Browsing by Author "Wheeler, Joanna"

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    Pervasive, but not politicised: Everyday violence, local rule and party popularity in a Cape Town township
    (Institute for Security Studies (ISS), 2016) Piper, Laurence; Wheeler, Joanna
    Through examining violence in the township of Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, we show that leadership in this community is not based on violence, despite its pervasiveness in the settlement. Further, rule by local leaders and the state is often weak, and normally not violently enforced. This account challenges three common views in the literature. The first is that, under conditions of weak rule, violence is primarily about contests over political power. The use of violence by a variety of social actors in Imizamo Yethu, but rarely by political leaders or parties, challenges this assumption. The second is that violence is central to maintaining local rule - but in Imizamo Yethu leaders have seldom used coercion. Lastly, our case illustrates that effective local rule is not necessarily a condition of party identification, which is rooted in larger dynamics of state patronage and race politics that may even weaken local rule.
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    Seven quality choicepoints for ARJ: Ambition is welcome!
    (Sage, 2025) Bradbury, Hilary; Wheeler, Joanna; Divecha, Simon
    Action Research has developed and published actionable knowledge since 2003. Our intention is to support learning for transformations among people, organizations, communities and societies at multiple levels, inner and outer: personal, organizational, methodological, conceptual/discursive. In seeking also to support a community among international scholar-practitioners, we share authors’ blogs and host journal symposia. Action Research is not a method, but an orientation to inquiry, with diverse schools, labels, theories and practices. We honor the original working definition from the founding of the journal: Action research is “a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a participatory worldview which we believe is emerging at this historical moment. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities,” Today, in the face of our eco-social crisis, Action Research highlights what is transforming and how lives - of all beings – are being improved. The journal’s seven quality choicepoints articulate our understanding of action research. We use these for assessing and developing articles. In sharing them we make the review process more transparent.