Faculty of Management Sciences
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Item Playing with identity : fan role playing on Twitter(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2015) Jeewa, Zakia; Wade, Jean-PhilippeThe participatory internet has revolutionized fandoms, making possible de territorialized virtual fan communities with enormous global memberships. The article draws on Fiske’s notion of the autonomous ‘cultural economy’ produced by ordinary ‘active’ audiences, Jenkins’ notion of an emergent ‘participatory culture’ spearheaded by popular culture fans, and Huizinga’s seminal study of ‘play’, to analyse two fan communities of Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries on the social media platform, Twitter, focusing on fan role-playing, where fans either parodically masquerade as fictional characters while commenting on usually topical events, or interact in dramatic dialogues in the guise of fictional characters. The role-playing can be seen as a ludic playing with identity that foregrounds subaltern agency.Item Ethnicity as the cause of political instability in South Africa(2020-07-28) Mbandlwa, Zamokuhle; Shezi, LindelaniBackground: KwaZulu Natal has been a battlefield of political violence over the past few years in a democratic South Africa where many other provinces were no longer resolving their conflict through violence. This study aimed to find reasons why this province still experiences high levels of violence and the UMzimkhulu area was identified as the area of the study. Objectives: the objective of this paper was to examine the public responses to ethnicity as the cause of political violence in the province of KwaZulu Natal at the UMzimkhulu area. Using descriptive analysis, we investigated the root cause of political violence in the UMzimkhulu area. In a comprehensive analysis of the case of the UMzimkhulu area, we argued that to explain the causes of political violence, it was necessary to look into the type of people that are living in the area and their ethnic origin. Method: in this paper, we applied a mixed research methodology, which is the Qualitative and quantitative research methods. Twenty-five questionnaires were successfully distributed to participants and responded to. Interviews were conducted with five participants. Results: we found that the people that are living in the area are of a Xhosa tribe and a Zulu tribe, that alone created an identity conflict amongst the people. Twenty-five questionnaires were distributed to local community members and both tribes were represented, five interviews were conducted to both tribes. Conclusion: the intervention of the police and political office bearers will always be temporal because the root cause of the political violence in the area is not addressed. Every local government elections will be characterized by political violence in the area unless the ethnic disparities are properly addressed.Item “I am what I am Not”- Reflections of the re-construction of my identity as a novice postgraduate supervisor at a University Of Technology in South Africa(MCSER Publishing, 2014-09) Rawjee, Veena ParbooThe overall aim of this paper is to explore my experiences as a novice postgraduate supervisor through the process of reflection. This study adopts a qualitative approach and uses self-reflection as a method of enquiry by reflecting and documenting personal experiences and practices of postgraduate supervision. The findings are analysed so as to give meaning and to make sense of the supervision process. The results reflect that the journey of postgraduate supervision, in part, has not only resulted in the development of the student, but has also resulted in the academic journey of development of myself. This process has entailed the re-establishment of my academic identity of working within a redefined context of a University of Technology (UoT). Whereas, in the past my key role at a Technikon was undergraduate study only, I have had to reconstruct and re-negotiate my identity to integrate the scholarship of research, which has to an extent, contributed positively to my professional development. Based on these findings I suggest that, to add credence to the supervisory process and to the novice supervisors experiences, a postgraduate supervision module is introduced as a core study module for all first-time supervisors before they embark on their journey of supervision. This process could possibly assist the novice researcher to re-negotiate an identity for possible inclusion into the broader academic community and to build supervision capacity at the newly established UoT’s in South Africa.