Browsing by Subject "Agency"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Resilience and sustainability in the informal economy: an exploration of Cape Town's informal food traders amidst disruption
    (2025) Dodge, Catherine; Munyai, Keneilwe
    The role of informal food traders in responding to the needs of local communities is crucial to achieving SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Different frameworks, developed by the Global North, have sprung up around the Sustainable Development Goals (a replacement of the Millennial Goals) to measure progress towards sustainability and address different aspects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) but have a limited look at the role played by the informal economy. This gap highlights a lack of understanding of how informal systems contribute to sustainability, particularly in developing regions. Calls have emerged for increased research into the informal economy within a sustainability context, as previous economic models have largely ignored it. As part of this under-researched landscape, South African informal traders exemplify resilience as they face disruptions, such as rolling blackouts, extreme weather events, a global pandemic, and persistent socioeconomic challenges like high unemployment and inequality. Food security is at risk for millions of South African households as families grapple with high food inflation and low disposable incomes. Building on the strengths of inductive, interpretivist approach, this qualitative study explores how informal traders respond to disruption to increase the sustainability of their businesses in Cape Town, South Africa. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews and observations, this study sheds light on the resilience and adaptability of informal food traders and the crucial role they play in providing food security in low-income areas. It looks at existing sustainable practices within the business and highlights where technology may be used as a tool for scalability and replicability. The significance of this study lies in recognising informal traders as potential catalysts for sustainable practices, influencing larger market trends and environmental stewardship.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Transgressive matriarchs: an exploration of female agency and resistance in South African telenovelas
    (2025) Ramodibe, Mamodibe; Smit, Alexia
    This study explores the concept of transgressive Black womanhood in two South African telenovelas, examining whether acts of transgression disrupt existing depictions of the matriarchal figure onscreen. Drawing on the works of Sisonke Msimang, Pumla Gqola and Sabine Binder, specifically their analyses of the iconography surrounding Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, this paper interprets the two Black female protagonists under this study within a political and historical framework. Through close textual analysis, this study examines the narrative construction and characterisation of Lindiwe Dikana from (The River 2018 - 2024) and Harriet Khoza from (The Queen 2016 - 2023) assessing the extent to which these characters transgress social and cultural boundaries. In addition, it investigates whether their transgressions perpetuate stereotypical portrayals or complicate the traditional depiction of the Black matriarch in South African television. This study finds that, while the character constructions of both Lindiwe Dikana and Harriet Khoza are rooted in heteronormative portrayals of traditional gender roles—where both are established as wives and mothers—they transgress prescribed notions of motherhood and challenge gendered social norms of femininity. Moreover, the analysis reveals that these characters not only subvert sociocultural expectations surrounding motherhood and femininity but also defy societal norms related to widowhood, as exemplified in the case of Harriet Khoza. These transgressions emerge as modes of resistance, alternative expressions of identity, and the exercise of agency within patriarchal structures. In the analysis of The River (2018–2024), this study draws on Viraj Suparsad's (2022) concept of 'complicated femininity' to explore the moral ambiguity of Lindiwe Dikana, a complexity seldom attributed to Black matriarchal figures in mainstream media. In contrast, the examination of The Queen (2016–2023) utilizes Sabine Binder's notion of 'violent female masculinity' to illustrate how violent acts can be interpreted as transformative, particularly when they serve to transgress and destabilize constructed norms of femininity. This study concludes that the episodes selected from the respective telenovelas offer a nuanced and complex portrayal of Black matriarchal figures, presenting innovative and layered representations of Black women on screen.