The main theme in this thesis is potentials for increased user participation in the development of ecological sanitation technologies. The argument is that ecological sanitary engineering can be regarded as a heterogeneous practice that needs to incorporate environmental considerations as well as users’ knowledges and aspirations. To be a heterogeneous engineer therefore means to acquire skills for advanced dialogue with the users and other stakeholders, rather than providing finished technical solutions. In a case study in rural South Africa, I found that much of the responsibility for taking initiatives for the transformation of the water supply and sanitation systems lies with the community. By contrast, a case study of ecological sanitation in urban Sweden revealed that there was generally very little room for user involvement; instead, sanitation specialists presented a picture of the users as recipients of technical systems and information. These two different cases form the basis for a discussion about the relationship between users and specialists and pose the question of how we can encourage participatory technology development practices that users, specialists and ecosystems can endure. On the basis of feminist theory, technoscience and participatory methodologies, I have identified some criteria for feminist sanitary engineering. These include recognition of diversity, feminism beyond gender/deep feminism, reflectivity and heterogeneous engineering, and action research and user participation. The transformation of sanitary engineering towards the inclusion of these criteria is a long-term process, which needs to begin with reflection among sanitation specialists. / Temat i avhandlingen är möjligheten till ökad brukardeltagande i utvecklingen av ekologiska avloppsalternativ. Två studier ligger till grund; en i Sydafrika, där det lokala samhället har stort ansvar för vatten och avlopp, och en i Sverige, där ingenjörer inom kommunen har ansvar för systemen. Några kriterier för en utveckling av feministisk VA-teknik har identifierats, nämligen erkännande av mångfald, feminism bortom könstänkande, reflektivitet och heterogen ingenjörskonst, aktionsforskning och brukardeltagande.

Thesis (M. Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2016 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the social factors that affect the acceptability of the Enviro Loo sanitation technology in schools. The study adopted the anti-positivism theory. Phenomenology school of thought was used as one of the three schools of thoughts as marked under Anti-positivism. The qualitative research method had its foothold in the fact that social factors, as a human activity, occurs in a particular natural and social environment. Utilising the qualitative research design, the researcher focused on describing and understanding the social factors that influence the acceptability of the Enviro Loo sanitation technology at schools. The study utilised an interview guide to collect data. The advantage of this is that it allowed the researcher to probe and ask for clarification of some answers as given by the respondents The population of this study comprised 35 secondary schools in Limpopo Province that benefited from the implementation of the Enviro Loo sanitation technology system during the 2010/11 financial years. Non-probability sampling was used. The method used to select the schools was convenience sampling as a non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because of their convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher. This is because the researcher was bound by time, money and workforce and because of these limitations, it was almost impossible to randomly sample the entire population. Three sets of focus groups were used as sample, namely; the Provincial Sanitation Task Team (PSTT), School Governing Body (SGB) and Leaner’s Representative Council (LRC). All groups were gender balanced and members participated voluntarily. Nvivo was utilised to analyse data. The audio recordings from the digital voice recorder were transcribed, translated into English, typed into word and thematic analysis was used.

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