No African renaissance without disabled women: a communal approach to human development in Cape Town South Africa

The African Renaissance is upon us. Those who have eyes to see, let them see.

Disabled women who live in wooden shacks in the peri-urban areas of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa, participated in storytelling workshops over a two-and-a-half-year period. They shared experiences of what helped or hindered their social and economic development since becoming disabled. The workshops were part of a participatory action research (PAR) study of the Division of Occupational Therapy, University of Cape Town, together with Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) and the Zanempilo Health Trust [formerly South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) Primary Health Care Project].

The findings revealed the struggles and sadness, as well as the strengths and spirit that the women experienced within their every day context at an individual, family and community level. The women spoke strongly about meeting physical, emotional, and spiritual needs (human development) as the means to social and economic development.

The discussion reflects on the many paradoxes of disability encapsulated in the essence of interdependence of Ubuntu. Three themes discussed are building emotional resourcefulness: nurturing children and families in disability issues; and renewing spirituality and Ubuntu in disability and development programmes. In conclusion, managing the paradoxes of disability, the creation of a new individual and collective identity, and the capacity to change are proposed as the way forward.     

The Paradox of Authentic Selves and Chameleons: Self‐monitoring,Perceived Job Autonomy and Contextual Performance

We investigate how self‐monitoring combines with the degree of perceived job autonomy to affect contextual performance. We explore both a mediation model, built on theories on individual differences in the perception of job characteristics, and a moderation model, built on theories of the interaction between personality and perceived job situation. Empirical evidence suggests that self‐monitoring and perceived job autonomy significantly predict contextual performance. In addition, an interesting paradox emerges: high self‐monitors are likely to perceive higher job autonomy than low self‐monitors but appear to benefit less from perceiving high job autonomy than low self‐monitors. This paper provides a richer understanding of the controversial nature of the self‐monitoring construct and offers a new specification of the combination between perceived situational and personality variables in the prediction of behavioural outcomes.     

The effect of natural disasters on nuptiality: evidence from L’Aquila earthquake (Italy)

Population and Environment - Drawing on socio-psychology and economics literature contributions, this paper provides an original conceptual framework examining whether and how natural disasters...     

Book reviews

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 gave an opportunity to remake not just political institutions, but ethno-religious distinction in Northern Ireland. This article looks at how individuals reconstruct their way of being Protestant in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the context of social and political change. It shows individuals renegotiating their ways of being Protestant, attempting sometimes successfully to change its socio-cultural salience, blurring ethnic boundaries, distinguishing religious and ethno-national narratives, drawing universalistic political norms from their particular religious tradition. It argues that these renegotiations are highly sensitive to the macro-political context. Changes in this context affect individuals through their changing cognitive understandings and strategic interests that, at least in this case, are as important to identification as social solidarities.     

The abundance of yellow-legged gulls Larus michahellis breeding in the historic centre of Venice,Italy and the initial effects of the new waste collection policy on the population

The yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis has undergone widespread colonization of the urban environment in the recent past. The first urban breeding gulls were recorded in the historical centre of Venice, Italy, in 2000, and by 2005 there were already 24 roof-nesting pairs, with this number increasing significantly over the last decade. In 2016, a new door-to-door garbage collection system was introduced in Venice to prevent the accumulation of rubbish in the streets and limit the trophic resources available for the species. This study provides an up-to-date estimate of the Venice yellow-legged gull urban population using distance sampling method. We also studied the effect of the new waste collection system on the species by comparing the population estimate before (2017) and after (2018) the full implementation of this change and by analysing the trend of individuals collected in the old town by the wildlife recovery service during 2010–2018. Results estimated ca. 430 breeding pairs in June 2018 showing a 36% decrease with respect to 2017. We also found a decrease in the number of 1-year-old birds and pulli collected by the wildlife recovery service starting from 2016, when the policy implementation began. Our data did not show a significant decrease in the overall number of individuals, suggesting that the new policy has a stronger effect on the breeding success of the species than on adult survival. This study emphasizes the importance of preventing rubbish accumulation in the streets as factor for reducing the abundance of urban yellow-legged gulls.