Research Articles (Social Development- ISD)

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Browsing by Author "Conradie, Ina"

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    Aspirations and human development interventions
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Conradie, Ina; Robeyns, Ingrid
    What role can aspirations play in small-scale human development interventions? In this paper, we contribute to answering that question with both conceptual and empirical work. Aspirations can play at least two roles in small-scale human development interventions: the capabilities-selecting role and the agency-unlocking role. While aspirations also face the challenge of adaptation to adverse circumstances and unjust social structures, we argue that this challenge can be met by embedding the formulation and expression of aspirations within a setting of public discussion and awareness-raising activities, and that adaptation can be further countered by including a commitment to action. We then report on field research done in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa, where a group of women went through a process of voicing, examining, and then realizing their aspirations. The action research confirms our theoretical hypotheses. We also do not find any evidence of adaptation of the women’s aspirations, and argue that the absence of such adaptation might be a result of active capability selection, reflection, deliberation, and the exercise of agency throughout the action research programme.
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    Can deliberate efforts to realise aspirations increase capabilities? A South African case study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Conradie, Ina
    This paper takes up Appadurai's suggestion that aspirations could be used as a key to unlock development for people who are economically marginalised, and that their capabilities could be increased by this approach. The notion of “aspirations” is theoretically and conceptually framed, and then Amartya Sen's use of the term capabilities as the space within which development should be assessed is explored. I subsequently describe a five-year programme in which economically marginalised women in Khayelitsha near Cape Town were assisted in voicing and attempting to realise their aspirations, while being assisted with access to some resources. Capability outcomes and constraints are described and analysed, and the question of adaptive preferences is addressed. I conclude that deliberate efforts to realise aspirations, accompanied by some facilitation, can increase capabilities, but that there are also structural constraints to capability expansion for these women that frustrate their aspiration of class mobility.
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    Exploring adaptation and agency of mothers caring for disabled children inan urban settlement in South Africa: A qualitative study
    (Elsevier, 2019) van der Mark, Elise J; Conradie, Ina; Dedding, Christine W.M.
    Mothers of disabled children who are living in poverty face multiple interlinked disadvantages in relation togender, care, disability, and poverty. Yet, their experiences have been largely neglected in academic literature.This study explores how mothers from a poor urban settlement in South Africa manoeuvre, adapt, act and reactin such a difficult context, and how they maintain or improve their own and their family's wellbeing. Ourqualitative research with 30 mothers shows women's adaptation and agency in the trade-offs they make. Fuelledby social discrimination and abuse, mothers prefer to focus solely on the child, its care and the household inorder to keep themselves and their child safe. Despite providing certain benefits that mothers value, thesepreferences perpetuate or indeed worsen their position in society, as they reinforce traditional gender structuresand render them invisible to policymakers. This poses serious challenges for women's empowerment and gender-sensitive poverty-reduction policies.
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    Social Policy in South Africa: The challenges of poverty, inequality and exclusion
    (2018) Conradie, Ina
    South Africa is currently emerging from a political and socio-economic crisis. A political faction largely based on patrimonialism threatened to destroy the economy and thus social service delivery. With the recent election of Cyril Ramaphosa as State President a new start has been made to build a successful economy which can act as a base for pro-poor policies. This process will however not be easy. Although South Africa is known as the welfare leader in Africa, with 45.5% of its population receiving welfare grants, these social grants are not large enough to alleviate poverty, and almost 54% of the population remains under the poverty line. The National Planning Commission of South Africa is attempting to institute a comprehensive social security floor to cover all possible needs of the poor and excluded, but with the numbers cited above this remains a difficult undertaking.
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    Understanding and investigating relationality in the capability approach
    (Wiley, 2021) Owens, John; Entwistle, Vikki A.; Conradie, Ina
    he capability approach (CA) is a framework for un-derstanding, assessing, and promoting the quality ofhuman lives and social justice. It focuses on capabil-ities – people's freedoms and opportunities to live invaluable ways. Although its proponents readilyacknowledge that capabilities can depend on personal,social and environmental factors, little attention hasbeen paid to the ontology of capabilities (what they areand how they are caused and constituted) and theinherent relationality of the approach is often not wellfollowed through in research and practice. This, wesuggest, leaves the CA vulnerable to misinterpretationand misappropriation.
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    ‘We create our own small world’: daily realities of mothers of disabled children in a South African urban settlement
    (Routledge, 2019) van der Mark, Elise J.; Conradie, Ina; Dedding, Christine W. M.; Broerse, Jacqueline E. W.
    Parents of disabled children face many challenges. Understanding their experiences and acknowledging contextual influences is vital in developing intervention strategies that fit their daily realities. However, studies of parents from a resource-poor context are particularly scarce. This ethnographic study with 30 mothers from a South African township (15 semi-structured interviews and 24 participatory group sessions) unearths how mothers care on their own, in an isolated manner. The complexity of low living standards, being poorly supported by care structures and networks, believing in being the best carer, distrusting others due to a violent context, and resigning towards life shape and are shaped by this solitary care responsibility. For disability inclusive development to be successful, programmes should support mothers by sharing the care responsibility taking into account the isolated nature of mothers’ lives and the impact of poverty. This can provide room for these mothers to increase the well-being of themselves and their children.