Language visibility and language removal: A South African case study in linguistic landscape change

Abstract

Some changes of an evolving language regime are moderate in nature as they do not necessarily entail the removal of a language from the linguistic landscape. They can be deemed less moderate when a former prestigious language is removed, as is the case in post-Soviet countries where former bilingual signs are physically replaced by new, predominantly monolingual signs, no longer displaying Russian. South Africa's constitutional language requirements do imply the re-profiling of public signs in order to feature an African language; changes that seem compatible with a moderate approach to linguistic landscaping. Do the different policies that regulate the linguistic landscape – and the resulting changes themselves – actually reflect this moderate approach? This article analyses two aspects of linguistic landscape change: language visibility policy and linguistic landscape data collected in three towns in the Kopanong Municipality, Free State Province. A central finding is that it is left to provinces and municipalities to promote bi- or multilingual language visibility and that the Kopanong Municipality plays a conservative role in this. Significant changes in the linguistic landscape are being introduced by external role-players such as national government agencies. The removal of Afrikaans from the linguistic landscape may be linked to the latter.     

The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae

Abstract

This research is based on the assumption that social media sites – such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – have changed the way in which memes (culturally transmitted ideas) are transmitted or spread. It is argued that social media have provided the most fertile environment for the replication of memes to date. The social networking site Facebook is the main social media example used throughout the research. The way in which Facebook is represented in film, as well as the ways in which the offline lives of the characters are affected by their social media profiles, specifically as depicted in the film Catfish (Joost and Schulman 2010) are analysed. Lastly, it is argued that one can construct an entirely new persona, or merely experiment with different aspects of who you are, on social media sites. This online persona can be influenced by the memes one chooses to spread online. Naturally, all memes carry connotations, values and judgements. These memes collate with one's profile and, thus, the connotations attached to the memes one shares are then associated with one's online persona/profile. It is found that although a social networking user tries to portray him/herself in an idealised manner, these memetic connotations give a true impression of his/her offline persona. As a result, there is not much difference between the user's online and offline personae.     

Cordaid's experience with impact evaluation

In 2007, Cordaid started a pilot on participatory impact assessment, intended to enhance accountability and to improve learning. The methodology was based on quasi-experimental design, complemented with qualitative research. This case study illustrates the challenges INGOs and their partners face in their attempt to find a rigorous yet, relevant, useful, and socially acceptable methodology for evaluation and impact assessment purposes. While most local NGOs participating in this pilot consider (parts of) this methodology useful for their learning, this approach proves unsuitable, costly, and inappropriate for an INGO such as Cordaid since it does not respond to its own accountability and learning needs.

Cortaid et leur expérience avec l'évaluation d'impact

En 2007, Cordaid a lancé un programme pilote sur l’évaluation participative de l'impact, dont l'objectif était d'améliorer la redevabilité et l'apprentissage. La méthodologie se basait sur la conception quasi-expérimentale, assortie de recherches qualitatives. Cette étude de cas illustre les défis que les ONGI et leurs partenaires doivent relever au moment de trouver une méthodologie rigoureuse, mais aussi pertinente, utile et socialement acceptable aux fins des évaluations en général et de celles de l'impact en particulier. Si la plupart des ONG qui prennent part à ce programme pilote considèrent que (certaines parties de) cette méthodologie est (sont) utile(s) pour leur apprentissage, cette approche se révèle inadaptée, coûteuse et peu appropriée pour une ONGI comme Cordaid, car elle ne répond pas à ses propres besoins en matière de redevabilité et d'apprentissage.

