The main body of this submission is a contextualised discussion of five, full-length, professionally performed theatre scripts. Each project examines and theatrically presents key influences of the major social and cultural forces that have both impacted on and shaped Liverpool. Each play is also placed with generic reference and development of a British, popular, policised, theatre tradition.

Grassroots social resistance to neoliberal reforms of urban water and sanitation has taken a dynamic trajectory in the past decade, especially in Latin America. The thesis' proposition is that these struggles have undergone qualitative changes. Their previously defensive strategies are developing into propositional strategies that increasingly focus on public and community alternatives to privatisation. This politicisation and movementisation of urban WATSAN is hardly discussed by academic literature, despite it being an emerging opportunity for propublic sector reform. Thus, the inquiry concerns the role of social movements in the exploration of alternatives to privatisation and looks at transnational networks and localnational struggles. This thesis employs critical ethnographic, participant research methodology. Empirical research took place from 2004 to 2008 and developed an emergent practice of politicised social movement research. As conceptual framework, the role of social movement in urban water and sanitation is considered as a process of radical reformism and social appropriation. On this basis, the global water justice movement's emergent discursive frame is analysed and found to centre on the democratisation of public water. By means of a comparative typology theory I then analyse local and national-level social struggles and develop the concept of pro-public challenge. Two case studies further elaborate on this type of political process of sector reform. These are the Uruguayan sector reform after a national referendum in 2004; and the case of Peru, where the embedded case of the city of Huancayo developed a public-public partnership as alternative to a planned water utility privatisation. The thesis develops a meso-level qualitative analysis of the political process of movementisation of sector reform in form of matrices, contingent pathways and contingent generalisations. The central finding is that social movements at transnational and local level develop new roles in pro-public sector reform. Despite substantive impacts, their power to implement alternative paths of development was found to be limited. They run the risk of not meeting all the resulting new challenges posed by politicised participation in sector reform, failing to develop adequate strategies, resources, organisational capacity and expert knowledge.

This practice-based research discusses critical responses to the structural pressures of 'independent' curating under neoliberalism. The study argues for politicising project-making in accordance with such values as equality, collective autonomy and interdependency. The argument contributes to current debates about the practical plausibility of politicising project-related modes of production in the expanded field of art. The thesis acknowledges that 'independent' curators are culturally and economically dependent on the same apparatus that they want to contest. My work approaches this basic contradiction as a practical and conceptual challenge that prompts a series of questions as to how to practice within the apparatus, whilst at the same time resisting the social pressures of the very same system. The methodology merges sociological analysis of the social conditions of 'independent' curating with the tacit knowledge of the forms of curatorial resistance elicited by the pressures discussed. Thus, I set aside the aesthetical contents of curatorial projects and focus on their social forms. Utilising Walter Benjamin s concepts from The Author as Producer (1934), I argue that to politicise project-making, an 'independent' curator is required to intervene in the social apparatuses of curatorial production. The thesis reveals a number of social pressures, which manifest themselves in 'independent' curatorial practice and analyses tactics that 'independent' curators develop in response to those pressures. I interpret the examples of curatorial practice, submitted to evidence my argument, both as symptoms of those social pressures and as sites of politicised, curatorial intervention. To analyse politicised curating, I introduce two central terms 'the apparatus of project-making' and 'radical opportunism'. These terms facilitate the analysis of the intrinsic contradictions and ethical complexities of politicised curating. I apply this conceptual framework to the different aspects of project-making, analysing temporal structures, modes of governance and competitive features of the apparatus, alongside politicised, curatorial responses to the pressures discussed. In order to discuss curatorial tactics that respond to the social pressures of project-making, I introduce new terms, such as 'free/slowness', 'neither a project nor an institution' and 'interdependent curating', discussed in the consecutive Chapters.

