Known colloquially as “purewater”, sachet water has outcompeted all alternatives to Ghana’s unreliable government water infrastructure and serves as the cheap, portable, omnipresent solution for narrowing the safe water access gap. Each single-use sachet holds 500 ml of filtered potable water and is heat-sealed in a high-density polyethylene bag. Insufficient and often skeptical scholarship exists surrounding the state of sachet water in Ghana, and almost no research incorporates qualitative data into analysis and future recommendations. In the face of incomplete and decontextualized research on sachet water, this study aims to use qualitative data concerning Ghanaian viewpoints to showcase the recent positive developments in the lifecycle of sachet water. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with dozens of sachet water producers, regulatory parties, consumers from all over the country with diverse backgrounds, and members of the formal and informal waste management sectors over the summer months of 2013 and 2014. Although viewed as a problematic water alternative from a number of health and environmental viewpoints, this thesis demonstrates that sachet water is becoming more potable and better recycled. Results suggest that registered sachet water producers continue to raise water quality, private market waste management solutions are starting to curb the number of inappropriately discarded sachets, and Ghanaians generally are satisfied with sachet water’s role in increasing reliable potable water coverage.

Environmental racism has recently entered the realm of academic inquiry and although it currently sits in a marginalized category, Indigenous and environmental communities and scholars have acknowledged it as an important subject of critical inquiry. With roots in southern Americana history, environmental racism has had a limited scope of study within Canadian universities. Few Canadian scholars have presented the rippling effects of this critical phenomenon to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students and the challenge to bring this discourse to the universities of Canada remains significant. Mainstream educators and environmentalists dismiss discourses of environmental racism, ecological destruction and the correlating demise of Indigenous peoples’ knowledges, cultures and wellness as an insignificant and sometimes radical propaganda. In opposition, Indigenous peoples globally are countering this dismissal by telling their stories to ensure all have access to the discourses of environmental racism found within the ecological destructions of traditional lands and the cultural genocides of their peoples. The stories of their histories and the subsequent activism define the resistances found within Indigenous communities. These same stories show the resiliencies of Aboriginal peoples in their quest for self-determination. Using an Indigenous research methodological framework, this study seeks to provide an understanding of the complexities associated with incidences of environmental racism found within Canadian Aboriginal communities. It further seeks to find, analyze and report the depth of resistance and resilience found within the storywork of Aboriginal women. The researcher attempts to gain perspective from eight Aboriginal women of four distinct Nations by focusing on the context of their lives in relationship to their leadership decisions and actions from a worldview of Indigenous knowledge, eco-justice and peace. The lived experiences of Aboriginal women from the traditional lands of the Cree, the Denesuline, the Inuit and the Métis are critical to an analysis of how environmental racism is dismantled and wellness sought. The storywork of these participants provides answers as to how these Aboriginal women have come to resist environmental racism and why they currently lead others in the protection and sustainability of traditional lands, Aboriginal knowledge, culture and kinship wellness. Framed within Indigenous research methodology, all researcher actions within the study, including the collection, analysis and reporting of multiple data sources, followed the ceremonial tradition and protocols of respect and reciprocity found among Aboriginal peoples. Data from semi-structured qualitative interviews and written questionnaires was analyzed from the supportive western method of grounded theory. Findings revealed the strength of Storywork through the primary themes of Woman as Land and Woman as Healer. These are discussed through the Sisters’ embodiment of resistance, reflection, re-emergence and re-vitalization. The ways in which these Indigenous women have redeemed their knowledges and resurged as leaders is integral to the findings. The study concludes with an emphasis on the criticality of collective witnessing as transformation.

