Subject Guides: Political Studies: Post-Graduates

Postgraduate Research Support

The Library Postgraduate Research Support service provides guidance and relevant training that supports postgraduate students and researchers during their research journey.

Information and Research Guides

See the Library Postgraduate Research Support guide for more information on recommended and authoritative resources. This guide provides a useful starting point for finding relevant subject information.

You may also consult the SAGE Research Methods guide to help you in finding the best literature to enable you to choose a methodology and launch into your research project.

Training Programme

A series of training sessions is scheduled to run during the 1st and 2nd semesters. Invitations to these sessions are sent to the postgraduate and research community through UWC Communication.

In the case where dates are not suitable, presentations can be done by invitation. Send an email request to library-research@uwc.ac.za

The session cover but are not limited to the following:

Introduction to Library Resources & Facilities
SAGE Research Methods Online
Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar
Research Visibility and Researcher Profiles
Citation tools: Mendeley & EndNote

The Division for Postgraduate Studies (DPGS) offers virtual mentoring to registered UWC postgraduate (PG) students.

Duties of the Writing Coaches

Conduct a one-on-one academic interaction with postgraduate students on general academic writing skills.
Provide comprehensive assistance in writing skills within the context of organised, logical and coherent presentations of research proposals and theses.
Assist postgraduate students with supervisor's comments in proposals or thesis drafts.

Duties of the Statistical Coaches

Assistance with the development of data collection tools (surveys, questionnaires, etc)
Data preparation and cleaning:
- Master sheet preparation, coding and labeling
- Data cleaning
- Assist with data analysis
- Use of data analysis software: SPSS and AtlasTi.

COACHES DO NOT WRITE FOR STUDENTS AND ARE NOT SUPERVISORS!

To request and be assigned a writing or statistical coach, please complete the JOTFORM via the link below:
https://form.jotform.com/51601578349965

The UWC Writing Centre aims to assist students with academic writing through providing support, feedback and advice, which is given by postgraduate tutors. It also helps lecturers to support the development of students’ writing in their courses.

They offer assistance with the following elements of writing:

Planning an essay or assignment, analysing the question and developing or improving the structure of the assignment.
Developing a coherent argument, providing evidence to support an argument; a clear structure and relevant response to the question.
Appropriate writing style and tone.
Using sources from literature, referencing and avoiding plagiarism.
Assistance with grammar and punctuation errors if needed.

How to book a consultation

There are a few ways of booking a consultation:

Go to the Writing Centre and make an appointment with their administrator.
Email writingcentre@uwc.ac.za to make an appointment with a tutor, or to request feedback via email, using the MS Word Comment function.
Call to make a booking on 021 959 2404.

You need to provide the Writing Centre with a copy of the draft of the writing you are working on, the assignment question (and instructions). If the lecturer has given you a rubric for the assignment, please share that with us as well. The Writing Centre should be able to give you an appointment within 24 hours, depending on how busy they are. Please leave yourself enough time to work on the assignment once you have received feedback.

