Search

This thesis makes an original contribution to the literature on the sociology of Islām, and in particular, to the practice of zakāt. Its attention to the lived experience of Muslims in Qatar provides a window onto the motivations and actions of individual zakāt-givers and their relationship with religion and wider society. Through a combination of surveys and interviews the research participants (both Qatari citizens and residents) reveal how the practice of zakāt is shaped by religious motivations, tribalism, different cultural backgrounds, Muslim scholars' interpretations, governmental and non-governmental charitable organisations' behaviour, and political intervention. The findings suggest that, Qatari zakāt-givers' decision-making is influenced by their relationship with Allah, their self-evaluation, and their consideration of society as a whole. Qatari zakāt-givers' lived religious experiences are reflected in their choices: practice, denial, avoidance, or ignorance (ignoring) zakāt. The important and distinctive contribution of this research is its attention to lived experiences. It demonstrates that both theological and sociological influences shape the motivations that inform individual decision-making regarding the practice of zakāt. This research develops a model that privileges everyday experiences of theologically-determined religious the practice of zakāt. This model can be used to study additional aspects of Islām in other geographical contexts. To complete the understanding of the lived experiences of zakāt in Qatar, and to strengthen the practice of zakāt, further complementary studies are required, which focus not only on the zakāt-givers but also on the lived experience of beneficiaries.

This research considers the transformative potential of agroecological processes in rural farming communities beset by a history of endemic violence, and where the unresolved national question of identity and nationhood, intrinsically linked to agrarian change, has contributed to a succession of protracted crises that continue to foment political violence and reinforce power asymmetries. The research question has sought to explore whether emerging agroecological learning processes have contributed to the resilience and agency of practicing communities, and how these might inform conflict transformation in the context of everyday peace. To answer this, the study was designed to unfold inductively around the participatory and heuristic principles of agroecology itself, and involved three communities of agroecological practice in Zimbabwe; each defining the central research concepts of resilience, agency and peace, and co-developing a series of emic indicators in order to explore how these are experienced in the everyday by others in their community. Viewed through a political ecology lens the analysis focuses on the social-ecological processes and relationships through which each community mobilises and shapes change on their own terms. With a highly masculinised and exclusory popular imaginary, intolerant of pluralism and driven by a centralising developmentalist state, even deviation from technocratic farming norms may be considered seditious. This research explores the extent to which these small 'non-movements' are able to move beneath the radar and employ agroecological strategies as a set of non-threatening and situated tools to shape their physical landscape and negotiate social change by forging farmer networks based on principles of reciprocity and trust. In drawing upon, questioning and contextualising 'transformation', the research proposes that the practice-based, bottom-up processes at the core of transformative agroecology that involve the remembering of subordinated subjectivities have profound implications for culturing social change towards more equitable outcomes for sustainable peace at the rural margins.

In the last four decades, transitional justice processes and mechanisms that confront the legacies of historical injustices have become ubiquitous. Criminal trials, truth commissions, amnesties, hybrid tribunals, reparations, restitution and reconciliation have been the dominant approaches in that encounter with the past. These mechanisms and processes have largely remained within narrow Western and Euro-centric, top-down, donor-driven and state-centric frameworks. However, these processes and mechanisms have struggled to respond to the multi-faceted dimensions of justice after conflict to the extent that they have failed to be relevant and responsive to the justice needs and expectations of victims. These mechanisms and processes have continued to be completely decontextualized from the circumstances of those that endured the impact of mass atrocities. While victims have become central to transitional justice scholarship and practice, their perceptions and expectations of justice have rarely been placed at the heart of mechanisms and processes that seek to address the injustices they endured. Using a grounded theory methodology undertaken in Cape Town and East Rand, South Africa between January and July 2016, 52 participants were interviewed through semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Cape Town was chosen because it is an emblem of the journey that South Africa has traversed as a country. It is where the first European settlers arrived in 1652, later becoming the seat of the colonial and apartheid regimes in which racial segregation policies were promulgated and executed. The large black townships of the East Rand were chosen because they represent a different dimension of the black-on-black violence between supporters of the ANC and the IFP—induced by apartheid—that continued right to the end of minority rule. The major findings of this research demonstrate that transitional justice is understood and interpreted by victims of apartheid in varied and dissimilar ways. Most significantly their perceptions of justice premised on restoring their humanity must be incorporated into the design and implementation of transitional justice processes and mechanisms in order to be responsive to their needs and interests. The study further underscores that what victims of apartheid expected from the transitional justice processes and mechanisms remains unmet, 23 years after the TRC concluded its work. Perhaps by integrating these expectations in the design and implementation of its processes and mechanisms, transitional justice could have better responded to their needs and interests. To that end, the thesis advocates for a wider conception of transitional justice-one that is relevant and responsive to the needs and expectations of apartheid’s victims. The thesis proposes that this broader conception must ensure that victims are part of the design and implementation of transitional justice processes and mechanisms.

This thesis examines the artisanal mining-combatant-recruitment nexus in war torn zones. With a case study of the Kivus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has experienced one of the world’s worst blood-shedding over the last two decades, the study uses a constructivist Grounded Theory approach to research in terms of both data collection and analysis. It focuses on the existing body of knowledge on conflict analyses with a particular reference to the absurdity of abundance theory, which singles out the endowment of natural resources and weak governance as the main fuelling-factors of the conflict in the DRC. Data collection was carried out using diverse methods including literature reviews, interviews and focus groups. In particular, the study aims to explore how the demilitarisation of the mining zones could contribute to enhancement of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants and promote social cohesion, sustainable peace and security in the eastern DRC. The analysis of the conflicts in the DRC and the acquaintance of belligerents with artisanal mining revealed the convoluted multi-layered nature of the conflicts in the country and their intricate causalities. The examination of the demilitarisation of the mining zones pertinent to the nexus between artisanal mining and the recruitment, reintegration and re-recruitment of combatants in the Kivus identified a few prerequisites in order to sever the artisanal mining-combatant-recruitment relationship that largely swivel around “bottom-up solutions”. The research contributes to knowledge in three broad areas; firstly, it contributes to ongoing academic debates on conflict analyses, the political economy of armed conflicts vis-à-vis mining sector as well as the mining sector and DDR of combatants in the DRC. Secondly, it offers empirical analysis and data on the combatants’ recruitment and DDR process and the artisanal mining sector with regards to state failure and protracted armed conflict in the DRC. Finally, it underlines the need to re-evaluate “the concept of community-based approach”, a key approach to improving peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery in the eastern DRC.