Browsing by Author "Van der Hoef, Monique"

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    The local, the global, and the self : an ethnographic account of a community Computer Centre in Carnarvon, Northern Cape, and its significance for its users’ sense of self and their place in the world
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Van der Hoef, Monique; Walker, Cherryl; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology & Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this thesis has been on the local participants in computer education courses that are provided by the Siyafunda Computer and Technology Centre at Kareeberg library in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. The aim of the Computer Centre is to introduce the rural community to basic computer technology and to promote computer literacy and thereby improve their job opportunities and better their livelihoods. The Centre was launched on 19 November 2013 with the slogan ‘leer, motiveer & inspireer’ [learn, motivate and inspire], and is a partnership between inter alia the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA-SA) and SiyafundaCTC. The SKA is an internationally driven project located on a cluster of farms between the towns of Brandvlei, Vanwyksvlei, Carnarvon and Williston, and when completed it will be the biggest and most advanced radio telescope in the world. The presence of the SKA in this area of the Karoo has brought changes to the surrounding communities, and in particular Carnarvon, which have proven to be a significant part of the context for this research project. The main research site for this project has been the Computer Centre, and within this setting I have explored what impact the promise of being able to use computers and have access to the internet has had on the lives of the people who have made use of these facilities. Additionally, I looked at whether and how basic education in computer technology may shift the way participants look at themselves, their local environment, and the wider world ‘out there’. This has been done through the conceptual lens of ‘critical cosmopolitanism’, to provide an understanding how computer technology can open up local views to global perspectives and unpack the tensions that may arise between local, national and global spheres. In conducting this study an ethnographic research methodology has been adopted in which participant observation and ‘hanging’ out in the Centre as well as in the town of Carnarvon have been central research methods. By engaging with students, staff, recreational users, and casual visitors of the Centre I developed insights into how the use of computers and internet may affects their everyday lives, how they think about their local community and what it means to open up their ideas of the world ‘out there’ to a more open and global worldview.