Qualitative Research in Information Systems by David E. Avison (Editor); Michael D. Myers (Editor) Qualitative research has become a legitimate approach within the information systems community, but researchers have traditionally drawn upon material from the social sciences given the absence of a single source relevant to them. Qualitative Research in Information Systems: A Reader represents just such a volume and is both timely and relevant. Information systems and qualitative research articles are now widely used for teaching on many upper level courses in information systems, and there is demand for a definitive collection of these readings as a basic reader and teaching text. This book expertly brings together the seminal works in the field, along with editorial introductions to assist the reader in understanding the essential principles of qualitative research. The book is organised according to the following thematic sections: · Part I: Overview of Qualitative Research · Part II: Philosophical Perspectives · Part III: Qualitative Research Methods · Part IV: Modes of Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Data Qualitative Research in Information Systems: A Reader should become the benchmark reference point for students and researchers in information systems, management science and others involved in information technology needing to learn about qualitative research.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0761966331
Publication Date: 2002-06-17
Research Methods by Kirsty Williamson (Editor); Graeme Johanson (Editor) Research Methods: Information, Systems, and Contexts, Second Edition, presents up-to-date guidance on how to teach research methods to graduate students and professionals working in information management, information science, librarianship, archives, and records and information systems. It provides a coherent and precise account of current research themes and structures, giving students guidance, appreciation of the scope of research paradigms, and the consequences of specific courses of action. Each of these valuable sections will help users determine the relevance of particular approaches to their own questions. The book presents academics who teach research and information professionals who carry out research with new resources and guidance on lesser-known research paradigms. Provides up-to-date knowledge of research methods and their applications Provides a coherent and precise account of current research themes and structures through chapters written by authors who are experts in their fields Helps students and researchers understand the range of quantitative and qualitative approaches available for research, as well as how to make practical use of them Provides many illustrations from projects in which authors have been involved, to enhance understanding Emphasises the nexus between formulation of research question and choice of research methodology Enables new researchers to understand the implications of their planning decisions
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0081022212
Publication Date: 2017-11-27
Enterprise Content Management in Information Systems Research by Jan vom Brocke (Editor); Alexander Simons (Editor) This book collects ECM research from the academic discipline of Information Systems and related fields to support academics and practitioners who are interested in understanding the design, use and impact of ECM systems. It also provides a valuable resource for students and lecturers in the field. "Enterprise content management in Information Systems research - Foundations, methods and cases" consolidates our current knowledge on how today's organizations can manage their digital information assets. The business challenges related to organizational information management include reducing search times, maintaining information quality, and complying with reporting obligations and standards. Many of these challenges are well-known in information management, but because of the vast quantities of information being generated today, they are more difficult to deal with than ever. Many companies use the term "enterprise content management" (ECM) to refer to the management of all forms of information, especially unstructured information. While ECM systems promise to increase and maintain information quality, to streamline content-related business processes, and to track the lifecycle of information, their implementation poses several questions and challenges: Which content objects should be put under the control of the ECM system? Which processes are affected by the implementation? How should outdated technology be replaced? Research is challenged to support practitioners in answering these questions.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9783642397141
Publication Date: 2013-11-15
Scientific Research in Information Systems by Jan Recker This book is designed to introduce doctoral and other higher-degree research students to the process of scientific research in the fields of Information Systems as well as fields of Information Technology, Business Process Management and other related disciplines within the social sciences. It guides research students in their process of learning the life of a researcher. In doing so, it provides an understanding of the essential elements, concepts and challenges of the journey into research studies. It also provides a gateway for the student to inquire deeper about each element covered. Comprehensive and broad but also succinct and compact, the book is focusing on the key principles and challenges for a novice doctoral student.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9783642300486
Publication Date: 2012-07-30
Research in Information Systems by David Avison (Editor); Jan Pries-Heje (Editor) Research in Information Systems helps supervisors and their students get the most out of the PhD experience. It can be used as a basis of courses for supervisors and their research students. This book covers: * The supervisor - student relationship * Practical, social and academic issues * Different models for PhD programs, including US, UK, Latin and Scandinavian models Many vignettes of personal experiences and reflections provide context for the material. The book is written by experts - leading international academics in the field of information systems. They all have had wide experience of research supervision over many years in many countries.
Call Number: Level 14 ; 004.072 RES
ISBN: 9780750666558
Publication Date: 2004-11-23
Project Research in Information Systems by Tony Cornford; Steve Smithson Aimed at final year undergraduates and masters students undertaking research projects in information systems, this text offers a blend of practical guidelines and conceptual insight that will help students to complete high quality projects. Covering the whole range of processes in project work, from choosing a project, through project management, the collecting and analyzing of research data and on to writing the project report, the book provides an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the subject.
Call Number: Level 11 ; 025.04072 COR
ISBN: 9781403934710
Publication Date: 2017-07-18

