector employment and exports as explanatory variables in a linear regression framework, poses a possible problem of strong collinearity between the explanatory variables (i.e. multicollinearity) as formal sector employment and exports are, generally, strong positively correlated. This study uses suitable ratio transformation to remedy this problem. The general findings of the study are that South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius had statistically significant levels (or average changes therein) of informal employment as a proportion of population not dependent on changes to formal employment as a proportion of population and exports. In Namibia and Zambia, informal employment as a proportion of population was statistically related to formal employment as a proportion of population, with negative sign, and "elasticity‟ greater than 1. In Namibia and Mauritius, informal employment as a proportion of population was statistically related to exports. Namibia had a positive sign and "elasticity‟ barely in excess of 1. Mauritius, however, had a negative sign and "elasticity‟ greater than 1. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

State failure in Zimbabwe has had a profound impact on the labour market. As job opportunities in the formal sector have shrunk due to the contraction of the economy, the informal sector has been showing rapid growth. The restructuring of the labour market has resulted in an informal sector that is much bigger than the formal sector, a drastic reversal of the situation that existed just after the country’s independence in 1980. This growth in the informal sector has had the effect of keeping the reported unemployment figure in Zimbabwe at below 10 per cent. While this figure has been met with disbelief and derision both within and outside Zimbabwe, it is based on the application of the international definition of employment (ILO, 2008). This study analyses the impact of state failure on a segment of the informal sector - the urban informal sector self-employed and analyses how urban selfemployment has grown and developed in a context of state failure. This study also explores how this segment of the informal economy has responded to and been impacted by the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe. The study found that state failure has had a large impact on the urban informal sector selfemployed in a number of ways. This impact has largely been in the form of (a) opportunities in filling the gap left by the collapse of the formal sector after the imposition of price and foreign exchange controls; (b) increased competition from new, more educated, entrants who were opting out of (or could not get jobs in) the formal sector; (c) increases in the number of people employed by informal enterprises (the majority of whom were non-family members); (d) the crisis/failing state’s increasing inability to enforce zoning and tax regulations. The findings suggest that there have been a lot of new entrants into the informal sector. These new entrants seem to be younger and more educated. These new entrants seem to have made strategic decisions on location, types of products they sell and the way they run their enterprises. The urban informal sector self-employed workers are not a homogeneous group. They exhibit differences in a number of areas for example, their age, the activities they are engaged in, their level of education, and the location they operate from. Zimbabwe’s price and exchange control policies exacted a heavy toll on the private sector with many formal enterprises collapsing as a result of these controls. These controls and the collapse of many formal sector enterprises presented numerous opportunities for economic rents and arbitrage. Although most of the respondents in the sample were generally happy with informal sector work, there were some who had clearly disproportionately benefited from state failure. While the study does indicate that the urban informal sector self-employed entrepreneurs do absorb a number of unemployed people, with the informal sector thus playing a distributional safety-net role not only for the enterprise owners but also for their employees, the number of people employed per enterprise seems to be too low to substantiate the view of the informal sector being a significant employer in the economy (even a failing one). The study concludes that the context of crisis/failed state has clearly created some opportunities for a segment of the population. These findings are largely inconsistent with a view that conceptualises the informal sector as an undifferentiated employer of last resort marked by low wages and difficult working conditions. While the informal sector is playing an ameliorative role as an income-generating safety net for most self-employed workers in Harare, the comparatively well-educated respondents selling high end products in the suburbs seem to have actually benefited from the conditions of state failure. The low salaries coupled with job insecurity in the formal sector have meant that the informal sector is increasingly viewed as a more preferable employment option, particularly for entrepreneurs. The returns from this type of activity have even encouraged a number of formal sector workers to increasingly participate in the informal sector to make ends meet. In a country where a formal sector worker’s salary can barely cover the rent, let alone food and other expenses, the informal sector entrepreneurs in this study perceived themselves to be comparatively wealthy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This thesis focuses on upper secondary students’ use of resources in their supporting reasons when arguing socioscientific issues (SSIs). The skills of argumentation have been emphasized in science education during the past decades and SSIs are proven a good context for learners to enhance skills of argumentation and achieve the goal of scientific literacy. Research has shown that supporting reasons from various resources are embedded in students’ argumentation on SSIs, and also that multi-perspective involvement in reasoning is important for the quality of argumentation. To explore the reasons used by students in arguing about SSIs in this thesis, the SEE-SEP model was adopted as an analytical framework. The SEE-SEP model covers the six subject areas of sociology/culture, economy, environment/ecology, science, ethics/morality and policy, which are connected to the three aspects of knowledge, value and personal experience. Two studies covering four SSIs (global warming, GMO, nuclear power and consumption) explore how students construct arguments on one SSI topic chosen by them. In paper I, I investigated students’ use of resources in their informal argumentation and to what extent students made use of knowledge. The results showed that students used value to a larger extent (67%) than knowledge (27%). I also found that the distribution of supporting reasons generated by students varied from the different SSIs. In paper II, I explored students’ use of resources in relation to students’ study background (science majors and social-science majors) and gender. The results showed that social-science majors and females generated more numbers of reasons and also showed a larger amount of multi-disciplinary resources in their supporting reasons. From the findings of this thesis, the SEE-SEP model was established as a suitable model used to analyze students’ resources of supporting reasons while arguing about SSIs. Furthermore, the potential for applying the SEE-SEP model in teachers’ SSI-teaching and students’ SSI-learning is suggested. The implications to research and teaching are also discussed.

