scholarly journals Critical Realist Philosophy and the Possibility of an Eco-decolonial Museology

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-70
Author(s):  
Thomas Carnegie Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Emancipatory Practice ◽  
Museum Practice

New forms of museum practice that explore the dynamics of social and ecological processes as interlinked systems are increasingly urgent. Critical realist philosophy is used to consider the emergence of tensions between museological processes of decolonization and ecologization, and potentials for their resolution into a new form of practice, which is conceptualized as eco-decolonial. The analysis is focused on South African museums, but is contextualized within international theory and practice. An exploration of the ontology of museum work surfaces a core tension in that trends towards a relational and emancipatory practice are paradoxically embedded within neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism depends on and perpetuates the problematic human-nature dualism of the colonial era, and constrains the development of progressive social-ecological forms of museum practice. The analysis explores potentials for the resolution of this tension, in a contribution towards the transformation of the philosophical and theoretical frameworks of museum practice.

scholarly journals Towards an Eco-decolonial Museology: A critical realist analysis of the crises of South African museums

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Quantitative Management ◽  
Realist Analysis ◽  
Relational Capabilities ◽  
Museum Practice

South African museums face multivalent, simultaneous crises. The MELD dialectical framework of critical realist philosophy can be used to explore potential for a deep reimagining of museum theory and practice that may generate a new, relational mode better able than persistent dualist modes to respond to complex, emergent crises. This has been conceived by the author (Jeffery, 2021) as an ecological-decolonial, or eco-decolonial, mode of museology, and is further developed in the present analysis. At 1M, the MELD analysis surfaces the implicit neoliberal ontology of South African museum work and the emergent paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’. This paradox is generative of a number of constraints on practice and agency, including commodification of heritage, a restrictive form of official memory, and quantitative management practice. These limit potential for museums to respond to complex crises that require relational capabilities.  2E explores the potential negation of these constraints. To disrupt the principle of collection as the grounding ontological activity of museum practice may disrupt the implicit neoliberal ontology. This may contribute to emergent, sophisticated socialecological trends in museum practice, both in South Africa and internationally. At 3L, a dialectical view on the concept of cultural landscape offers a relational frame for an eco-decolonial museum practice that may better respond to the crises faced by museums. The practical implications of the eco-decolonial approach are considered at 4D. Keywords: museum practice, critical realism, ontology, eco-decolonial, collection, cultural landscape

Museums for the Planet : Critical Realist Philosophy and the Possibility of an Eco-decolonial Museology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Carnegie Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Museum Practice

This study introduces dialectical critical realism into museology as a philosophical underlabourer for the development of new theoretical potentials for the transformation of museum practice. The idea of the museum is in a moment of fluidity evident in emergent decolonial and ecological perspectives and in the International Council of Museum’s process of redefinition of the museum. The potential to reimagine the museum lacks a coherent philosophical and theoretical foundation. The persistence of museological dualism separates the social from the ecological and absents the emergence of relational modes of thinking and practice. This study conceives an ecological-decolonial or eco-decolonial mode of museology that is disruptive of dualism and generative of relationality, and is thus generative of agency for deeper, more effective and enduring social-ecological justice. The core of this thesis is the development of the eco-decolonial mode of museology through the DCR onto-axiological chain or ‘MELD’ schema. At 1M a depth ontological analysis augmented by interviews with key informants establishes a dialectic of society and ecology in the museological context. 1M surfaces capitalism and the implicit neoliberal ontology of museology as deep causal mechanisms of the 2E persistence of museological human-nature dualism. The paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’ is a policy-practice contradiction that absents potentials for transformation of the museum and that is held in place by the grounding ontological activity of museology, collection. The 2E perspective on absences enables the emergence of new transformative pathways towards the 3L vision of the eco-decolonial mode of museology as a (4D) new way of thinking and working to resolve neoliberal restrictions. The fundamental 4D change envisioned for museum philosophy, theory and practice is an ontological transformation from traditionalist human-nature dualism to a progressive human-nature dialectic. A case study considers instances where museum workers exercised the agency to expand practice in this way. Future work using the expansive learning methodology of Change Laboratories will develop and implement the potentials generated by the onto-axiological chain for the eco-decolonial mode to bring real change to traditional, dualist museum practice, in order to ensure the relevance and the agency of the museum as a social structure in and for a changing world.

Moral Subjectivity and Affective Deficit in the Transitional State

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Christiaan Beyers
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Land Claim ◽  
Transitional State ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
Political Resource ◽  
Legal Subjects ◽  
Land Restitution

In the context of transitional justice, how does the reinvented state come to be assumed as a social fact? South African land restitution interpellates victims of apartheid- and colonial-era forced removals as claimants, moral and legal subjects of a virtuous 'new' state. In the emotional narratives of loss and suffering called forth in land claim forms, the state is addressed as a subject capable of moral engagement. Claim forms also 'capture' affects related to the event of forced removals as an unstable political resource. However, within an ultimately legal and bureaucratic process, the desire for recognition is typically not reciprocated. Moreover, material settlements are indefinitely delayed due to political and institutional complications. The resulting disillusionment is counterweighed by persistent aspirations for state redress.

scholarly journals The South African Redistribution Imperative: Incongruities in Theory and Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Sue-Mari Viljoen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The South ◽  
Slow Pace

