Second-parenthood realities, third-age ideals: (grand)parenthood in the context of poverty and HIV/AIDS

2018 ◽  
pp. 89-110
Author(s):  
Jaco Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Third Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Guardianship ◽  
Moral Engagement ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Hiv Aids

Within contexts of poverty and HIV/AIDS in (South) Africa, this chapter positions itself at the interface of the historical-moral engagement of grandparents caring for grandchildren and contemporary social realities and aspirations. The phenomenon of the oldest generation caring for younger generations builds on a long-established continuum of social structures and norms related to intergenerational support. However, in the context of HIV/AIDS they are increasingly being forced to take sole responsibility for their grandchildren, including legal guardianship. In this chapter I argue that the point of departure for these grandmothers is an obligatory contribution perspective which often overrides their own needs and aspirations with implications for their own care futures. During the past decade, however, an increasingly more rights-based / corrective discourse developed through which expectations and demands of younger generations are questioned and the obligatory contribution discourse is contested or at least relativized through negotiation..

scholarly journals Levels of Narrativity in Scandinavian Bronze Age Petroglyphs

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ranta ◽  
Peter Skoglund ◽  
Anna Cabak Rédei ◽  
Tomas Persson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Representations ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Point Of Departure

In Europe, Scandinavia holds the largest concentration of rock art (i.e. petroglyphs), created c. 5000–first century bc, many of them showing figurative and seemingly narrative representations. In this paper, we will discuss possible narratological approaches applied to these images. We might reasonably distinguish between three levels of pictorial narrativity: representations of (i) single events, understood as the transition from one state of affairs to another, usually involving (groups of) agents interacting; (ii) stories, e.g. particular sequences of related events that are situated in the past and retold for e.g. ideological or religious purposes; and (iii) by implication, master-narratives deeply embedded in a culture, which provide and consolidate cosmological explanations and social structures. Some concrete examples of petroglyphs will be presented and analysed from narratological and iconographical perspectives. We will as a point of departure focus on (i), i.e. single events, though we shall also further consider the possibility of narrative interpretations according to (ii) and (iii).

Seven ‘deadly’ assumptions: unravelling the implications of HIV/AIDS among grandmothers in South Africa and beyond

2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 935-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAY CHAZAN
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Hiv Aids

ABSTRACTOver the past few years, the pivotal roles older women play in responding to the unprecedented HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern Africa has received increasing recognition by academics, governments, funding agencies, non-governmental organisations, and citizens around the world. Yet, discourses surrounding AIDS and ‘grandmotherhood’ are laden with a number of ungrounded assumptions that have important implications for researchers, advocates and decision-makers. Drawing on ethnographic and survey data predominantly from South Africa, this paper challenges seven such assumptions. The paper illustrates how certain prevailing ‘wisdoms’ about grandmothers and AIDS in southern Africa are not entirely accurate and may mask many women's struggles and vulnerabilities, perpetuate stereotypes and misguide well-meaning policies. It also suggests that the societal impacts of AIDS in the region are, at present, not as dramatic as often portrayed, largely because the strength and resilience of many older women have cushioned some of the negative consequences. The paper thus calls for more nuanced and forward-looking analyses and interventions – ones that recognise grandmothers as central to the society's thin safety net and that grapple with older women's complex and diverse vulnerabilities.

scholarly journals The Omnipresent Past: Dystopian Trends in Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p27
Author(s):  
Emmerencia Beh Sih ◽  
De Noumedem Peter Caleb
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Evolution ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Way ◽  
Economic Inequalities

This paper seeks to analyze the dystopian character of Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present and demonstrate the claustrophobic nature of post-apartheid South Africa. The problem in this paper is to investigate the way in which Gordimer’s novel interprets the perceived socio-political evolution of her country. Our point of departure is that post-apartheid South Africa is not healed of its turbulent past and this past haunts and torments it till date. This article foregrounds the argument that the dystopian nature of Gordimer’s last novel is evident in the fact it captures the crash of dreams for an egalitarian, non-racial society; it portrays the repression and failure of individual efforts to improve society; and it describes poverty, violence and anarchy as society’s unchanging norms. Using postcolonial literary theory, this paper shows how No Time Like the Present narrates the entanglement of South Africans at a time when political morass and socio-economic inequalities abort anti-apartheid expectations. This paper arrives at the conclusion that No Time Like the Present is a dystopian novel in which grim, absurd realities are portrayed to show how remote and unfamiliar the present is when compared with expectations nurtured in the past.