The South African education system has been undergoing a process of transformation and democratisation. An historical overview of democracy in the South Africa education system confirms that the system had developed to become a highly centralised and bureaucratic system during the twentieth century, but it was transformed in 1996 to afford a greater degree of parental participation through local school governing bodies. Democracy is founded on a belief in individual rights, equality, and self-government by the majority of the people. The moral authority of the majority is based on the notion that there is more enlightenment and wisdom between many than in a single man. However, the power of the majority is always limited by the prerequisite of the rule of law and the implicit requirements of legality and justice. This implies that bureaucratic or undemocratic exercise of power by the majority or any person, including the state, would be contrary to the requirements of legality and democracy. An overview of the theories of democracy explains the complexities of the different orientations and ideological approaches to democracy. Critiques of democracy have identified an elitist, inegalitarian, and antiparticipatory core in liberal democracy. The sensible approach to these weaknesses of liberal democracy is to integrate the best features of the various theories of democracy towards a workable solution to manage the systemic conflicts. This includes the formal application of checks and balances and the substantive adjustment of the executive, legislative and judicial practice to maintain a harmonious equilibrium between equality and liberty. The theory of deliberative democracy suggests an additional way to improve substantive democracy. There is an inextricable link between democracy, education and the law. The South African Constitution provides for representative (political) and participatory democracy, as well as for the enshrinement of fundamental rights such as the right to basic education. In addition, the education legislation and policies contain numerous provisions that prescribe and necessitate democratisation of the education system. However, the empirical results of the study show that a number of controversial bureaucratic practices and a tendency towards increased centralisation of the system, constrain democratic school governance. The most prominent undemocratic practices in the system inter alia include: the over-politicisation of schools by the dominant teachers’ union; the bureaucratic appointment of educators; the interference by teachers’ unions with the appointment of educators, the bureaucratic imposition of English medium language policies on Afrikaans schools; and • the ambivalent attitude towards inclusive education. An investigation into the knowledge levels of senior education administrators, school principals and school governing chairpersons, which participated in this study, revealed that their knowledge of participatory democracy and Education Law was superficial. This ignorance of these stakeholders in education compounds the problem of effectively administering, managing and governing schools in a democratic manner. Conclusions drawn from the evidence of this study suggests that certain of the encumbrances to democracy in schools and the system can be attributed to systemic weaknesses, as well as to misconceptions and the misapplication of democratic principles. Finally, the study proposes two models to improve democratic school governance. The first model suggests a theoretical framework for improving the power relations, knowledge, civic attitudes and democratic values. The final model, which is based on the first theoretical model, proposes that Area School Boards be statutorily established to govern defunctive schools and that deliberative forums should be established and implemented within the organisational hierarchy of the education system. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009

The South African education system has been undergoing a process of transformation and democratisation. An historical overview of democracy in the South Africa education system confirms that the system had developed to become a highly centralised and bureaucratic system during the twentieth century, but it was transformed in 1996 to afford a greater degree of parental participation through local school governing bodies. Democracy is founded on a belief in individual rights, equality, and self-government by the majority of the people. The moral authority of the majority is based on the notion that there is more enlightenment and wisdom between many than in a single man. However, the power of the majority is always limited by the prerequisite of the rule of law and the implicit requirements of legality and justice. This implies that bureaucratic or undemocratic exercise of power by the majority or any person, including the state, would be contrary to the requirements of legality and democracy. An overview of the theories of democracy explains the complexities of the different orientations and ideological approaches to democracy. Critiques of democracy have identified an elitist, inegalitarian, and antiparticipatory core in liberal democracy. The sensible approach to these weaknesses of liberal democracy is to integrate the best features of the various theories of democracy towards a workable solution to manage the systemic conflicts. This includes the formal application of checks and balances and the substantive adjustment of the executive, legislative and judicial practice to maintain a harmonious equilibrium between equality and liberty. The theory of deliberative democracy suggests an additional way to improve substantive democracy. There is an inextricable link between democracy, education and the law. The South African Constitution provides for representative (political) and participatory democracy, as well as for the enshrinement of fundamental rights such as the right to basic education. In addition, the education legislation and policies contain numerous provisions that prescribe and necessitate democratisation of the education system. However, the empirical results of the study show that a number of controversial bureaucratic practices and a tendency towards increased centralisation of the system, constrain democratic school governance. The most prominent undemocratic practices in the system inter alia include: the over-politicisation of schools by the dominant teachers’ union; the bureaucratic appointment of educators; the interference by teachers’ unions with the appointment of educators, the bureaucratic imposition of English medium language policies on Afrikaans schools; and • the ambivalent attitude towards inclusive education. An investigation into the knowledge levels of senior education administrators, school principals and school governing chairpersons, which participated in this study, revealed that their knowledge of participatory democracy and Education Law was superficial. This ignorance of these stakeholders in education compounds the problem of effectively administering, managing and governing schools in a democratic manner. Conclusions drawn from the evidence of this study suggests that certain of the encumbrances to democracy in schools and the system can be attributed to systemic weaknesses, as well as to misconceptions and the misapplication of democratic principles. Finally, the study proposes two models to improve democratic school governance. The first model suggests a theoretical framework for improving the power relations, knowledge, civic attitudes and democratic values. The final model, which is based on the first theoretical model, proposes that Area School Boards be statutorily established to govern defunctive schools and that deliberative forums should be established and implemented within the organisational hierarchy of the education system. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009