Barriers of growth within an informal sector business: narratives of women subsistence entrepreneurs in South Africa

PurposeThe study explores growth barriers experienced by a sample of women subsistence entrepreneurs operating within the informal sector in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilizes a descriptive-exploratory research approach and design relying on semi-structured interviews. A purposive sample of 45 women subsistence entrepreneurs formed the participant pool.FindingsThree main narratives emerged. First, a sense of personal contentment existed as a potential barrier for women subsistence entrepreneurs. Second, the women subsistence entrepreneurs had no expansion strategy due to their circumstances. This served as a barrier to growth. Finally, challenges emanating from the home-front served as a limit to the growth of the informal sector business.Research limitations/implicationsBased on the findings, strategies are offered to assist the women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the identified barriers to the growth of the informal sector business. A limitation of the research concerns issues that accompany qualitative research. Notably, these include sampling issues.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, strategies are offered to assist women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the barriers that affect their businesses.Originality/valueGiven the popularity of the informal sector in emerging nations such as South Africa, the study proffers suggestions that assist the advancement of subsistence entrepreneurship, especially within the informal sector. The role of women in all this is heightened.

Transforming an Educational Community in Guatemala Using the Plan Do Study Act Cycle

This case study with educators from a school in an urban low socioeconomic neighborhood near Guatemala City, Guatemala, explored the effectiveness of the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle (PDSA) to guide teachers’ professional development at a Pre-K-K public school (Langley, 2009). This three-year study focused on developing teacher leaders and researchers through self-reflective accountability. Findings documented institutional problems requiring immediate and long-term attention and ways to involve families in extending literacy instruction at school to the home front. Study results highlight the need for effective and empowering literacy methods to be used in Guatemala and suggest the country’s teachers wish to support students’ critical thinking and create democratic classrooms.

The sentiments of the population in Vladimir Region during the Great Patriotic War

The article examines the mood of home front workers during the Great Patriotic War based on the materials of Vladimir region, a region that had its own specific features. The author draws attention to the change in the rear position of this territorial unit during the war. The sources for the analysis were archival documents, some of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as documents of a memoir and epistolary nature. The study of Soviet propaganda during the indicated period draws attention to the transition from predominantly internationalist to patriotic slogans - a process that started at the very beginning of the war, with some precedents already in the last pre-war year. In the course of the study, the author identifies the ambiguous sentiments of the population in the rear in relation to the war and their living conditions. Attention is drawn to the fact that citizens had a negative perception of a number of actions of the authorities in the initial period of the war. The article tells the difficult situation in the rear during the battle for Moscow, a victory which to a large extent caused a turn in the mood of the majority of the population. An analysis of the letters of front-line soldiers and home front workers clearly reveals the fatalism of most of them, and their submissive adherence to their prescribed fate. At the same time, their letters show the hope for a quick victory over Nazism and the belief that their closest descendants would be able to build a bright future. Despite the predominantly patriotic statements, the example of the Vladimir region shows a critical attitude towards the Soviet government, not only on regional but also on central level. Still, one cannot but confirm that Soviet propaganda was very successful in consolidating the people during the war, which was of course facilitated by the policy of Nazi Germany both at the front and in the temporarily occupied territories.

Echtscheiding in de Leuvense rechtspraktijk in de nasleep van de ‘Groote Oorlog’

In order to contribute to the existing gap in the Belgian legal history, the divorce jurisprudence from 1919 to 1922 of the court of first instance in Leuven was studied. The challenges resulting from the Great War were clearly visible in the examined judgments. First, there were regular references to the war and more specifically to the German enemy and the behaviour of the women who remained on the home front. In addition, due to circumstances created by the war some Belgians were unable to go before the civil registrar to have their divorce pronounced. The suspension contained in the Royal Decree of 26 October 1914 could, contrary to its purpose and due to the uncertainty surrounding the date of the end of the war, not be applied. Finally, the judges showed a flexible attitude in the analysis of the divorce motive ‘gross insults’. In this analysis, the role soldiers played during the war clearly aroused sympathy among the judges.