Cortaid y su experiencia con la evaluación del impacto

En 2007, Cordaid inició una experiencia piloto sobre evaluaciones de impacto participativas, cuyo objetivo consistió en mejorar la rendición de cuentas y el aprendizaje. La metodología utilizada se fundamentó en un diseño semiexperimental, que fue complementado con investigaciones cualitativas. El presente estudio de caso ilustra los retos enfrentados por las ONGI y por sus aliados en su intento por encontrar una metodología rigurosa, pertinente, útil y socialmente aceptable para fines de evaluación y de valoración de impacto. Si bien la mayoría de las ONG locales participantes en esta experiencia piloto consideró que esta metodología, o partes de la misma, era útil para su aprendizaje, el método demostró ser inadecuado, costoso e inapropiado para una ONGI como Cordaid, debido a que no atendió sus propias necesidades en las áreas de rendición de cuentas y de aprendizaje.

Cortaid e sua experiência com avaliação de impacto

Em 2007, a Cordaid iniciou um projeto-piloto sobre avaliação participativa de impacto destinado a melhorar a prestação de contas e aperfeiçoar o aprendizado. A metodologia foi baseada em um modelo quase-experimental, complementado com pesquisa qualitativa. Este estudo de caso ilustra os desafios que as ONGIs e seus parceiros enfrentam em sua tentativa de encontrar uma metodologia rigorosa, porém relevante, útil e socialmente aceitável para fins de avaliação e análise de impacto. Embora a maioria das ONGs locais que participam deste projeto-piloto considere parte dessa metodologia útil para seu aprendizado, essa abordagem mostra-se insustentável, cara e inapropriada para uma ONGI como a Cordaid pois não atende às suas próprias necessidades de prestação de contas e aprendizado.     

Machinery of government and standards in public service: teaching new dogs old tricks

Abstract

For much of the last thirty years the main leitmotif animating Civil Service reform in the UK has been that efficiency and effectiveness in public services can be achieved by adapting management methods and practices derived from commercial enterprise. In the process of making the dreams and schemes of that plural singularity we have come to call ‘managerialism’ operational though, something valuable appears to have been lost, and that something is the Civil Service as a unified ‘constitutional bureaucracy’. In this article I explore some of the unfortunate governmental and administrative consequences of these managerially minded reforms. In particular, I seek to highlight the continuing relevance of what have been routinely characterized as outmoded and anachronistic machineries of government, and to stress the importance of the increasingly forgotten core business of public administration: the running of a state and of a constitution.     

Reviews

Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982–1994 by Paul Nugent. Pinter Publishing Limited (London and New York). 1995. xiv plus 306pp. including bibliography and index. £35 or $63 hardback.

Understanding Contemporary Africa (2nd edition) edited by April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder and London. 1996. xiv plus 432pp. including maps, illustrations, notes, bibliographies, appendices and index.

The Politics of Difference: Ethnic Premises in a World of Power edited by Edwin N. Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister. University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London. 1996. ix plus 210pp.

The Multilateral Development Banks. Volume 1. The African Development Bank by E. Philip English and Harris M. Mule. The North‐South Institute. Ottawa. 1996. xvi plus 213pp.

Brothers at War: Dissidence and Rebellion in Southern Africa by Abiodun Alao. British Academic Press, London and New York. 1994. xiii plus 201pp. including notes, bibliography, index. £39.50. Hardback.

Now that We are Free: Coloured Communities in Democratic South Africa edited by Wilmot James, Daria Caliguire and Kerry Cullinan. Lynne Rienner Publishing, Boulder (Colorado) and London. 1996. 142pp.

Imperialism or Solidarity? International Labour and South African Trade Unions by Roger Southall. University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town. 1995. 398pp.

The Aid Relationship in Zambia: A Conflict Scenario by Oliver Saasa and Jerker Carlsson. Institute for African Studies, Lusaka (Zambia) and Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala (Sweden). 1996. 170pp. including figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. Paperback.     

Reviews

Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Labourers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860–1910 by Patrick Harries. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg; Heinemann, Portsmouth NH; and James Currey, London. 1994. 328 pp. including photographs, maps and tables. R75.00 paperback.

