In support of situated ethics: ways of building trust with stigmatised ‘waste pickers’ in Cape Town

Perez, Teresa Sandra

doi:10.1177/1468794117746553

Cited by 29 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…A primary reason for this is that bin foraging is often subject to social stigma e.g. [55], [2], [6], [82] as a result, they did not feel comfortable sharing their experience. Secondly, as some of the participants reported, although they had been contacted in the past to participate in researches of this nature, there was no further follow-up, so they thought our effort (researchers') could be an attempt to waste their time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scavenging for Survival and its Health Implications. The nexus between Unemployment and Ill-health

Iwu

Eze

Opute³

et al. 2021

Wseas Transactions on Environment and Development

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According to a popular adage, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. With unemployment on the constant increase in South Africa, people are becoming more relentless in seeking means to earn a living. Waste picking has become, for example, an option for individuals in responding to the economic challenge in order to provide for themselves and families. By odd, the researchers refer to foraging in bins for items that have been discarded by others, which may be sold for cash. Although this practice offers an opportunity for self-employment, there is also a concern that those who deal in waste may be exposing themselves and perhaps their families to social stigma and health problems. This article looks at both the challenges of waste picking (more specifically health) and the desperate state of unemployment in South Africa. In doing that, we aim to address three central questions: (1) why are people waste picking? (2) Is waste picking a sustainable venture? and (3) what are the challenges in waste picking? To obtain deeper insights into the themes captured in the aforementioned research questions; face to face interviews were conducted with participants. Empirically, four central factors push participants into waste picking ventures: unemployment, retrenchment, unemployability, and the need for augmented income. Also, we found that although waste pickers continue the practice to sustain themselves and their families, waste picking does not sufficiently offer sustainable income, improved livelihoods nor reduced dependency on public social and health systems. There is a need to enhance the capacity of the South African public health system to adequately cater for those who regularly need its services and as this study has shown, the continuous practice of waste picking is synonymous with ill health and pressure on public health systems. We flag directions for future research.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scavenging for Survival and its Health Implications. The nexus between Unemployment and Ill-health

Iwu

Eze

Opute³

et al. 2021

Wseas Transactions on Environment and Development

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“…Although ethical approval was obtained via the University of Cape Town's Science Faculty review process, I took a situated approach to ethics (Perez, 2019). I made fieldnotes available to teams to use for their workshop reports and was in continuous conversation with facilitators about my research.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipating workshop fatigue to navigate power relations in international transdisciplinary partnerships: A climate change case study

Perez

2020

Current Sociology

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Workshop fatigue is a colloquialism to describe apathy towards facilitated discussions that, in interventions designed to build partnerships, tends to be viewed as somewhat inevitable. To challenge this assumption, this article theorises fatigue as a subtle form of resistance. Evidence is based on qualitative research as part of a climate change collaboration, with a focus on a methodology called ‘transformative scenario planning’. The author combines Goffman, Scott and Pratt to analyse interactions between facilitators, researchers and stakeholders in meetings and workshops. Historical representations of scientific endeavours are contrasted with performances of participation in Namibia, India and Botswana. The article concludes that anticipating workshop fatigue could be an accessible way to surface power relations in inherently unequal international partnerships, and bring a sociological sensibility to transdisciplinary climate change research.

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“…In addition to institutional ethics, we were guided by situated ethics (Perez, 2017). Situated ethics, ‘acknowledges the uniqueness and complexity of each situation and any ethical decision needs to take cognisance of the precise way in which many… factors are played out in the specific socio-political context’ (Piper & Simons, 2005: 58).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating and understanding organisational complexity in health services: The value of POSH-VRE

Collier

Hodgins

2019

Journal of Management & Organization

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This methodological article introduces positive organisational scholarship in healthcare and video reflexive ethnography (POSH-VRE) as a methodology to cut through the challenges of accessing and engaging organisations for research. We demonstrate how POSH-VRE can open space to navigate and better understand organisational complexity and build capacity. Organisational complexity denotes the interrelated components of a system. POSH-VRE can be helpful within complex organisations, such as health services, because it focuses on positive healthcare practices and experiences. We exemplify this with reference to a study on brilliant community-based palliative care. Using fieldnotes and video-recordings, we reveal the value of positive recognition – or celebration; video-cameras; and courtesy, whereby we adapted to different contexts. POSH-VRE can be of scholarly, methodological, and organisational value. It enables researchers to navigate organisational complexity and co-construct findings with nonacademic experts. Furthermore, it can encourage nonacademic experts to improve practice by learning from their own capacities to navigate organisational complexity.

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In support of situated ethics: ways of building trust with stigmatised ‘waste pickers’ in Cape Town

Cited by 29 publications

References 50 publications

Scavenging for Survival and its Health Implications. The nexus between Unemployment and Ill-health

Scavenging for Survival and its Health Implications. The nexus between Unemployment and Ill-health

Anticipating workshop fatigue to navigate power relations in international transdisciplinary partnerships: A climate change case study

Navigating and understanding organisational complexity in health services: The value of POSH-VRE

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