Describe briefly what SA’s water challenge is according to Kohler and what the energy challenge is according to Sarkodie and Adams.

According to Köhler (2016:3), total usage exceeds average annual rainfall, and anticipated evaporation exceeds total precipitation in the country.

Many South Africans, according to Sarkodie and Adams (2020), cannot afford power, and it is not easily accessible to a large number of people. Electricity is only available to the "wealthy."

What is social justice according to Calma et al. 2011?

Fair rights for all citizens, equal allocation of social resources, and structural improvements to indiscriminate access to and ability to get social goods and services are all part of social justice (Calma et al., 2011:10)

What is environmental social justice according to Rathzel?

Environmental social justice emphasizes the idea that environmental sustainability has a direct impact on long-term employment. Indeed, according to Räthzel (2018:512), "[nature's] destruction poses a hazard to workers' health," and "Nature must be conserved since its destruction poses a harm to employees."

In what way was a wetland programme used to alleviate poverty? (Zabala and Sulivan).

In poverty-stricken areas, the Wetland project aims to purify water, provide water, and manage water flow. This project also assisted in the employment of at least 2000 low-income persons. Trying to make their life a little easier.

Reflect on the state of the environment in SA in relation to sustainable resources and social justice (using Stewart and Zaaiman as guide). 

According to Sishutu (2015:521), not only is the current energy crisis destabilizing South Africa's ecology, but so is the existing, carbon-based, accumulative-capitalistic economy's continuous large-scale exploitation and destruction of natural resources. The state of the environment in South Africa is very bad and sadly it is only getting worse. Almost all of our resources such as coals for electricity and water resources are finished. So we are forced to use other, more expensive ways to provide electricity and water to people. This is not convenient, because a lot of people in South Africa are poor and cannot afford to make this change.

Name the four environmental narratives identified in South Africa.

1. the conservation
2. the economic
3. non-state actors
4. local views

 What is the objectives and motive for each narrative?

The conservation

The conservation objective what it does is to exclude people and remove their rights to land and other natural resources on that land,

The motivation is to secure land conservation in the interests of a nation, region, or community; it has a laudable goal but ineffective mechanisms.

The Economic

The objective is that the environment is regarded as a commodity to be sold and purchased. The view is seen to be a valuable resource.

The motivation is that Nature is an untapped resource that should be used (and hence sold for profit) to help people escape poverty – so there is a financial motive as well as a development motive.

Non-state actors

The objective is that the view emanates from outsiders with an interest in the local community.

The motivation for the approach is the environment's inherent value should be maintained and cherished. The conviction that natural resources are finite.

Local Views

The objective is that Because of time, geography, human qualities and circumstances, as well as local power and politics, perspectives are diverse and greatly differentiated.

The motivation is that the socio-political context shapes the nature of the relationship with the environment; policies and practices serve as a framework for local populations' opinions and responses.

Do these narratives contribute to an understanding of the SA environment?

They do, in fact, all of these stories allow us to gain a better understanding of our South African environment and how we may contribute to its 'well-being.' It also assists us in comprehending what we, as people, do to degrade the natural environment of our country. This enlightens us, allowing us to choose whether to change and preserve our world or to stay the same.

What are the two main environmental discourses in SA, according to Stewart and Zaaiman?

Sustainable development discourse

The Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services initiative, in collaboration with other countries, is working to develop the theory and practice of ecosystem accounting. This discussion demonstrates how and where people are most reliant on nature and have the greatest impact on it.

Social injustice environment discourse

low education, and unemployment. Also, what role do we play in these issues? The struggle for environmental justice in South Africa is based on power dynamics, political overtones, and radicalism.

How do the sustainable development discourses link to the SA policies?

Ecosystem accounting can assist us in measuring, tracking, and reporting natural capital stock and flows in a systematic manner. According to Upadhyaya et al. (2018:188), South Africa has acted in the form of formulating its National Climate Change Response White Paper. The sustainable development discourse has a definite effect on South African policy.

Reference

Sishutu, B. 2015. Environment. In: Steward, P. & Zaaiman, J., eds. Sociology: A South African introduction. Cape Town: Juta. pp. 509-529.