This study investigates the critical success factors involved in agile systems development projects. Various systems development methodologies and project management methodologies are presented with their underlying principles, strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter the critical success factors adopted from the work of Chow and Cao (2007) are presented. A positivistic research paradigm was chosen for data collection and analysis. The survey method was chosen for data collection. A questionnaire was sent to multiple respondents in a predominantly agile work environment, which resulted in a total of 129 respondents in various business sectors. The results were analysed by implementing multiple correlation and regression statistics as well as descriptive statistics. The results show that there are in fact 16 critical success factors that have a direct impact on the success of agile systems development projects. Agile systems development methodologies have been increasing in use during the last 3 years, and most organisations are implementing some form of project management methodology. The first recommendation is based on the findings that strong customer involvement and the appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation resulted in greater process success. Therefore, organisations should encourage these critical success factors when implementing an ASDM as this has a positive effect on the project outcome. The appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation, the application of good design practices and technical knowledge to a project, and a cooperative organizational culture instead of hierarchical are three of the key critical success factors that were positively related to the success of the product. By focussing on these critical success factors, the success of the entire project can be predicted. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This study investigates the critical success factors involved in agile systems development projects. Various systems development methodologies and project management methodologies are presented with their underlying principles, strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter the critical success factors adopted from the work of Chow and Cao (2007) are presented. A positivistic research paradigm was chosen for data collection and analysis. The survey method was chosen for data collection. A questionnaire was sent to multiple respondents in a predominantly agile work environment, which resulted in a total of 129 respondents in various business sectors. The results were analysed by implementing multiple correlation and regression statistics as well as descriptive statistics. The results show that there are in fact 16 critical success factors that have a direct impact on the success of agile systems development projects. Agile systems development methodologies have been increasing in use during the last 3 years, and most organisations are implementing some form of project management methodology. The first recommendation is based on the findings that strong customer involvement and the appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation resulted in greater process success. Therefore, organisations should encourage these critical success factors when implementing an ASDM as this has a positive effect on the project outcome. The appropriate management of the agile process with a satisfactory amount of documentation, the application of good design practices and technical knowledge to a project, and a cooperative organizational culture instead of hierarchical are three of the key critical success factors that were positively related to the success of the product. By focussing on these critical success factors, the success of the entire project can be predicted. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

. . . believe in God, believe also in me . . . --John 14.1 "Authoring Authority" analyzes the ways texts function to generate social cohesion while at the same time advancing the power interests of their authors. The study is a comparative, critical, and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary excavation of the religion-making efforts of the first-century Christian Apostle Paul and the nineteenth-century Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. This comparison defamiliarizes and recharacterizes the heroes and origin-stories of the dominant (and my own) tradition to force important questions about scholarly perspectives, interests and deferences (protection, exceptionalization), self-reflexivity, and politics. The project's critical orientation deploys insights and models from a range of disciplines to "read" these texts, not for exegetical purposes, but for what they signify and how they function in nascent social formations. The texts of these men were presented as if their contents were other than the products of embedded social actors (e.g. "it really is God's word" 1 Thes 2.13) contending for limited resources such as discursive authority and social power. These charismatic narrators harnessed the authority of pre-existing texts and traditions and integrated them with contemporary perspectives and sentiment. Their texts and performances offered a contingent construal of reality as ultimate reality--which served the power needs of their authors and the existential needs of their communities of subscribers. The dissertation begins with the articulation of an analytical framework appropriate for the critical and comparative academic study of religion. Chapter two contextualizes the lives of these men within cultural settings that provided motivation, made available vocational training and, ultimately provisioned social opportunities for them as adept charismatics. Chapter three directly illuminates the range of techniques embedded in texts, both implicit and explicit, of claiming power and developing a following. The final chapter wrestles with the functional role of deception in social formation and human life.