"Now the War is Over, We Have Something Else to Worry Us": New Zealand Children's Responses to Crises, 1914-1918

<p>World War One has long been identified as a key moment in early twentieth-century history. This conflict, however, was not the only dramatic event that occurred during the mid-to-late 1910s. A deadly influenza virus swept across the world between 1918 and 1919, and this global health crisis proved particularly devastating for those countries who had already suffered through more than four years of warfare. Children were ever-present on New Zealand's home front, facing both the First World War and then the influenza pandemic in 1918. Yet, despite their significant presence within this environment, little is known about children's experiences during this tumultuous period in New Zealand's past. This thesis aims to deepen understandings of children's priorities and concerns between 1914 and 1918 through an investigation of youth reactions to World War One and the 1918 flu. A wide range of sources have been utilised in order to achieve insight into the lives of these historical figures. These include letters written by children during the mid-to-late 1910s, school magazines and religious publications directed at youth, and recollections of children's experiences from this period as captured through oral histories. Ultimately, it is asserted that New Zealand youth engaged with these events to the extent that they impacted children's worlds. Children's concerns and priorities, while often differing from those held by adults during the same period, were far from universal. Emotional and geographical proximity and age all played a significant role in mediating and varying children's exposure and responses to crises between 1914 and 1918.</p>

"Now the War is Over, We Have Something Else to Worry Us": New Zealand Children's Responses to Crises, 1914-1918

<p>World War One has long been identified as a key moment in early twentieth-century history. This conflict, however, was not the only dramatic event that occurred during the mid-to-late 1910s. A deadly influenza virus swept across the world between 1918 and 1919, and this global health crisis proved particularly devastating for those countries who had already suffered through more than four years of warfare. Children were ever-present on New Zealand's home front, facing both the First World War and then the influenza pandemic in 1918. Yet, despite their significant presence within this environment, little is known about children's experiences during this tumultuous period in New Zealand's past. This thesis aims to deepen understandings of children's priorities and concerns between 1914 and 1918 through an investigation of youth reactions to World War One and the 1918 flu. A wide range of sources have been utilised in order to achieve insight into the lives of these historical figures. These include letters written by children during the mid-to-late 1910s, school magazines and religious publications directed at youth, and recollections of children's experiences from this period as captured through oral histories. Ultimately, it is asserted that New Zealand youth engaged with these events to the extent that they impacted children's worlds. Children's concerns and priorities, while often differing from those held by adults during the same period, were far from universal. Emotional and geographical proximity and age all played a significant role in mediating and varying children's exposure and responses to crises between 1914 and 1918.</p>

The Demands of Total War

The quality of school life at the NPEA gradually deteriorated during wartime—chronic shortages of everything from steel to salt, from teaching staff to stable-hands, increasingly impinged on the schools’ day-to-day functioning. This chapter begins by considering the great expectations placed on the Napolas by the Inspectorate and the armed forces, in their capacity as de facto officer training schools. Secondly, it describes daily life at the NPEA, including the ‘war missions’ (Kriegseinsätze) which pupils were expected to undertake as leaders on the children’s evacuation programme (KLV) or as anti-aircraft auxiliaries (Flakhelfer). It also explores the all-important connections between the Napola home-front and former pupils at the battle front, as exemplified by the school newsletters or Altkameradenbriefe, which were expressly designed to foster a transgenerational sense of comradeship among all who belonged to the Napolas’ ‘extended family’. Finally, the chapter briefly examines the ways in which the NPEA system profited from or abetted the wartime crimes of the Nazi regime, including the expropriation of asylums and Jewish property, and the use of forced labour (not least that of concentration-camp inmates). The conclusion then situates the experience of the Napolas within the context of existing scholarship on the state of German education and society during this turbulent period of total war. Ultimately, the NPEA were better able to withstand the privations of war than most ‘civilian’ schools during this period, due not least to their centralized administration, and their supposedly vital contribution to the war effort.