Abstract It has partly been assumed that the constitutional obligation to pay compensation for expropriations is to blame for the slow pace at which land has been redistributed in South Africa. However, this assumption requires careful analysis and reflection, with reference to the imperfections of the policies and laws that set out to address landlessness, as well as the underlying theoretical approach to economic justice. This article questions the purpose for which land reform beneficiaries acquire land, with reference to the role that property should ideally fulfil for the landless. The article makes a number of observations to cast light on why the redistribution of land has been alarmingly slow, where inconsistencies and loopholes exist in the programme, and whether expropriations for nil compensation will make any difference in remedying existing failures in the redistribution programme.

scholarly journals ‘The fact that she just looked at me…’ – Narrations on shame in South African workplaces

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude-Hélène Mayer ◽  
Rian Viviers ◽  
Louise Tonelli
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Work Context ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Health And Well Being

Orientation: Shame has been internationally researched in various cultural and societal contexts as well as across cultures in the workplace, schools and institutions of higher education. It is an emotional signal that refers to experienced incongruence of identity goals and the judgement of others.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to focus on experiences of shame in the South African (SA) workplace, to provide emic, in-depth insights into the experiences of shame of employees.Motivation for the study: Shame in the workplace often occurs and might impact negatively on mental health and well-being, capability, freedom and human rights. This article aims at gaining some in-depth understanding of shame experiences in SA workplaces. Building on this understanding the aim is to develop awareness in Industrial and Organisational Psychologists (IOPs), employees and organisations to cope with shame constructively in addition to add to the apparent void in the body of knowledge on shame in SA workplaces.Research design, approach and method: An interpretative hermeneutical research paradigm, based on Dilthey’s modern hermeneutics was applied. Data were collected through semistructured interviews of 11 employees narrating their experiences from various workplaces, including the military, consulting organisations and higher education institutions. Content analysis was used for data analysis and interpretation.Main findings: The major themes around which shameful experiences evolved included loss of face, mistreatment by others, low work quality, exclusion, lifestyle and internalised shame on failure in the workplace. Shame is experienced as a disturbing emotion that impacts negatively on the self within the work context. It is also experienced as reducing mental health and well-being at work.Practical/managerial implications: SA organisations need to be more aware of shame in the workplace, to address the potential negative effects of shame on employees, particularly if they are not prepared to reframe shame into a constructively and positively used emotion. Safe spaces should be made available to talk about shame. Strategies should be applied to deal with shame constructively.Contribution/value-add: This article expands an in-depth understanding of shame from emic and culture-specific perspectives within SA workplaces. The findings are beneficial to IOPs and organisations to understand what shame is from the perspective of SA employees across cultural groups. The article thereby adds value to theory and practice, offering IOPs a deeper understanding of shame in the work context.

scholarly journals The merits of teaching mathematics with variation

Pythagoras ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mhlolo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mathematics Classroom ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Theory Of Variation ◽  
Radical Shift ◽  
New Curricula

There is a general perception that the South African curriculum statements for mathematics create polarity between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, which does not benefit both the teachers and the learners. The new curricula demand a radical shift from the traditional teacher-led approaches that teachers are familiar with, yet does not provide a model of what it might mean to teach for conceptual understanding. This article aims to provide such a model by examining the potential of teaching with variation, which is viewed as an important mathematics teaching and learning style. Proponents of the theory of variation claim that how teachers make available the object of learning to their students has been neglected yet it has a critical influence on learners’ learning. This is important for educators as they struggle to make sense of the seemingly contradictory requirements of the new curriculum. In this article a discernment unit comprising four variation patterns is used as a tool to analyse a seemingly rich teacher-led approach to teaching that was observed in one South African Grade 11 mathematics classroom. The results of the analysis and implications for theory and practice are then discussed.

scholarly journals South African discourse analysis in theory and practice

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-406
Author(s):  
A B Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Refined Model

Discourse analysis should not be overly ambitious, but it can be a most helpful exegetical tool if it concentrates on the argumentative flow and thematic aspects of a discourse. A refined model of South African discourse analysis is presented. The different stages in this model are discussed and illustrated by means of Philippians 3:2-11. Special attention is given to problems regarding the dividing of the text into colons.

scholarly journals The State of Play: An Exploration of Games and Their Value in  museum Exhibitions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anton Berndt
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Museum Practice ◽  
New Museology

<p>In the field of museum studies there has been very little consideration of games and their application to exhibiting practice. This represents a significant gap in the theory on current museum practice given the frequency of games in exhibitions and the scale of the commercial games industry in contemporary culture. This study begins to redress this issue by exploring how a significant and influential museum operating within the paradigm of the new museology views the role of games in its exhibitions. The thesis considers the central research question: what do practitioners currently think about games in museum exhibitions and how could museum games be improved. Following an interpretivist methodology the study seeks to answer this question through a case study of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Seven practitioners affiliated with this museum were interviewed about their understanding of games and their application in a museum context. The research findings illuminate the current understanding of games held by these practitioners and factors that inhibit the successful implementation of games at Te Papa. It was found that the practitioners’ opinions had not been influenced by the available theoretical literature on games. It was also found that practitioners thought games in exhibitions at the museum have not been particularly successful in achieving either the goals of exhibitions or the potential that games offer. It is concluded that the introduction of theories on play and on games into museum theory and practice has potential for significant advances in this area of exhibition development. In contemporary museums there is a shift away from presenting absolute, positivist understandings of knowledge toward the subjective, construction of meaning. Museums are also increasingly required to maintain economic efficacy while offering a valuable service to the populace. This thesis responds to this situation by proposing that a greater knowledge and utilisation of games in exhibitions offers a valuable approach in negotiating these two trends. By presenting an understanding of games, their potential value for museums and perspectives on what currently inhibits their successful application this research offers the field of museum studies a basis from which to develop knowledge of this under-theorised aspect of museum practice.</p>

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