This thesis addresses the relationship between formal and informal institutions in the European Parliament from a new institutionalist perspective. This is done in order to fulfill the aims of the thesis, which are: (1) to broaden our understanding of informal institutions and institutional change in the EP as well as (2) develop our understanding of the new institutionalist approaches: rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism and historical institutionalism. The method of analysis is qualitative and the main material consists of 14 interviews with Swedish members and former members of the 4th to the 7th EP. The empirical investigation shows that the EP should be interpreted as institutionalized, but some informal institutional changes have, however, occurred due to changes in formal institutions. The enlargements and treaty changes have changed not only how the parliamentarians work in informal network, but also the internal selection procedures of the rapporteur and the internal view on the EP versus the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. The two central claims of this thesis are: (1) that new institutionalist approaches go well together and should be used parallel in order to get a comprehensive understanding of political phenomena and, (2) that the EP is characterized both by institutionalization and informal institutional changes and that these interplay with each other.

This practicum focuses on the issues of the overlapping boundaries between Student housing and downtown redevelopment. Can graduate students find a place in the downtown to meet their need for off-campus housing, and simultaneously help build a healthy, vibrant, downtown community; ensuring the housing facility represents a quality space for both graduate students and the local community? The following is an investigation of related issues including: Richard Florida’s notion of the Creative Class, multi-purpose development, the university as an urban catalyst, and adaptive reuse. The combination of graduate housing and the city’s downtown redevelopment will create new design typology that benefits both graduate students and downtown community. The practicum project consists of a live/work space for Winnipeg in the Waterfront area by adaptively reusing the James Ave Pumping Station building. The renovated building includes a bookstore, a coffee shop, a daycare, and an urban grocery store. However, the design focuses on the informal learning space and the quality of graduate students’ living experience through aspects such as accommodation, study space, meeting and casual spaces.

Networking among entrepreneurial firms is a widely researched and debated topic amongst academics; however, there are still research gaps. Most research is based on quantitative studies and researchers have called for more qualitative analysis to gain a deeper understanding in what impact networks have on entrepreneurial firms. The purpose with this dissertation is to explore in what way networks are important (or not) for small entrepreneurial firms, and if this changes over the firms’ development. The study has an interpretive philosophy and an exploratory research design. To collect data eight semi-structured interviews, with entrepreneurs in Kristianstad and the nearby area, were completed. The findings of this study are that networks look different for all entrepreneurial firms and the importance of different relationships changes over the firms’ life cycle. Informal relationships (family and friends) are important for the entrepreneur when it comes to encouragement and support, while formal relationships (suppliers, employees, customers and other entrepreneurs) contribute to the success of the firm by providing the entrepreneur with knowledge and advice.  The conclusions, from the collected data, are that all relations are not of equal importance to all entrepreneurs. The importance depends on the entrepreneur’s personality and the industry the entrepreneur operates in. However, we found that the importance of talking to other entrepreneurs has grown and that the most important relationship seems to be with family and friends. The demarcations of this study are that only entrepreneurs in one area of one country were interviewed, also that a qualitative method was used; therefore, we cannot show any statistical proof of the findings.

