scholarly journals The progressive Pentecostal conception of development within an African context of poverty

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Kakwata
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Western Development ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
African Context ◽  
Evil Spirits ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Masses

This article, as literary study, is placed within the framework of a qualitative content analysis and deductive approach. It seeks to explore the progressive Pentecostal conception of development in a sub-Saharan African context of poverty. This investigation is based on ethnographic studies conducted in different parts of Africa. The study also aims to analyse the notion of evil spirits’ work in relation to poverty and underdevelopment. These notions are raised by the new conception of development. It is argued that Western development theories implemented in Africa failed miserably to clarify the problem of poverty and underdevelopment. In the midst of crises and despair, a new trend of Pentecostalism emerged that promotes a completely new conception of development, which has a spiritual focus. The latter resonates strongly with the African worldview, reflects the biblical truth, and demonstrates that the ultimate cause of poverty is fundamentally spiritual, which implies the solution should be similar. Therefore, recent studies reveal that the movement has had more success in addressing poverty than the strategies of NGOs. However, this success is limited to an individual level. This means the structural problem responsible for the impoverishment of the masses in Africa is not dealt with directly. In this regard, an all-inclusive focus is needed that could pave the way to sustainable social and economic change in Africa.

Team based communication and the healthcare communication space

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 825-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Alexandra Cornett ◽  
Craig Kuziemsky
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Group Communication ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Communication Space ◽  
Support Team ◽  
Healthcare Communication

Purpose While previous studies have described structural, process and social aspects of the healthcare communication space there is no overall model of it. Such a model is an essential first step to improving the operationalization and management of healthcare communication. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper used a case study approach to study team-based communication on a palliative care unit. Non-participant observation, interviews and documents were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings The analysis developed an overall model of the healthcare communication space that consists of five stages: purpose, practices and workflows, structures, implementation, and the development of common ground to support team-based communication. The authors’ findings emphasized that implicit communication remains a predominant means of communication and workflow issues at the individual level are a frequent cause of unnecessary group communication tasks. Originality/value To improve team-based communication we first need to develop protocols that support team communication needs such as loop closing of group communication tasks in order to minimize unnecessary individual communication tasks. We also need to develop common ground at the protocol, document and terminology levels as part of supporting team-based communication.

A phenomenological study of time concept and management and productivity in a sub–Saharan African context

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B Abugre
Keyword(s):  
Time Management ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Phenomenological Psychology ◽  
Private Organizations ◽  
African Context ◽  
Flexible Resource ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Study Participants

The purpose of this article was to investigate the concept of time and its management in relation to productivity. Consequently, this work employed phenomenological psychology to unearth the experiences of employees on the concept of time management and its impact on productivity using Ghana as a study. Participants involved both local and expatriate workers sharing their experiences on the subject matter in a conversational style. Results indicated that clock time is considered a flexible resource in both social and professional settings. Findings also revealed that time management drives productivity, and its orientation is consequential to the cultural behaviors of local employees in both public and private organizations based on the quality of their corporate cultures. Hence, rigid timelines can turn around public organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and the world as a whole.

scholarly journals Redefining trauma in an African context: A challenge to pastoral care

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray G. Motsi ◽  
Maake J. Masango
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Correct Treatment ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
African Context ◽  
To Come ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

The article attempted to analyse critically the definition of trauma as it is used in the Western medical and psychiatry contexts in order to come up with an appropriate African definition. This was undertaken with the view to demonstrate that the Western worldview is different from the African worldview. Superimposing solutions or providing pre-packed answers to unique African problems will lead only to re-traumatisation, whereas cultural sensitivity and the right diagnosis will lead to the correct treatment. The driving force behind this article was therefore to aim to be relevant, effective and contextual in all African-based pastoral care.

ICTs and the (Re)Production of Development Knowledge in Africa

2014 ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
Lord C. Mawuko-Yevugah
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Western Development ◽  
African Context ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
Dependency Model ◽  
Development Paradigm

Over the past few years, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have been promoted by Western development agencies in Africa and other regions of the developing world. There are legion of intellectual (theoretical) and practical policy-oriented arguments advanced by the proponents of an ICT-driven agenda and to justify why this paradigm offers an effective pathway out of poverty and under-development in the global South. This chapter proposes a critical theoretical approach for analyzing and interpreting the implications and impacts of this ICT-driven development agenda for Africa and other regions striving for home-grown and locally-driven development agenda. Drawing on aspects of critical theoretical lenses including Foucault's knowledge-power dynamics and neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony, the chapter explores how the ICT-driven development paradigm being championed by key international development agencies may in fact,help to perpetuate unequal power relations in the production of development knowledge whereby ideas and practices of the “developed” and “advanced” West are privileged and imposed on the “less developed” and “backward” regions such as Africa. The chapter provides a historical overview on development theory in the African context from the era of modernization theory to the neo-liberal turn in order to examine if and how the ICT-driven paradigm offers any departures from the path-dependency model embedded in earlier theoretical and policy interventions.

Exploring the ICT Capabilities of Civil Society in Sub Saharan Africa

2011 ◽  
pp. 207-228
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Nyirenda
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Proxy Measure ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Masses

Civil society is argued to have been the most significant force of many forces that eradicated entrenched authoritarianism in Africa, in the early 1990s, ushering most of these countries to multi-party democracies. And yet after such accomplishment, many of these new democracies have receded to undemocratic practices. With weak economies, civil society faces many challenges in resource mobilization and in mobilizing the masses for national causes. Information communication technologies, or ICTs, are increasingly being seen as an aid to the mobilization and organization challenges of civil society. However, advanced ICT capabilities are mostly in developed countries where civil society is already strong. Using e-governance as a proxy measure for ICT capabilities for civil society, this chapter conducts an exploratory study using secondary baseline data collected by international institutions on Sub Saharan Countries. The relationship between ICT capabilities and the several civil society development indicators (press freedom, civil liberties, and various other variables) is investigated. Later, the Nation of Zambia (a country with moderate ICT capabilities in the region) is used for a qualitative case study to explore how ICT capabilities and various contextual issues influence ICT applications by civil society organizations to enhance operational capabilities such as collaboration and mobilization efforts.

How Could We Design Democracy to Make it Work in the African Context?

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-60
Author(s):  
Nic Cheeseman
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
High Profile ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
African Context ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Goal Integration

Politics in Africa is becoming increasingly contested. This is true both in terms of electoral politics, with the margin of victory of ruling parties falling in many countries, and in terms of the capacity of citizens to access diverse sources of information with which to hold their governments to account. In turn, the continent’s more authoritarian political leaders—particularly those in resource-rich states insulated from international pressure to reform—have responded by employing new strategies to manipulate elections and restrict the flow of information. Taken together, these two trends help to explain why parts of sub-Saharan Africa has experienced democratic stagnation, and why so many recent elections have been controversial and, in a number of high-profile cases, violent. It is therefore more important than ever to understand how to design democratic constitutions in a way that manages the centrifugal forces that electoral competition can generate. This chapter discusses two strategies for achieving this goal: integration (the promotion of a single unified national identity through more centralized institutions), and accommodation (the recognition of subnational group identities through their formal inclusion in the political system). Although Alan Kuperman has recently made a strong case in favour of integration, this chapter comes to a different conclusion. While recognizing the risk that rapid institutional change will destabilize fragile political systems, I argue that we have good reason to encourage more inclusive political systems and so need to give greater thought to how they can be safely introduced.

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