scholarly journals Op pad met gereformeerdheid

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-222
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
White Woman ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Women Ministers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Auto Ethnography ◽  
Point Of Departure

An Afrikaans woman minister of the Word: en route with being reformedAuto-ethnography, as developed by Caroline Ellis, allows this author to tell her story as an ordained minister of the Word in the Reformed tradition in South Africa, working within a variety of cultures and ecumenical relationships. After “auto-ethnography” is explained as a methodological point of departure, the author, firstly, describes views on womanhood in the Reformed Afrikaans culture in which she was born as well as her reaction to it. Secondly, the culture of the academic reaction against apartheid is briefly described in which she was engaged as a white, Afrikaans speaking woman lecturer in Theology, of which there were very few during the 1980s and 1990s. Finally, the challenges of being the only white woman minister of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa are identified and discussed within the past, present and future of Afrikaans speaking Reformed women ministers in South Africa.

Buffering Secondary Trauma During HIV/AIDS Outreach in South Africa

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryanne N. Williams ◽  
Anita McGruder-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Secondary Trauma ◽  
Hiv Aids

RESEARCH COLLABORATION AMONG LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA (1991–2012): AN INFORMETRICS STUDY

Mousaion ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan R. Maluleka ◽  
Omwoyo B. Onyancha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Microsoft Excel ◽  
The Past ◽  
Software Packages ◽  
Collaborative Activities

This study sought to assess the extent of research collaboration in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in South Africa between 1991 and 2012. Informetric research techniques were used to obtain relevant data for the study. The data was extracted from two EBSCO-hosted databases, namely, Library and Information Science Source (LISS) and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA). The search was limited to scholarly peer reviewed articles published between 1991 and 2012. The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel ©2010 and UCINET for Windows ©2002 software packages. The findings revealed that research collaboration in LIS schools in South Africa has increased over the past two decades and mainly occurred between colleagues from the same department and institution; there were also collaborative activities at other levels, such as inter-institutional and inter-country, although to a limited extent; differences were noticeable when ranking authors according to different computations of their collaborative contributions; and educator-practitioner collaboration was rare. Several conclusions and recommendations based on the findings are offered in the article.

Free but fragile: Human relations amidst poverty and HIV in democratic South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black People ◽  
Hiv Treatment ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
White People ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Black Township

Dullstroom-Emnotweni is the highest town in South Africa. Cold and misty, it is situated in the eastern Highveld, halfway between the capital Pretoria/Tswane and the Mozambique border. Alongside the main road of the white town, 27 restaurants provide entertainment to tourists on their way to Mozambique or the Kruger National Park. The inhabitants of the black township, Sakhelwe, are remnants of the Southern Ndebele who have lost their land a century ago in wars against the whites. They are mainly dependent on employment as cleaners and waitresses in the still predominantly white town. Three white people from the white town and three black people from the township have been interviewed on their views whether democracy has brought changes to this society during the past 20 years. Answers cover a wide range of views. Gratitude is expressed that women are now safer and HIV treatment available. However, unemployment and poverty persist in a community that nevertheless shows resilience and feeds on hope. While the first part of this article relates the interviews, the final part identifies from them the discourses that keep the black and white communities from forming a group identity that is based on equality and human dignity as the values of democracy.

Same Address, Different Doors: Post-Heritage Deconstruction of the Heritage Household in Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970s and 2010s

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Critical History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fourth Series ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Episodes

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.

Same Address, Different Doors: Post-Heritage Deconstruction of the Heritage Household in Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970s and 2010s

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Critical History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fourth Series ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Episodes

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.

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