SUNScholar

SUNScholar is a leading digital archive for the preservation and promotion of the research output of Stellenbosch University.

 

Recent Submissions

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Creative agency in the colonial encounter: foundations for a decolonial pedagogy
(Taylor & Francis, 2024-12-10) Fataar, A.
This essay emphasises the imperative to move from discussions about decolonising education to the practical implementation of a decolonial pedagogy. This task necessitates challenging Eurocentric perspectives and incorporating diverse insights into curriculum design and pedagogical processes. By drawing on Edward Said’s concepts of democratic humanism, worldliness, and contrapuntal, the essay argues for an expanded understanding of colonial and postcolonial contexts that highlight the agency of colonised peoples. It underscores the significance of acknowledging cultural connections and interactions as vital components of human formation. The essay explores how enslaved people at the Cape of Good Hope navigated their circumstances, establishing creative agency to shape their worlds. Briefly discussing the literacy practices of enslaved people and the literary portrayals of enslaved women, the essay illustrates how a decolonial pedagogy can offer a more inclusive and critical perspective on historical cultural formations.
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Consumers' motivations to engage with local brands on social media
(Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Esterhuyzen, Lisa
The 'consumer brand engagement' (CBE) concept comprehensively reflects consumers' motives for social media use, particularly digital consumer engagement behaviour. However, despite the growing scholarly interest in addressing 'engagement', disagreement exists regarding the nature of engagement behaviours and the predictive role of consumer motivations. Further, although there is a ‘buy local’ movement whereby consumers are encouraged to support local brands, the role of ethnocentrism in consumers’ decision to engage with local brands on social media has not been examined. To address these gaps in the literature, this study drew from the Uses and Gratifications Theory to examine CBE on social media in a local South African wine brand context and the possible moderating effects of ethnocentrism. A sequential mixed-method research design comprised of a qualitative phase one (focus group discussions) and a quantitative phase two (survey questionnaire) was utilised. The data recorded from phase one was thematically analysed, whereas Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed during phase two. Findings from phase one suggested that the concept of ‘local brand’ is contextual and that although consumers hold positive sentiments towards phrases such as ‘local is lekker’, an overall negative perception of South African product quality persists. Results from phase two revealed that consumer motivations to engage on social media predict consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs) in varying degrees and that consumer ethnocentrism plays a limited moderating role. Theoretically, this study contributes by refining the model proposed by Buzeta et al. (2020), thus providing insight into the interrelationships that exist between consumers’ motives to engage with local wine brands on social media and their subsequent COBRAs. Managerially, brand managers need to understand that different motivations are associated with different COBRAs and adjust their social media campaigns accordingly.
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Mimicking DSpace deposit
(2024-11-18) W. Klapwijk
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Particle filtering on hybrid dynamical systems for sensor fault detection
(Elsevier, 2024) Loubser, Simone D; Louw, Tobias M; Bradshaw, Steven M
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Decolonization in South African universities: storytelling as subversion and reclamation
(Oxford University Press, 2024-06) Davids, Nuraan
Underscoring recurrent calls for the decolonization of university curricula in South Africa are underexplored presumptions that by only disrupting theoretical content, universities might release themselves from a colonialist grasp, that continues to dominate and distort higher education discourse. While it might be the case that certain theories hold enormous authoritative, ‘truthful’ sway, as propagated through Western interpretations and norms, there are inherent problems in exclusively approaching the decolonization project as a content-based hurdle, removed from the subjectivities of students’ social, lived, and learning realities. The argument advanced in this article is that until the epistemic harm of colonialism and apartheid are afforded careful recognition and attention—as in focusing on the lived experiences, realities, and stories of individuals—the hard work of delegitimizing coloniality, and its implicit structures of hegemonies and binaries cannot unfold. In addressing these harms, I commence by describing some of the contexts of epistemic harm, promulgated through colonialism and apartheid. This is followed by a consideration of decolonization, both as theory and practice-within-context. Here, I also foreground the #Rhodesmustfall campaign, as a particular moment of painful clarity about why decolonization, as well as transformation, has faltered in higher education in South Africa. In the second half, I focus on the necessity of prioritizing storytelling as a deep manifestation of decolonization. Stories, I maintain, provide access into unknown lives, and can subvert the invisible, normative framings, which dictate how we live in this world. As a manifestation of decolonization, students’ stories hold profound implications for the recognition and affirmation of pluralist identities, histories, knowledge, values, and world-views.