Masters Degrees (School of Public Leadership)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (School of Public Leadership) by browse.metadata.advisor "Biggs, Reinette, 1979-"

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    Exploring food system transformation in the greater Cape Town area
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Zgambo, Olive; Pereira, Laura; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Globally, the food system is plagued by unsustainable food production practices and social injustices that render many of the world’s population vulnerable to food insecurity. Fundamental re-organisation of the food system is key to provide the food insecure access to safe and nutritious food, and reduce the ecological impacts of food production. This entails deep systemic changes towards a more sustainable system, i.e. transformation. Transformation labs (T-labs) help prepare the system for change as specifically designed and facilitated processes that intervene and support multi-stakeholder groups in addressing complex social ecological system (SES) problems. In November 2016, researchers from the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) in collaboration with the Southern African Food Lab (SAFL) conducted a T-lab process as an intervention in the local food system in the Western Cape. The process, built on principles of transformation and systems thinking, brought together a diverse group of actors that are actively engaged in creating alternatives in the food industry, such as restaurateurs and chefs, producers, informal food traders and academics, in an enabling environment for transformation processes through dialogue, activities and networking. This was an attempt to strengthen the alternative food system and enable it to become more mainstream or exert more influence in the dominant food system. The actors were provoked with realities of the dominant food system and faced with the challenge of envisioning a more sustainable and ideal food future, and what role they can play in bringing that future about. At the end of the T-lab process, actors agreed on several action points as improvements to their work or collaborations with each other. The overall aim of this study is to determine the viability of the T-lab as a “safe enough” space for building relations and strengthening networks within the alternative food system, as a platform for transformative processes through dialogue and addressing the challenges that participants face. The study also tracked the impacts of this process on alternative food networks in the greater Cape Town area. These findings help to understand the effect of T-labs over the short-term and provide insights into a novel way of engaging with the complexity of the food system that results in action. The findings show that T-labs are evolving processes that require skilled facilitation, and can be suitable spaces for building trust and comradery, strengthening existing structures within a system, and as a platform for collaboration. T-labs also have the potential to set things in motion, i.e. prepare for change in a transformation process. However, T-labs alone cannot transform a system as complex as the food system, i.e. one that is characterised by uncertainty, surprise, multiple possible outcomes, and limited predictability. Recommendations for future studies include determining what other processes and activities can be carried out in conjunction with T-labs to serve collectively as an intervention in the food system of the Western Cape, and conducting T-lab processes with actors from large business, civil society, and actors from both the dominant and alternative food systems.
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    Exploring resilience capacities through the art of storymaking: the case of food innovators in the Western Cape
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Lindow, Megan; Preiser, Rika; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Pereira, Laura; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : This project explores the potential of storymaking as a novel methodology for developing insight into the ways in which a small selection of social innovators are working to shape change in the food system of the Western Cape, South Africa, and particularly some of the different capacities they are drawing on that may contribute to resilience. Current literature on the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which human agency is seen as a driving force impacting planetary systems, recognises social-ecological resilience theory as an emerging approach to dealing with unexpected change. This thesis brings a narrative and interpretative lens to the experiences of five social innovators who are working towards social-ecological change in the food system of the Western Cape and are part of the international Seeds of the Good Anthropocene project. The Seeds of the Good Anthropocene research seeks to analyse the potential of selected small-scale social-ecological projects to help accelerate transformations towards positive futures for people and planet. In this project, the stories of food innovators are analysed through a ‘storymaking’ process of in-depth interviews, narrative inquiry and interpretative phenomenological analysis. In this process, a richness of experience and meaning that surfaces in the stories shared by research participants is explored, with the aim of understanding whether interpreting these stories through different resilience frames can help to provide insight into the capacities that contribute towards resilience. This work conceptualises the Western Cape as an ‘Anthropocene space’, with a unique historical and geographical context in which multiple food system crises are reflected, thus creating conditions ripe for transformation. Against this backdrop, the work connects the stories of social innovators in food to social-ecological resilience themes of rootedness, resourcefulness and resistance. It also connects these real-life stories and themes to a more theoretical exploration of the complex relationships between stories, resilience, agency and transformation. What emerges is a picture of social innovators experimenting and connecting with one another, guided by rich and emerging value systems, working along the ‘unruly edges’ and the generative niches in between more formal institutions, practices and ways of thinking, transforming these spaces through their alternative narratives of food, culture and community, and in the process deeply exploring questions of how to reconnect with nature and ourselves, and how to live well in the Anthropocene.
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    Exploring the role of music in fostering resilience in transformative spaces toward improved ecosystem stewardship : a case study of Reforest Fest
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Jardine, Siraj; Preiser, Rika; Jorritsma, Marie; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : In the Anthropocene, the inextricable connections between humans and nature are undeniable. The social-ecological systems perspective acknowledges these connections between humans and nature, and the notion of resilience is an emergent property of these systems. Resilience is understood to be a system’s ability to persist, adapt, or transform in the face of change, especially unexpected change, with a goal of improving human wellbeing. The capacity for transformation is increasingly acknowledged as a key aspect of resilience. The resilience concept also acknowledges interactions between smaller and larger scales within a system. An application of these concepts can be found in small-scale, experimental transformative spaces that may encourage large-scale transformations in the wider system. Recent studies suggest that the arts have contributed to fostering transformation in these spaces, but there has been little research on the role of music (as a form of art) in fostering resilience in transformative spaces. Reforest Fest, a reforestation music festival in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, is a transformative space with music at its core. The festival’s goal is to improve ecosystem stewardship, which is an approach to managing social-ecological systems in the face of change to enhance human wellbeing. This thesis uses Reforest Fest as a case study, gathering data through immersive participation, participant observation, and interviews, and analysing the results using Katrina Brown’s framework of “resistance”, “rootedness”, and “resourcefulness” to explore the role of music in fostering resilience. The key finding is that music played a crucial role in fostering rootedness at the festival and, in turn, facilitated resistance and resourcefulness in the space. Through rootedness, music also played a role in fostering the transformative space itself. This has implications for the further use of musical elements in transformative spaces, contributing to the literature on transformative spaces that aim to support sustainability transformations and ecosystem stewardship at multiple interlinked scales.
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    Investigating land use change in the Eastern Cape as a regime shift, a case study of Amakhala game reserve
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Achieng, Therezah; Maciejewski, Kristine; Dyer, Michelle; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Livestock farming in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, has recently undergone a shift to game farming. This research uses a regime shift lens to analyse the change in structure and function of the broader social-ecological system and identify the drivers of the change. The impacts of this land use change and the feedback mechanisms that lock the system into these alternate regimes are also explored. This is important because it has implications for the provision of ecosystem services and human well-being, and the resilience of the system. This research used a case study approach in Amakhala game reserve to understand how the shift from livestock to game farming affects ecosystems and different stakeholders, using participatory mapping and remote sensing approaches. A change in land cover over time indicates a newly vegetated state, which is an indicator of conservation. Results also indicate that the transition from livestock to game farming had different costs and benefits for landowners and farm workers. Social, cultural and even economic structures that held greater value to individuals on livestock farms, a condition that was definable as a community, have been traded off to economic and social structures that hold more value to an external group of people, usually visitors, than the value it holds to individuals on game farms, not definable as a community. The use of a social narrative approach, derived through the participatory methodologies, reveals an important understanding of how the shift of such a social-ecological system impacts differently on various groups of stakeholders.