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A descriptive study of conflict management strategies of the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church refugee community

The growth of forced migration populations - i.e. the movement of people within and across national boarders as a result of conflicts, disasters, and development policies and projects - has been a defining feature of the twentieth century and will no doubt remain with us well into the twenty-first century (Rutinwa, 2001: 13). Literature searches suggest that the ‘refugee’ constitutes the most powerful label within the forced migration discourse. Published calculations regarding the number of refugees in the world at the end of 2008, range between 15.2 million (UNHCR, 2009: 2) and 13.6 million (World Refugee Survey, 2009: 33). The refugee experience of a small representative population of these figures namely, the Zimbabwean refugees living within the Central Methodist Church (CMC) or Central Methodist Mission (CMM) refugee community, in Johannesburg city centre is the concern of this treatise. From the perspective of the conflict management scholar, the informal and formal conflict management strategies adopted among and between the CMM refugees, have been studied. Analysis of existing literature, interviews conducted with the refugees, as well as hours of experience within the refugee community, substantiate the descriptive study that follows. Guided by the grounded theory approach, research findings have emerged out of the descriptions. The research findings in turn have founded the development of the recommendations that appear in the conclusion to the treatise.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8199
Date January 2009
CreatorsBurger, Christine-Maria
PublisherNelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, MPhil
Formatix, 146 pages, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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