Page 27 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

Foreword
Introductory Messages
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
PEOPLE AND CONTEXTS
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
PLANET AND SUSTAINABILITY
Awards
Lead Researchers
25
in the Alaska informal settlement on the outskirts of Mamelodi East, Tshwane, in South Africa. In another project, three types of code-based addresses were tested for the Alaska informal settlement, and the CT informal settlement in Cape Town. While all three systems are well-suited for digital applications and the unstructured nature of informal settlements, each system presents challenges. A single what3words code (e.g. exact.puff.tickles) is easy to remember, but the three words do not provide any clues for way-finding. A what3words code as well
as a mapcode uniquely identifies a 3x3m and 5x5m square, respectively. In the informal settlements they investigated, houses were so small and close together that some were assigned the same address. Datum-based addresses seem to fare better with way-finding and assigning unique addresses, but have their own limitations – the bigger the informal settlement, the longer the code. Further, three words in a what3words code have no association with the cultural identity of a specific informal settlement; while numbers are culturally neutral, they offer little in terms of affirming a group’s identity.
The research findings of Professor Coetzee and her team point to challenges that may be encountered, particularly in informal settlements and rural areas, when local datasets are integrated into national datasets, and the latter into global datasets, one
of the aims of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM).
An analysis undertaken in collaboration with researchers from Flanders and the Netherlands revealed that a delicate balance of interests is required in setting up an address data governance framework. Without support, it is highly unlikely that providers of local data will have the commitment
to contribute to a national address dataset that has only indirect or longer-term benefits for them. Additionally, strengthening capacity at smaller municipalities is essential to ensure accurate data capture and maintenance.
Transforming migrant
labour societies
through agriculture
Vusilizwe Thebe, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
A basic problem that faces postcolonial states in Africa is how best to transform the migrant labour societies that were created, cultivated and impoverished by the settler colonial
state into modern farming communities that contribute to food security and well-being. For the past decades a key policy focus
in postcolonial states has been to transform
agrarian systems through restructuring rural
societies and land reform, to create modern
agrarian societies made up largely of small
farmers. A central question in the research
conducted by Vusilizwe Thebe, Professor in
the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology is whether it is feasible to coerce these agrarian societies into following an agrarian livelihood; or, alternatively, to promote access to land, employment and migrant labour opportunities.
Thebe’s research focuses on understanding agrarian societies in a constant search for better and relevant development policies informed by evidence, and which invariably counter popular narratives about rural societies and their futures. He writes that central to the transformation of rural societies is the need for both policymakers and development agencies to understand accurately material realities and expectations that constrain rural societies and make specific types of futures possible, while limiting others. This commitment has led to Thebe’s development of a broad research project on the ‘Complexity of Migrant Labour Society in Southern Africa’, which has spanned three countries in the region.
Development policies have not alleviated poverty in rural areas. In an article published in Africa Review in 2017, he examines land reform, poverty reduction and social stratification in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. Navigating through migrant labour societies, his research interrogates the worker-peasantry found in these societies: the contexts of their existence, their relationship to land and labour migration, agricultural systems and food security, and their interaction with state institutions and policy, in the broader context of societal change.
At the core of Thebe’s study is an examination of expectations for well-being and livelihood preferences. By focusing on the socio- economic realities and the complexity entailed in migrant-labour societies, his study points to agrarian societies where there are few farmers left, and where processes of depeasantisation and deagrarianisation are truly underway.
Land and Agriculture