Research has shown that data warehouses potentially offer great investment opportunities to business. To benefit from this, business needs to invest large sums of money. Such investments are very risky, as no guarantee of the success of these ventures can be given. Object-oriented development has proved successful for developing operational systems in industry. This study researches object-oriented techniques to discover whether these techniques could be used successfully in data warehousing. A literature study focuses on the definition of an information systems development methodology and defines the components of such methodology. A further literature study on four popular object-oriented methodologies determines the commonalities of these methodologies. In conclusion, a literature study on data warehouse methodologies is done to discover the phases and techniques used in developing data warehouses. Based on the literature, a method is proposed to build a data warehouse harnessing object-oriented phases and techniques. The proposed method is applied as an interpretive experiment, followed by an evaluation of the data warehouse implemented. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Information Technology (IT) projects that resulted from the accelerated technological pace of change, will enable a path of growth and long term return on investment (ROI) for organisations. However, embarking on such large scale investments leave little opportunity to turn back, and sound project management principles will be required to effectively manage unforeseen issues during the project life cycle, and if these fail, the organisations will be constantly functioning in crisis mode. The absence of risk control and risk management can be destructive towards overall business performance. Management skills are therefore of paramount importance to reduce direct cost of projects and to handle increased challenges derived from improvements on existing IT infrastructures. The need for a robust risk management framework exists although many industry standard methodologies are available to assist management in the ongoing task of project delivery. The main objective of the study was to propose a general reference framework that describes an optimal project risk management process plan for IT projects from various industry types in South Africa. The literature study focused on identifying key factors and components within the project risk management academic field. This framework can also be useful to organisations in developing and expanding existing project risk management processes to facilitate the preparation and practical implementation in order to give assurance to stakeholders that all potentially momentous risks are identified and properly managed. Shareholders require transparency and high standards of corporate governance that must therefore function in an environment that cultivate open communication channels. Shareholder value will be delivered by means of information that is applied through effective knowledge management initiatives and constantly monitored by measurable strategic objectives. The second part of the study entails an empirical investigation that identified the [1] general project management issues within organisations; [2] perceptions on risk management practices; [3] key factors within project risk management; [4] and methodologies/frameworks that are applied in practice. The results indicated that it simply will not suffice with only managing some stages of a project cycle. Information audits form an integral part in maximising Information Systems (IS) that must be aligned with the overall organisational strategy. Strategy, performance and sustainability are inseparable assets of any organisation. IT governance perceived by organisations as important, can improve its competitive value with effective risk practises like risk methodology and data management. Knowledge management will lead management towards better competitive positions as well as increasing the overall organisational performance levels. Risks identified must be well documented, and the implementation of risk support systems will enable business management to anticipate future conditions and plan ahead. Management tools like Prince2 and PMBOK can guide the project management process. None of them, however, ensure project success and the project team must decide on the combination of each tool to implement according to individual organisational needs. The study further indicated that an organisation must cultivate an open communication channel for identifying and escalating risk and issues. Risk management can be seen as a scientific soul mate to project management with communication lying at the heart of effective risk management. Effective communication will establish critical links between shareholders' needs; information distribution; performance reporting; and management of issues towards shareholders. Governance, as the binding glue for organisations, has been one of the fastest growing elements of risk management. Performance measurement is paramount to IT governance and must be set and monitored by measurable objectives. COBIT as a comprehensive framework for IT management, promotes an excellent reference model to advance IT governance. King III, as non-legislated code towards JSE Securities Exchange, states that a company should have a risk assessment framework in place to enable management to pro-actively and continuously address risks. Basel II has reached the plateau but its effectiveness purely rests on the management of financial institutions to extend beyond the regulation alone. Various ISO standards can be used in conjunction with these management tools like the ISO 31000 risk management standard to guide management in the effective implementation of risk practices. The empirical research indicated that knowledge management will lead organisations towards better competitive positions as well as increasing the organisation's overall performance levels. It further indicated that IT governance can improve an organisation's competitive value with effective risk management practices. The study revealed that top management involvement is vital with each IT project intervention along with the required sponsor support. Project risk management is not only the project teams' responsibility, but the organisation as a whole. The strategy of an organisation must cultivate an open communication channel within projects; clearly assign roles and accountability; enforce a repository support system to monitor and evaluate risks; and to drive risk awareness throughout the organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Research has shown that data warehouses potentially offer great investment opportunities to business. To benefit from this, business needs to invest large sums of money. Such investments are very risky, as no guarantee of the success of these ventures can be given. Object-oriented development has proved successful for developing operational systems in industry. This study researches object-oriented techniques to discover whether these techniques could be used successfully in data warehousing. A literature study focuses on the definition of an information systems development methodology and defines the components of such methodology. A further literature study on four popular object-oriented methodologies determines the commonalities of these methodologies. In conclusion, a literature study on data warehouse methodologies is done to discover the phases and techniques used in developing data warehouses. Based on the literature, a method is proposed to build a data warehouse harnessing object-oriented phases and techniques. The proposed method is applied as an interpretive experiment, followed by an evaluation of the data warehouse implemented. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Information Technology (IT) projects that resulted from the accelerated technological pace of change, will enable a path of growth and long term return on investment (ROI) for organisations. However, embarking on such large scale investments leave little opportunity to turn back, and sound project management principles will be required to effectively manage unforeseen issues during the project life cycle, and if these fail, the organisations will be constantly functioning in crisis mode. The absence of risk control and risk management can be destructive towards overall business performance. Management skills are therefore of paramount importance to reduce direct cost of projects and to handle increased challenges derived from improvements on existing IT infrastructures. The need for a robust risk management framework exists although many industry standard methodologies are available to assist management in the ongoing task of project delivery. The main objective of the study was to propose a general reference framework that describes an optimal project risk management process plan for IT projects from various industry types in South Africa. The literature study focused on identifying key factors and components within the project risk management academic field. This framework can also be useful to organisations in developing and expanding existing project risk management processes to facilitate the preparation and practical implementation in order to give assurance to stakeholders that all potentially momentous risks are identified and properly managed. Shareholders require transparency and high standards of corporate governance that must therefore function in an environment that cultivate open communication channels. Shareholder value will be delivered by means of information that is applied through effective knowledge management initiatives and constantly monitored by measurable strategic objectives. The second part of the study entails an empirical investigation that identified the [1] general project management issues within organisations; [2] perceptions on risk management practices; [3] key factors within project risk management; [4] and methodologies/frameworks that are applied in practice. The results indicated that it simply will not suffice with only managing some stages of a project cycle. Information audits form an integral part in maximising Information Systems (IS) that must be aligned with the overall organisational strategy. Strategy, performance and sustainability are inseparable assets of any organisation. IT governance perceived by organisations as important, can improve its competitive value with effective risk practises like risk methodology and data management. Knowledge management will lead management towards better competitive positions as well as increasing the overall organisational performance levels. Risks identified must be well documented, and the implementation of risk support systems will enable business management to anticipate future conditions and plan ahead. Management tools like Prince2 and PMBOK can guide the project management process. None of them, however, ensure project success and the project team must decide on the combination of each tool to implement according to individual organisational needs. The study further indicated that an organisation must cultivate an open communication channel for identifying and escalating risk and issues. Risk management can be seen as a scientific soul mate to project management with communication lying at the heart of effective risk management. Effective communication will establish critical links between shareholders' needs; information distribution; performance reporting; and management of issues towards shareholders. Governance, as the binding glue for organisations, has been one of the fastest growing elements of risk management. Performance measurement is paramount to IT governance and must be set and monitored by measurable objectives. COBIT as a comprehensive framework for IT management, promotes an excellent reference model to advance IT governance. King III, as non-legislated code towards JSE Securities Exchange, states that a company should have a risk assessment framework in place to enable management to pro-actively and continuously address risks. Basel II has reached the plateau but its effectiveness purely rests on the management of financial institutions to extend beyond the regulation alone. Various ISO standards can be used in conjunction with these management tools like the ISO 31000 risk management standard to guide management in the effective implementation of risk practices. The empirical research indicated that knowledge management will lead organisations towards better competitive positions as well as increasing the organisation's overall performance levels. It further indicated that IT governance can improve an organisation's competitive value with effective risk management practices. The study revealed that top management involvement is vital with each IT project intervention along with the required sponsor support. Project risk management is not only the project teams' responsibility, but the organisation as a whole. The strategy of an organisation must cultivate an open communication channel within projects; clearly assign roles and accountability; enforce a repository support system to monitor and evaluate risks; and to drive risk awareness throughout the organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

In my thesis I interviewed female chefs and asked them to share their pathway to becoming a professional chef and/or restaurateur. I found in my research that women's experiences within the domestic kitchen have been documented and recorded, as they are seen as the gatekeepers of that space within the home. However, though women have moved into working in commercial kitchens the stories that the media highlights and records are of women and cooking within the domestic kitchen. I want to begin to build a second volume of stories, of women’s lives, work and experience around cooking within the professional sphere. In my project I explored and investigated why female chefs believed commercial kitchens are still dominated by men, and how these women who I interviewed believe their gender has hindered or helped them achieving their executive position in their restaurant. I argue that the lack of personal accounts and publications highlighting women’s accomplishments within the professional sphere are causing commercial kitchens to remain to be structured within a patriarchal framework. By collecting these stories, and documenting the unique pathways these women took to holding executive jobs in the restaurant industry I hope that the stories will begin to dismantle the patriarchal framework that dominates the commercial kitchen by adding a feminine narrative to the discourse.