Kooperation sowie Kommunikation und deren Organisation sind nicht Selbstzweck, sondern sollen die Leistung verbessern und Innovationen erzeugen. Ob sie das leisten, hängt weniger von den Technologien, d.h. den Mitteln ab, mittels derer sie abgewickelt werden sollen, sondern von den Inhalten und Arten der Kooperation selbst. Kooperation bei dafür ungeeigneten Aufgaben oder in ungeeigneter Weise wird auch durch innovative Vermittlungstechnologien nicht geeigneter.

The concepts of intersectionality and interlocking identities came out of needs raised by communities and then academics wrote about it. This dissertation examines these concepts and how these resonate with the ways that feminist educators conceptualize and facilitate non-credit learning processes with women. This research focuses on 10 differently-located feminist educators and the processes they lead that meet a range of learning goals. Specifically, this research examines the learning practices that these educators used to help women learners gain a consciousness around their identity and issues of power and oppression. I then discuss how these practices resonate with the theoretical frameworks of intersecting and interlocking oppressions. Anti-oppression, feminist informed research and feminist standpoint theories informed the research approach. The Critical Appreciative Process, which builds on the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, was used to explore what is working within feminist non-credit learning processes. In addition, two case studies were elaborated on in order to examine the learning practices that were particularly successful. The educators reflected on several barriers involved in bringing differently-located women together to explore and address the power dynamics associated with power and oppression. These included the defensiveness, denial and avoidance associated with acknowledging and addressing privilege. The educators also shared effective practices for addressing such barriers. Key practices included creating an environment for difficult conversations, working intergenerationally, using theoretical frameworks to deconstructing interpersonal dynamics occurring in the group and providing tools to draw on everyday experiences and challenge (inappropriate) behaviours. Additionally, specific activities for raising learners’ awareness of their own complex and multiple identities and how these identities are co-constructed through interactions with others were detailed. This study revealed the limitations of intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks in praxis, as well as the ways in which an awareness of identity, difference and power creates an entry point for intersectional and interlocking awareness that aids feminist movements. This research makes a contribution to strengthening the praxis of feminist educators facilitating non-credit processes. Within feminist theorizing, this research also makes an important contribution in contextualizing intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks within a range of feminist non-credit learning practices.

This research, has relevance in the wake of dwindling aid channelled to the third world rural poor. This study has explored ways of breaking away from benevolence and economism. The research explores four objectives that are focussed on scanning the boundary, in terms of challenges and possible solutions. This provides some in-depth understanding of challenges that face the process of establishing self-sustaining institutions of development. In the last two objectives, the research explores some programming alternatives that would enhance the establishment of democratic and participatory organisations that maximise social capital and grassroots democratisation. A list of guidelines specific to institutions has been drawn. The results of the survey reveal that sustainability cannot be predicted due to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with project success. The hypothesis that participation and grassroots democratisation facilitates project success has been validated and there was greater project success in participatory organisations, given the baseline context. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

There is without doubt as much criticism of Liberation Theology as there is understanding regarding the need for a theology which seeks answers to the effectiveness of the Christian witness, against a background of mounting poverty, the oppression of woman and continued discrimination by one race against another, worldwide. Many scholars struggle with the revolutionary and often hostile nature and methodology of Liberation Theology. This paper attempts to enter into a conversation between the theology of John Wesley and Liberation Theology. The theology of John Wesley had a tremendous impact on social, political and economic areas of the Eighteenth century England. It was in many ways a revolutionary theology. This paper takes as a standpoint, the need for praxis with regard to Christian witness and therefore seeks to argue that there may be common ground between Wesleyan Theology and Liberation Theology. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Systematic Teology)

The present work examines the crossroads of social transformation from the contextual standpoint of the "Second World" - a political and socioeconomic term descriptively pointing to the unique location of the Former Eastern-European Block countries - in between worlds. The work involves in a dialogue some of the major trends within the contemporary Eastern-European philosophical environment: dichotomized between Neo-Marxism and Neo-Freudianism on the one hand, and Postmodernism on the other. While examining the most significant elements between the dialectical paradigms for social change of the above theories (and their ethical foundations), the text strives towards a theological paradigmatic formulation for an authentic social transformation that draws its dialectical content and passion from the hopeful eschatological vision of Christ and the Kingdom as an embodiment of the Christian alternative for human emancipation and liberation. In light of this, the work attempts to establish the following thesis: the radical Christian praxis of the eschatological reality of the Kingdom in light of the Cross is the Church’s alternative to contemporary philosophies and initiatives for social transformation. This praxis affirms the revolutionary, history-shaping force which makes Christianity relevant to the problems of Modernity and Postmodernity through its self-identification with the Crucified God. It marks the moment of conception of an authentic, liberating, life giving, transforming hope as a source of humanization and redemption of social order. Christianity is concerned with the birth and formation of a new socio-political reality - the Kingdom of God, and its embodiment on earth (through the Holy Spirit) in a new ethnos: the Church, the Body of Christ, the communion of the saints. Therefore, it is the Church's calling and obligation to exemplify the reality of the Kingdom, being a living extension of the living Christ and thus, the incarnation of the eschatological future of the world and its hopeful horizon in the midst of the present. Recognizing the vital need for a relevant Christian response to the spiritual demands of the Post-modern human being and his/her desacralized, pluralistic socio­ political context, the work concludes with a conceptual outline offering a strategy for the Church in the Postmodern setting. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Theological Ethics)

Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit unternimmt den Versuch, einen konzeptionellen Entwurf einer empirischen Missionswissenschaft als Grundlagenforschung zu entwickeln, der im Praxisfeld durchgeführt wird. Dabei soll die intradisziplinäre Vorgehensweise einen methodologischen Zugang sozialwissenschaftlicher Methoden zur Missionswissenschaft möglich machen. Als Grundlage wird ein Einblick in die sozialwissenschaftliche und missionswissenschaftliche Forschung gegeben und daraus ein eigener, empirisch-theologischer Praxiszyklus entwickelt, der die Methodologie der Untersuchung darstellt. Die inhaltliche Forschungsarbeit fragt nach Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen aus missionswissenschaftlicher Sicht. Dabei wird die Möglichkeit missionarischer Begegnung und Ansprechbarkeit von Jugendlichen im Kontext der kulturellen Veränderungen des postmodernen Paradigmemwechsels beleuchtet. Die Frage, wie Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen gesellschaftlich geprägt und wie sich dies auf ihre Religiosität in ihrem Alltag auswirkt, spielt in diesem Zusammenhang eine wichtige Rolle. Deshalb wird nicht nur der aktuelle Forschungsstand zur Thematik untersucht, sondern 18 Jugendliche werden in Form von halbstandardisierten Interviews qualitativ befragt und ihre Aussagen empirisch-missiologisch ausgewertet. Die Thesis hat somit zweierlei Zielsetzungen: Zum einen geht es um eine empirisch-theologische Studie zur Erforschung von Gottesvorstellung bei Jugendlichen im Hinblick auf ihre missionarische Ansprechbarkeit. Zum anderen zielt sie darauf ab, durch Umsetzung des empirisch-theologischen Praxiszyklus einen Typus zu entwickeln, der auch künftig in der Missionswissenschaft für empirisch-theologische Erhebungen eingesetzt werden kann. Summary The intention of this research project is to evolve a concept for empirical missiology as a method of fundamental research and to apply it in practice. Through the usage of an intradisciplinary approach, access to missiology via the methodology of the social sciences is rendered possible. To establish a basis, an insight into social as well as missiological research will be given, and an inherent, empirical-theological praxis cycle will be developed. This praxis cycle is the methodology of this research paper. Concerning content, this research paper scrutinises the image of God held by juveniles from a missiological point of view. It considers the missionary receptiveness of juveniles in the context of cultural change in the postmodernist shift of paradigm. In how far are juvenile concepts of God marked by the correspondent social environment and does that have an impact on their everyday religious behaviour? Consequently not only the current state of research will be evaluated but, furthermore, the half-standardised qualitative interviews of 18 juveniles will be enclosed and their answers analysed on an empirical- missiological basis. Hence, this thesis has a twofold aim; one considers empirical-theological research as a way of evaluating concepts of God among juveniles with regard to their missionary receptiveness. The other implements the empirical-theological praxis cycle aiming to develop a type which enables further empirical-theological investigation in missilogy. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th.

