Daniel Roux

Jonny Steinberg's the number and prison life writing in post-apartheid South Africa

Under apartheid, the prison autobiography enjoyed a privileged status, with the prison playing the role of the apartheid state in miniature: the penitentiary was one of the most coercive material manifestations of a racist and brutal regime. With the demise of apartheid, however, the prison autobiography has become a marginalised and depoliticised genre. The loss of status of the prison autobiography is paralleled by the endemic neglect of the penitentiary system, despite its important role in South African history. A close reading of the tropes and rhetoric of apartheid‐era prison writing can provide some explanation for the abrupt marginalisation of the penitentiary as a socially important space after 1994: in particular, the line that is drawn between criminal convicts and political prisoners in apartheid‐era prison autobiographies anticipates the neglect of the penitentiary under democracy. One exceptional post‐apartheid reflection on life in prison, Jonny Steinberg’s The Number, stands out both for asking subtle questions about the ideological boundary between the political and the criminal prisoner and for the way it perpetuates the tradition, forged under apartheid, of using the prison as a site for radical social analysis and criticism.

Can I Have Your Attention, Please?: An Empirical Investigation of Media Multitasking during University Lectures

The growing prevalence of continuous media use among university students in lecture environments has potential for detrimental effects. In this study the focus is placed upon the implications of digital media multitasking in a university lecture context for academic performance and learning. Previous studies reveal that students frequently engage with digital media whilst in a university lecture. Moreover, research has shown that multitasking imposes a cognitive cost, detrimental to learning and task execution. We propose, accordingly, that the constant distractions created by digital media interrupt the thought and communication processes of students and, subsequently, obstruct their ability to learn. To test this proposition we conduct a survey-based empirical investigation of digital media use and academic performance among undergraduate university students. A clear negative correlation was shown between frequency of media use and academic performance. This result confirms the hypothesis that there exists a negative correlation between digital media use during lectures and academic performance. The confirmation of this negative relationship suggests that media use poses a significant distraction to students.

Performance Evaluation and Design of a New Cooling Tower Spray System for Uniform Water Distribution

ABSTRACT The performance of wet cooling towers can be improved by installing sprayers that distribute the cooling water uniformly onto the fill while operating at a low pressure head. This paper presents the methodology that was followed to design a new cooling tower spray nozzle. The fluid dynamics of an orifice nozzle, such as the effect of a change in pressure head, spray angle, spray height, orifice diameter, and wall thickness on drop diameter and spray distance, is experimentally investigated, and ultimately a model with which a spray nozzle can be designed is presented. The manufacture and testing of a prototype spray nozzle show that it is possible to enhance the performance of sprayers and thus wet cooling towers by means of the methods presented.

In-lecture media use and academic performance: Does subject area matter?

The current generation of university students display an increasing propensity for media multitasking behaviour with digital devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. A growing body of empirical evidence has shown that this behaviour is associated with reduced academic performance. In this study it is proposed that the subject area within which an individual is situated may influence the relationship between media multitasking and academic performance. This proposition is evaluated, firstly, by means of a meta-review of prior studies in this area and, secondly, through a survey-based study of 1678 students at a large university in South Africa. Our findings suggest that little or no attention has been paid to variations between students from different subject areas in previous work and, based on our data, that subject area does influence the relationship between media use and academic performance. The study found that while a significant negative correlation exists between in-lecture media use and academic performance for students in the Arts and Social Sciences, the same pattern is not observable for students in the faculties of Engineering, Economic and Management Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences. Media use (MU) and academic performance (AP) studies omit subject area comparison.Sample populations tend to be biased toward social science programs.Data show differences in the type and frequency of MU across subject areas.Differences between MU and AP correlations were found for different subject areas.MU is a stronger predictor of AP for students in the soft sciences.

A New Generation of Students: Digital Media in Academic Contexts

The growing presence of digital media in the lives of university students signals a change in how use of such media in educational contexts should be viewed. Institutional focus on technologically mediated education and the promotion of blended learning initiatives further serve to encourage media use in academic settings. Scant attention has been afforded to the potential negative consequences arising from heightened media engagement. This is especially the case in areas of study where technological artifacts are often the medium and the subject of interest, for instance the computer and information sciences. In this study a survey was done to investigate students’ use of media, as well as the behavioural beliefs, norms and motivators surrounding such use.

Foundling's Island

P. R. Anderson. 2007. Foundlings Island. Cape Town: UCT Writers Series. 64 pp. ISBN 9781920218034.

Automation and employment: The case of South Africa

In the two centuries since the Industrial Revolution technological progress has had a major impact on the types of work humans perform. The invention of increasingly advanced machinery decreases, o...In the two centuries since the Industrial Revolution technological progress has had a major impact on the types of work humans perform. The invention of increasingly advanced machinery decreases, on one hand, the need for certain forms of manual labour while, on the other, creating new needs and new types of work. Through continuous cycles of this process advanced industries have emerged enabling standards of living to rise across the world. The most recent wave of technological progress is characterized by increasingly intelligent computers and computer-driven machinery. This has coincided with the rise of economic inequality in previously egalitarian countries, prompting debate over the implications of the computer revolution for low and medium-skilled workers. In this study focus falls on the possible implications of these developments for the South African labour market. By using an oft-cited index of occupation computerization probabilities in combination with Stats SA labour market data, a future outlook is determined and presented. Findings suggest that the occupations performed by almost 35% of South African workers (roughly 4.5 million people) are potentially automatable in the near future.

A system dynamics approach to increasing user participation in a blog-based online social network: The case of Bonfiire

In blog-based online social networks specifically, and online social networks generally, increasing user participation is a key determinant of success and sustainability. In past research, the issue has been addressed mostly by focusing on individual actors (i.e. the humans participating in these networks) or groups of individuals. Rarely are these networks studied from a system-centric vantage point. The present study uses this paradigm and employs system dynamics, an approach to exploring and modeling complex systems, to study Bonfiire, a case of a blog-based online social network. Through an iterative methodology, a conceptual model of the socio-technical system is presented and then converted into a simulation model, to allow for the simulation of behaviour and the interrogation of assumptions. On the basis of these checks for rigour, the simulation model is used to find leverage points to increase user participation. Finally, a low-input, high-impact policy to address this issue is proposed and evaluated. The results show promise not only for understanding the issue of user participation, but also for the usefulness and applicability of a system dynamics approach to this issue.