The aim of this research was to determine the way in which informal caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients experience their task as caregivers as well as to identify factors, or general resistance resources, which exercise an influence on their psychological well-being, and more specifically on their sense of coherence. The stressors encountered by informal caregivers of HIVIAIDS patients have previously been investigated thoroughly in a number of studies. The tasks of informal caregivers very often encompass much more than what would be, for example, included in the nursing context and therefore exceed the limits applying to the formal sector. Stressors to which caregivers are exposed include physical, financial and emotional aspects. It has been proved that this state of affairs has a negative impact on their physical health conditions as well as their psychological well-being. Caregivers do, however, at times report a certain extent of growth experienced by them which can be related to the care giving situation. The salutogenic perspective allows for a study of the origin of health and has, for the purposes of this study, been applied to obtain an alternative description of the caregivers' experiences. According to this perspective health does not merely mean the absence of disease, but also refers to health being influenced by an individual's management of stressful events. When an individual, even if confronted with stressful circumstances, has adequate general resistance resources at his/her disposal, a strong sense of coherence can develop and this will have a positive influence on his/her psychological well-being. In the South African context little if any literature can be found on the salutogenic factors that may affect informal caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients. The investigation of this study was based on an availability sample consisting of 8 informal caregivers of HIVIAIDS patients. A one shot cross sectional design with triangulation of data assessment techniques was used. The researcher obtained data with regard to the caregivers' sense of coherence by means of the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) (Antonovsky, 1987). Semistructured interviews were conducted with all the caregivers involved and a qualitative analysis followed. The results revealed that informal caregivers' sense of coherence was much lower than- that of a group of nurses (formal caregivers) as described by Cilliers (2003). One of the reasons for this significant difference could be the lack of a structured setting or environment in which caregivers still have to perform their duties and responsibilities. According to the results a variety of factors exercising a negative impact on informal caregivers' sense of coherence could be identified. These included (a) stress, (b) exposure to unfamiliar situations, and (c) a lack of counselling skills. Within the framework of the salutogenic perspective there were, however, different factors also known as general resistance resources, that exercised a positive impact on the caregivers' sense of coherence. Among these the following could be counted: (a) spirituality, (b) insight into interpersonal situations, (c) utilisation of social support systems, and (d) multi-disciplinary cooperation. It would therefore seem that informal caregivers do possess general resistance resources which enable them to persevere with their tasks as caregivers in spite of the stressors they encounter on a daily basis. One of the recommendations that can be posed after having carried out this study and after having analysed the results, is the compilation as well as the evaluation and implementation, of a psycho-education training programme for informal caregivers, with special emphasis on such general resistance resources. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This practicum focuses on the issues of the overlapping boundaries between Student housing and downtown redevelopment. Can graduate students find a place in the downtown to meet their need for off-campus housing, and simultaneously help build a healthy, vibrant, downtown community; ensuring the housing facility represents a quality space for both graduate students and the local community? The following is an investigation of related issues including: Richard Florida’s notion of the Creative Class, multi-purpose development, the university as an urban catalyst, and adaptive reuse. The combination of graduate housing and the city’s downtown redevelopment will create new design typology that benefits both graduate students and downtown community. The practicum project consists of a live/work space for Winnipeg in the Waterfront area by adaptively reusing the James Ave Pumping Station building. The renovated building includes a bookstore, a coffee shop, a daycare, and an urban grocery store. However, the design focuses on the informal learning space and the quality of graduate students’ living experience through aspects such as accommodation, study space, meeting and casual spaces.