Researchers in the School of Governmenthttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/15862024-03-29T00:15:11Z2024-03-29T00:15:11ZTransformative sensemaking: Development in Whose Image? Keyan Tomaselli and the semiotics of visual representationWilliams, John J.http://hdl.handle.net/10566/25742017-03-07T12:57:42Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZTransformative sensemaking: Development in Whose Image? Keyan Tomaselli and the semiotics of visual representation
Williams, John J.
The defining and distinguishing feature of homo sapiens is its ability to make sense of the world, i.e. to use its intellect to understand and change both itself and the world of which it is an integral part. It is against this backdrop that this essay reviews Tomaselli's 1996 text, Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation/ by summarizing his key perspectives, clarifying his major operational concepts and citing particular portions from his work in support of specific perspectives on sense-making. Subsequently, this essay employs his techniques of sense-making to interrogate the notion of "development". This exercise examines and confirms two interrelated hypotheses: first, a semiotic analysis of the privileged notion of "development" demonstrates its metaphysical/ ideological, and thus limiting, nature especially vis-a-vis the marginalized, excluded, and the collective other, the so-called Developing Countries. Second, the interrogative nature of semiotics allows for an alternative reading and application of human potential or skills in the quest of a more humane social and global order, highlighting thereby the transformative implications of a reflexive epistemology.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZSouth Africa: Urban transformationWilliams, John J.http://hdl.handle.net/10566/25242017-02-15T00:01:14Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZSouth Africa: Urban transformation
Williams, John J.
This paper discusses transformation as a multi-dimensional concept to effect social change in
South African society in the post-apartheid era. The policy implications of such a variegated
understanding of social change are examined with special reference to planning principles such
as holism, capacity building, self-reliance, community integration, participatory democracy and
so forth. It is argued that transformation is a multi-dimensional process, and whilst on the
basis of provisional evidence there appears to be nascent forms of socio-spatial change, structurally,
such apparent change is shot through by a number of contradictions, tensions and
potential conflicts.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZThe politics of social change and the transition to democratic governance: Community participation in post-apartheid South AfricaWilliams, John J.http://hdl.handle.net/10566/20372016-08-30T19:52:08Z2008-01-01T00:00:00ZThe politics of social change and the transition to democratic governance: Community participation in post-apartheid South Africa
Williams, John J.
Community participation, i.e. the direct involvement/engagement of ordinary people in the affairs of planning, governance and overall development programs at the local or grassroots level, has become an integral part of democratic practice in recent years (cfJayal, 2001). In the case of post-apartheid South Africa, community participation has literally become synonymous with legitimate governance. In this regard, for example, the Municipal Structures Act, Chapter 4, subsections (g) and (h) state respectively that the 'executive mayor [should] annually report on the involvement of community organisations in the affairs of the municipality' and 'ensure that due regard is given to public views and report on the effect of consultation on the decisions of council' (RSA, 1998c). Yet it would seem that most community participation exercises in post-apartheid South Africa are largely spectator politics, where ordinary people have mostly become endorsees of pre-designed planning programs, often the objects of administrative manipulation and a miracle of reconciliation in the international arena of consensus politics, while state functionaries of both the pre- and post-apartheid eras ensconce themselves as bureaucratic experts summonsed to 'ensure a better life for all'. Consequently, the process, visions and missions of a more equitable society operate merely as promissory notes issued every five years during election campaigns. In this course of endless rhetoric and multiple platitudes, the very concept of community participation has been largely reduced to a cumbersome ritual—a necessary appendix required by the various laws and policies operating at the local government level.
2008-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Everyday at Grassroots level: poverty, protest and social change in post-apartheid South AfricaWilliams, John J.http://hdl.handle.net/10566/20362016-08-30T19:52:23Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Everyday at Grassroots level: poverty, protest and social change in post-apartheid South Africa
Williams, John J.
This paper posits that social change derives from how the everyday is encountered,
analyzed and experienced at the grassroots level. Drawing extensively
from the seminal work of Henri Lefebvre, the paper argues that for ordinary
people in post-apartheid South Africa, the everyday is often an instantiation of
multiple contradictions, tensions, conflicts and struggles as the promises of a
“better life for all”, the mantra of the Mbeki government, would appear to remain
largely rhetorical as evidenced by the increasing levels of homelessness and
unemployment since the creation of the democratic State in 1994. The failure to
substantively improve the everyday reality experienced by the poor, homeless
and unemployed, has given rise throughout the country, especially from 2004
to 2009, to massive protests by communities against local authorities (municipalities).
The paper concludes by considering the question whether or not this
type of community discontent could serve to transform the everyday into a more
equitable and democratic dispensation at the grassroots level.
This paper was originally presented to the International Workshop “Development and Social Movements in the
South”, organised by “The Africa, Asia and Latin America Scholarly Collaborative Program”, supported by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency and held in Rio de Janeiro, april 2008.
2009-01-01T00:00:00Z