This thesis analyses the conversion processes of 17 urban Muslims in Kenya who decided to follow Jesus Christ. It first describes conversion from a multidisciplinary perspective by introducing sociological, psychological, anthropological, theological and missiological understandings of such a change in religious affiliation. Next in-depth interviews are analysed using principles of grounded theory, where new theory is developed by interaction between data from reality, the analysis and existing theories (abductive reasoning). The main findings are that the conversion of Muslims who accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is a process that develops over a period of time through phases with a cognitive and an affective dimension. Changes with regard to convictions and attitudes take place simultaneously on several properties or ‘layers’ of both dimensions. The process is influenced by significant factors in the form of causal and intervening conditions, resulting in consequences for the convert in the form of a transformation as well as in changed relationships with the community. Gender, socio-economic level, education as well as the community from which the converts come influence the process. In order to describe the complex dynamics that are at work in such conversion processes of Muslims, a Matrix of Conversion Processes is developed in which the multiple movements of a convert on the two dimensions are put in relation to six chronological phases. A matrix of different types of conversion processes and the description of four typical processes emerge from the analysis. In order to facilitate conversion processes, cognitive and affective elements need to be addressed together. The interaction between different factors, the will-power of the person and the influence of God determine the development, an understanding that is relevant for conversion studies, as well as for missiology and the missionary task of the church in Kenya and beyond. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This study is an endeavour to construct a theological (Missiological) reflection on what Christian witnessing could look like in Kano among non-Christians (predominantly Hausa/Fulani Muslims), if interpreted and expressed from the viewpoint of the hope Christians have in Christ. This heads towards a proposal for new Christian praxis, developed in dialogue with and as a response to the role of the life-transforming message of justification in Christ, as it relates to Christian living. This is based on historical fact that attracts non-Christians to the hope in God’s future activity through His saving grace in the unique Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1: 22), that is, seeking to be like Christ (1Jn 3: 2-3). This leads to the guiding issue on how Christians should explore hope as a fundamental key to become living witnesses to non-Christians, Muslim in particular, in Kano city, Northern Nigeria and elsewhere in the world based on the biblical interpretation of 1 Peter 3: 15-17. It equally means in a hostile environment walking by faith rather than by sight, through suffering rather than by triumph, to bringing about the future Kingdom of God, characterized by peace, justice and love into the community now, and ultimately in the one to come. This in turn makes this study relevant both internally – for the renewal of the church to discover and live out its Christian identity – and externally, in the church’s witness to its Muslim neighbours in the midst of religious intolerance that leads to bloodshed and the destruction of property. Therefore, the two dimensions, the internal and external, of the church’s life, since a congregation’s sense of identity is at the same time its sense of mission in society. A renewal in the church’s sense of identity brings about a renewal in its sense of mission, and vice versa. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Although it is relatively easy to study and learn about a practice discipline in the safe environment of an academic institution, it is far more complex to make sense of what has been learned when faced with the real world of practice. Practitioners need to think on their feet and have to find new ways of managing complex problems which do not fit directly into the theoretical frameworks learned in a more formal setting. Knowledge of what the various disciplines say is not in itself sufficient, experiential knowledge is necessary. The key to learning in the experiential domain is critical reflective practice and emancipatory learning, which empower practitioners to explicate their implicit theories. If autonomy is the goal of professional education, the key is to help adult learners to distance themselves from their own values and beliefs in order to entertain more abstract modes of perception. The purpose of this inquiry was therefore, to construct a model for facilitation of critical reflective practice, based on thorough analysis of the main concepts (critical thinking and reflection), related viewpoints, models and theories; and the data gathered and analyzed during, the naturalistic inquiry. The inquirer sought to. develop each participant through Socratic & Learning Through Discussion (Dialogical) Technique, Critical Incident Reporting and participation in Critical Reflective Exercises. The constructed model for facilitation of critical reflective practice evolved from empirical observations, intuitive insights of the inquirer and from deductions combining ideas from several fields of inquiry. The model for facilitation of critical reflective practice postulates that practitioners have the inherent potential to change from auto-pilot practice to critical reflective practice. The purpose of the model is the facilitation of heightened awareness of the self, to enable health care professionals to consciously meet community needs and expectations. The desired outcome is transformative intellectuals who will strive to empower others to become critical reflective learners and practitioners. / Health Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Nursing Science)

This thesis is a critical missiological analysis of Pentecostal mission, specifically of the Congo Evangelistic Mission (CEM) in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It investigates how CEM members have been interpreting and expressing the Christian message in and for the context of Katanga Province through their communal life, worship and mission since its inception in 1914. It also asks the methodological question of how such a Pentecostal mission could best be studied and evaluated missiologically. To carry out this investigation the researcher developed a “Pentecostal Praxis Missiological Approach” which he used extensively throughout his study. Chapter two demonstrates that, while British missionaries brought the CEM to Katanga province, it was the early Congolese pioneers who actually spread the movement to different parts of Katanga and beyond its borders. Chapter three shows how CEM members have analysed the Congolese context, identifying it as a lost, unholy and socially broken society with high levels of poverty, unemployment and poor access to basic needs; it is also beset with problems of war and conflict, corruption and injustices as well as abuse of women. Chapter four focuses on the spirituality of power that inspires and motivates the CEM in the various dimensions of its mission. Chapter five uses mainly liturgical sources like prayers, songs and sermons to construct the Pentecostal theology of mission that guides and directs the CEM in its mission. Chapter six explores the agents and strategies of mission that the CEM uses to address the missional challenges they identify in their context. The final chapter raises six key missiological issues that emerged from the study and that require the attention of missiological scholars in order to foster the future of Pentecostal mission in Congo and the Southern African region as a whole. These issues are: preventing ongoing schisms, evangelising members of other religious traditions, the scope of healing, the impact of rapture theology, the place of women in ordained Pentecostal ministry, and the extent of contextualisation in the CEM. Keys terms Katanga Province, / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)