UWCScholar
This repository serves as a digital archive for the preservation of research outputs from the University of the Western Cape.
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Recent Submissions
Representation, activism, health promotion, and communication: the role of art in advancing global health and social justice
(Public Library of Science, 2025) Orth, Zaida; Reñosa, Mark; Perry, Kelly
This viewpoint advocates for the inclusion of art in global health discourse and practice. We explore four areas in which art can be leveraged to improve global health: to amplify disenfranchised voices, to advance social justice activism, to strengthen communities and individuals, and to improve global health communication. Drawing on community-driven art initiatives, we argue for an inclusive approach that respects diverse cultural perspectives and uplifts marginalized voices. Emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and ethical engagement, our framework invites global health discourse and practice to integrate art in order to foster empathy, challenge systemic inequities, and envision sustainable futures. By centering art, we seek to enrich the global health discipline with insights and transformative potential grounded in human experiences, cultural diversity, and shared humanity.
Sonic urbanism(s): listening to the city
(SAGE Publications Ltd, 2025) Rink, Bradley Michael; Gumede, Sibonelo; Moubachir, Ilham
This reflection on cultural geographies in practice draws upon experimental pedagogical practices from a Critical Urbanisms seminar entitled Sonic urbanisms: Sound, mobilities, culture and identity convened by the University of Basel and University of Cape Town. In the seminar we sought to explore the sonic aspects of Cape Town and its acoustic territories shaped through movements, circulations, and encounters. By experimenting with methods of listening to an African urban environment we offer insights to citiness developed through ‘sonic dérives’ – building on the concept from the Situationist International – that allowed our pedagogical process to drift with sounds: following, sampling, tracing. In this paper we seek to demonstrate firstly how our sonic dérives highlight emotional and affective relationships with urban space; and secondly, how our experiments shift us from hearing the city as a cognitive process of comprehension to listening as an active pedagogical and analytical process of speculation and imagination, straining towards possible meaning that is not immediately accessible. The outcomes of our sonic dérives illustrate how sound casts long spatial and temporal shadows, spreading across an acoustic territory without neat boundaries while also disrupting linear notions of past, present and future in the life of the African city through sonic connections to memories, desires and the formation of alliances. Through our experiments in sonic urbanism(s) the city is rendered in mobile acoustic territories that are fluid, ephemeral and intersecting as evidenced by a sonic map of Cape Town providing a multi-layered soundscape that is made visible and audible.
Care mobilities and associated contexts of hospital-based informal caregiving in Nigeria: towards an explanatory framework
(Public Library of Science, 2025) Somefun, Oluwaseyi Dolapo; Adebayo, Kudus; Omobowale, Mofeyisara
Hospital-based informal caregiving in Nigeria is shaped by care mobilities and contextual factors such as policy contradictions and normative care philosophies. This study explores how these factors influence caregiving practices in a Nigerian tertiary health facility. Using a qualitative approach, data were gathered through interviews and observations, involving 75 participants, including 36 in-depth interviews with caregivers and inpatients, and 39 key informant interviews with staff like nurses, doctors, security guards, and ad-hoc caregivers. Findings showed that many informal caregivers traveled long distances to assist hospitalized relatives, often “hanging around” the hospital and engaging in micro-mobilities, such as running errands. Geographical distance, policy contradictions, and the financial costs of hospitalization significantly affected caregiving dynamics. Care mobilities caregivers moving within the hospital environment emerged as a critical aspect of the caregiving process. Understanding these mobilities and how they intersect with contextual factors is essential to improving caregiving experiences. The study highlights the need for policies that support informal caregivers and enhance patient outcomes, especially in terms of reducing the burdens caregivers face due to long travel distances, hospital policies, and financial challenges.
Assessment of SDG 3 research priorities and COVID-19 recovery pathways: a case study from University of the Western Cape, South Africa
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2025) Frantz, Josè; Erasmus, Pearl; Magidigidi-Mathiso, Lumka
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3, particularly in developing countries, exacerbating existing health disparities and creating new challenges for health systems worldwide. This study explores the role of university research in advancing SDG 3 targets in a post-pandemic context using the University of the Western Cape as a case study. Through qualitative data analysis of research titles and abstracts registered between 2020 and 2022, we applied the WHERETO model of McTighe and Bloom’s Taxonomy to categorize research according to the SDG 3 targets and indicators. This approach provides insight into which health priorities were addressed through scholarly research at UWC in alignment with the UN 2030 Agenda, particularly during pandemic recovery. Our findings indicate that research priorities largely corresponded with South Africa’s health challenges, with the highest concentration of studies addressing non-communicable diseases and mental health (Target 3.4), infectious diseases (Target 3.3), and medicine development (Target 3.b). These priorities align with the National Health Research Committee’s identified health priorities for disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape. Notably, research on mental health and emergency preparedness (Target 3.d) increased significantly during the pandemic period, reflecting shifting priorities in response to COVID-19. This study offers critical insights into how university research shifted priorities adapted during the pandemic and identifies areas requiring focused attention to support post-pandemic recovery. By highlighting research gaps and opportunities, our findings provide a foundation for developing more comprehensive approaches to health research that address the disparities exacerbated by COVID-19 while advancing the 2030 agenda. This model could inform research prioritization at other institutions facing similar challenges in both local and global contexts
The agony of choice: comparing abundance estimates from multiple N-mixture model variants fitted to a reptile community dataset
(Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 2025) van Wyk, Kurt; Maritz, Bryan
Ecological surveys rarely achieve perfect detection of target species, and failure to account for imperfect detection produces erroneous estimates of abundance. N-mixture models account for variation in detectability by separating the observation process from the ecological process that determines true site-level abundance, making these models theoretically well suited to studies of inconspicuous species, such as reptiles. Multiple N-mixture model variants have been published in different fields of ecology, but little is known about their ability to provide ecologically realistic abundance estimates from real-world observation data, especially for reptiles, which routinely have very low detection probabilities. Using a dataset of reptile observations from southeastern Zimbabwe, we compared estimates of five N-mixture model variants. For each species, we assessed the goodness-of-fit of each variant, proximity of each variant’s site-level abundance estimates to an ecologically realistic range of values, and congruence between these estimates. We were able to fit acceptable models only for the most frequently detected species in our dataset (9 of 25 species). We found that model fit varied significantly according to model variant as well as species occupancy and detection probability, and that model variant pairs were rarely congruent in their abundance estimates. Importantly, our results demonstrate that fitting a single N-mixture model variant to data sampled from an ecologically diverse community can yield artifactual variation in abundance estimates. Further case studies in reptile spatial ecology will help to identify circumstances in which a priori matching of species and method of abundance estimation may be possible. Until then, rigorous but adaptive survey design may be a more reliable means of avoiding bias than accounting for it statistically. We provide a framework for application of multiple N-mixture model variants in faunal ecology to guide analytical decision-making.