Political identity as temporal collapse: Ethiopian federalism and contested ogaden histories Since the 1980s, analyses of African political identities have emphasized identity manipulation as a governance tool. In the Somali Horn of Africa, however, politicians’ efforts to reinvent identities confront rigid understandings of genealogical clanship as a key component of identity and political mobilization. This article explores how government efforts to construct a new ‘Ethiopian–Somali’ identity within Ethiopia’s ethnic-federal system are entangled with attempts to reinterpret clan genealogies and histories. We focus on efforts to revise the history of clans within the broader Ogaden Somali clan group and trace the possibilities and limits of these revisions in relation to legacies of colonialism as well as popular understandings of Ogaden identity. Drawing on feldwork and archival research, we show that political struggles over Somalis’ integration with Ethiopia orient around Somali clanship, but that clanship is not a mechanical tool of mobilization, as it is often portrayed. We suggest that genealogical relatedness does not equate to political loyalty, but genealogical discourse provides a framework by which various actors reinterpret contemporary events by collapsing history into the present to imbue clan, ethnic, and national identities with political signifcance.
Implementing accountability and transparency in supranational organisations: a comparison of the European Union and the African Union, 2001-2020 Despite discernible efforts by African political leaders to serve their people since the demise of colonialism and apartheid, African institutions are generally claimed to be ineffective. This indictment is partly due to their reliance on foreign donors and multilateral institutions for their financial survival. Another reason is failure by African leaders to implement their cogently thought through policy decisions as well as lack of unity which comes from the colonial legacy. The aim of this paper is to interrogate these perceptions using the African Union (AU) as a case study. To achieve this goal, the paper traces the history of the AU and juxtaposes it with the European Union (EU) to establish points of divergence. The paper uses institutionalismas its grounding theory. There is a general tendency in the scholarship to summarily dismiss African institutions without providing a closer analysis of what is at play. This paper aims to fill this lacuna by enumerating factors that weaken the AU as an institution. The key argument is that the lack of transparency and accountability in the AU cannot be understood in a vacuum. Thus, context is deemed critical in the analysis. The paper then proffers ideas on the way forward
African peacekeeping and African integration: Current challenges- Gottschalk, Keith Peacekeeping and economic union are the two most important dimensions of African integration. The first section of this article aims to analyse some current challenges to African peacekeeping, peacemaking, and African integration. The continuing Libyan civil war epitomizes the diplomatic stalemates and military stalemates which form the limits of current African peacekeeping. It exposes the North African Regional Capability and North African Standby Brigade as paper structures which do not exist operationally, and so limit the capacity of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. The military intervention of states outside Africa can polarize conflicts and escalate civil wars. Africa’s colonial epoch serves as a warning of the potential dangers of foreign military bases in Africa. In parts of West Africa, states sub-contract peacemaking and anti-terrorist operations to unsupervised local militias, which are lawless at best, and commit ethnic killings at worst. African integration fares better in the economic dimension.
After the riot? Rancière, Hamilton, and radical politics - Piper, Laurence In recent years, political forces from the Occupy movement in North America to the #FeesMustFall student protest in South Africa have attempted to disrupt the political order in the name of democratic equality. Inspired by radical theorists like Rancière, this politics promises a model of social change through the combination of the disruption of institutions and the reinvention of daily life and political subjectivities. I argue that this radical politics comes with significant limits if it ignores the requirement to build more inclusive policies and new institutions too. This is because disruption alone may extend exclusion by prompting more elite coercion and popular backlash. This claim is illustrated through the example of the #FeesMustFall movement. What is needed instead is a radical politics that also includes a clear theoretical focus on policy and institutional change, such as is contained in Hamilton’s account of freedom as power through representation.
Informality disallowed: State restrictions on informal traders and micro-enterprises in Browns farm, Cape Town, South Africa This chapter examines the impact of regulations and law enforcement on the economic activities of informal traders and micro-entrepreneurs in marginalised communities on the urban periphery. Our case site is Browns Farm, Philippi, a township in the City of Cape Town, South Africa, where a micro-enterprise census and business operator survey was conducted in 2011 (Charman et al, 2015). The chapter argues that despite the signi¿cant number of informal businesses in South African townships, the state continues to pursue efforts that either prevent formalisation or circumscribe informal activities. At the heart of our argument is the assertion that the informal economic practices of the urban poor constitute a ‘lived economy’ whose
Power in action: Democracy, citizenship and social justice by Steven Friedman Steven Friedman has long been one of South Africa’s premier public intellectuals, making invaluable and thoughtful contributions on the political issues of the day. In Power in Action, he zooms out from everyday issues to reflect on politics and democracy more generally, but it’s a view deeply informed by quotidian struggles and also by the South African experience. At its heart, Friedman’s argument is that contention and agency are what bring political change, and that making democracy real means that the poor and marginalised must confront the state in an organised way and on an ongoing basis. Only by challenging government every day through collective action will ordinary citizens claim the power to influence decisions that affect their daily lives – which for Friedman is the fundamental meaning of democracy.
Demonstration fields’, anticipation, and contestation: agrarian change and the political economy of development corridors in Eastern Africa In much of Eastern Africa, the last decade has seen a renewed interest in spatial development plans that link mineral exploitation, transport infrastructure and agricultural commercialisation. While these development corridors have yielded complex results – even in cases where significant investments are yet to happen – much of the existing analysis continues to focus on economic and implementation questions, where failures are attributed to inappropriate incentives or lack of ‘political will’

Political Studies

Faculty Librarian: EMS

Postgraduate Research Support

How to book a consultation

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