African Workers and Colonial Racism: Mozambican Strategies and Struggles in Lourenc.0 Marques, 1877–1962 by Jeanne Marie Penvenne. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg; Heinemann, Portsmouth NH; and James Currey, London. 1995. 242 pp. including maps, halftones and tables. R86.00 paperback.

Historical Dictionary of Namibia by John J. Grotpeter. The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey and London. No 57 in the African Historical Dictionaries series. 1994. xxvi plus 725 pp. including a chronology, map, appendices and bibliography. $89.50 hardback.

Out in the Cold: Academic Boycotts and the Isolation of South Africa by L.J. Haricombe and F.W. Lancaster. Information Resources Press, Arlington, Virginia. 1995. xiv plus 158 pp. including tables, bibliography and index. $29.50 hardback.

The Foreign Policy of Zimbabwe by Ulf Engel. Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg. 1994. vii plus 479 pp. including diagrams, tables, notes, bibliography and indices.

The Politics of Two Sudans: The South and the North 1821 ‐1969 by Deng D. Akol Ruay. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. 1994. 183 pp. £14.95.

Namibia's Liberation Struggle: The Two‐Edged Sword edited by Colin Leys and John S. Saul. James Curry, London and Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio. 1995. x plus 212 pp. including maps, notes and index. £12.95 paperback.

Namibia and External Resources: The Case of Swedish Development Assistance by Bertil Oden, Henning Melber, Tor Sellstrom and Chris Tapscott. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. Research Report No. 96, Uppsala. 1994. 122 pp. including map, references and tables. £5.95 paperback.

Short‐Cut to Decay: The Case of the Sudan edited by Sharif Harir and Terje Tvedt. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1994. 275 pp. £19.95.

Divided Sisterhood: Race, Class and Gender in the South African Nursing Profession by Shula Marks. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg (South Africa), Macmillan Press Ltd (Great Britain), and St. Martin's Press, Inc., (USA). 1994. xiii plus 306 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. R82.00 paperback.

Transition to Democracy in Nigeria (1985–1993) by Tunji Olagunju, Adele Jinadu and Sam Oyovbaire. Spectrum Books Ltd., Ibadan and London. 1993. 278 pp.     

The Legitimacy of Using the Harm Principle in Cases of Religious Freedom Within Education

John Stuart Mill’s famous “harm principle” has been popular in the limitation of freedoms within human rights jurisprudence. It has been used formally in court cases and also informally in legal argumentation and conversation. Shortly, it is described as a very simple principle that amounts to the notion that persons are at liberty to do what they want as long as their actions do not harm any other person or society in general. This article questions whether it is legitimate to use the harm principle in cases concerning the limitation of religious freedom within education. For example, can the exemption of a learner from sex education (based on religious objections) be denied based on the argument that such an exemption will cause harm? In order to answer this question, the meaning, origin and use of the harm principle are investigated. This article also discusses four main criticisms against the use of this principle in general and in cases of religious freedom of learners in education.     

The government of poverty and the arts of survival: mobile and recombinant strategies at the margins of the South African economy

The paper is concerned with marginal populations affected by the ‘truncated agrarian transitions’ of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: people displaced out of land-based employment without reasonable prospects for accumulation in the non-farm economy. It analyses the forms of economic agency of people living in the migrant routes and networks connecting the shantytowns of Cape Town and the rural Eastern Cape in South Africa. It describes the artful and hybrid nature of their livelihood strategies – strategies that involve the integration from ‘below’ of urban and rural spaces, formal and informal income, and which simultaneously take shape outside the regulatory spaces conferred by the state, and make use of the rights and opportunities created by law and formality. Far from being reduced to the ‘outcast’ condition of ‘bare life’, marginalized and poor people in South Africa pursue inventive strategies on uneven terrain, cutting across the dichotomies of official discourse and teleological analysis. This allows a more nuanced analysis of the nature and specificity of the agrarian transition in South Africa.