Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (former Departments)

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Browsing Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (former Departments) by Subject "Communication and culture"

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    Die effek van multikulturele kommunikasie tydens publieke deelname
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-12) Du Toit, L. H.; Welch, C. T.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences . Dept. of Sustainable Development Planning & Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa has a long history of social and physical segregation, which is also reflected in issues pertaining to the discipline of planning. In the past Apartheid policy and laws could be blamed for this, but today difficulties in uniting the different cultures and in addressing everyone's needs still exist. To date, the planning discipline has adopted a Western European top down approach, largely ignoring the fact that the country comprises a number of different cultures with different needs. In terms of a wide range of legislation, notably the Constitution of 1996, South Africans are bound to address and accommodate this diversity. Public participation is seen as a way to address these problems, as a result of which a number of different laws and regulations pertaining to procedures broaden the extent of public participation. Despite this, there is little visible evidence that the diversity of participants has any real influence on planning processes or their end results. Public workshops and seminars are frequently criticised because they are time-consuming and because participants have different agendas. Although a good deal of research has been done on the streamlining of procedures, not much attention has been given to the communication process and the nature of constructive dialogue. It follows that a significant part of confusion could be attributed to a lack of mutual understanding during the communication process and to faulty decoding or interpretation of message content. In this study project research was undertaken on the different aspects of communication and the effect of it on interpretation. It was found in a case study of the Stellenbosch Integrated Development Program (IDP), that disruption often occurred due to differences in multicultural communication. Solutions, as presented by the participants and other writers, are offered and discussed.