Schnaiberg: Known as the 'Treadmill of Production,' both business and government want economic growth and private capital accumulation; the former must constantly increase its operations and earnings, while the latter must assure tax revenues and reelection.The government spends money to subsidize or socialize the costs of private production and accumulation in order to boost private accumulation (e.g., through public subsidy of research and development, transportation infrastructure, military procurement, tax incentives).Capital intensive accumulation leads to automation, unemployment, and maybe demands for job creation or welfare-state-style programs on the side of individuals displaced or disadvantaged by capital intense accumulation.In order to generate employment and state revenues adequate to pay the "social cost" associated with the dislocations of private accumulation, this tendency toward legitimation crisis necessitates a progressive increase in private capital accumulation subsidies.The essence of modern industrial capitalism's treadmill character is that capital intensive growth causes dislocations and political demands that drive even more governmental investment on and facilitation of capital intensive growth, Because the accumulation process often includes resource extraction ("withdrawals") and adds to pollution, the treadmill of production is directly connected to environmental degradation ("additions").

Environmental and natural phenomena are viewed as social constructions in Social Construction theories, which focus on understanding internal social interactions, i.e. the social processes by which specific environmental situations are socially identified as problems.
"The environment is a fluid idea that is culturally anchored as well as socially challenged," Hannigan says. (1995:109)

Any re-orientation of human relationships with nature, according to Murphy (Murphy 1994, 244), will be a response to people's ecological experiences of environmental deterioration in their daily lives, not a kind of abstract awareness of environmental concerns.He says that our understanding of the environment is based on experience since humans are intrinsically linked to the natural world and its processes (Murphy 1994, 246-247).Humans begin to identify with nature through experiences that lead to knowledge, not by viewing all of nature as one's self (universalizing), but by seeing one's self as dependent on and part of nature in a specific location (Murphy 1994, 248).

Hannigan, J. 2006. Environmental sociology: a social constructivist perspective. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.

The environment does not appear to be a sociological issue at first glance. Geologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and other scientists should be researching the natural and physical world, not sociologists. However, we have just talked about how population expansion affects the environment, which sounds like a social topic. To begin with, our most serious environmental issues are the outcome of human activity, and this activity, like many other human actions, is the cause of our most serious environmental problems.

Changes in economic and environmental policies are required to address our environmental concerns, and the possibility for these changes to be implemented and their impact are largely influenced by social and political considerations.

Environmental sociology is a branch of sociology that studies the interactions between society and the environment. Following the 1960s environmental movement, the subfield grew in popularity. Environmental sociologists investigate a wide range of topics in this discipline, including:

What is the relationship between environmental circumstances and certain institutions and structures (such as laws, politics, and economic factors)? What variables, for example, influence the formulation and enforcement of laws aimed at reducing pollution and carbon emissions?

 What is the connection between group behaviour and the environment? What are the environmental consequences of trash disposal and recycling, for example?

What impact does the environment have on people's daily life, economic well-being, and public health?

Climate change is, without a doubt, the most pressing issue facing environmental sociologists today. Sociologists look at the human, economic, and political reasons of climate change, as well as the impacts it has on many facets of social life, such as behaviour, culture, values, and the economic health of people affected. The link between social behaviour and the environment is studied by several environmental sociologists. Many sociologists acknowledge the crucial and significant linkages between consumerism and consumer behaviour, as well as environmental concerns and remedies, therefore there is a lot of overlap between environmental sociology and consumption sociology in this area.

Environmental sociologists look at how social activities, such as transportation, energy consumption, and trash and recycling practices, influence environmental results, as well as how environmental conditions influence social behaviour.

Communication's Role The way communication is formed and developed will have an impact on how interested people feel about the concerns discussed, as well as whether they will join - or not - in a research or development endeavour.

“Participatory development strives to involve the poor in initiatives and projects designed by outside groups in the hopes that these projects will be more sustainable and successful by incorporating local stakeholders in the project goals,” according to one of the most widely accepted definitions of participatory development.

The participatory approach to development allows community people to move from being passive recipients of external policy changes and ideological decisions to active participants in directing how development occurs in their neighbourhoods (Isidiho & Sabran, 2016:270). As a result, participatory development attempts to empower the members of a society or community

The South African constitution, according to De Villers (2001:7), establishes the foundation for a representative and participatory democratic government. The South African government strives to establish an enabling environment in which the human settlement process is people-centered, according to the department of settlements (SA,2009:12). A people-centered process that fosters successful collaborations.

Firstly, one will be discussing about the Women in Development (WID) and WAD, and how they are working diligently to improve women's roles in development and society at large.

Women in Development (WID)

This non-governmental organization strives to include women in all aspects of development, both in practice and in theory. It aims to recognize women's contributions to development and how they have been disregarded and marginalized in development research and practices. WID also wants to see women's long-held submissive position within patriarchy acknowledged and corrected.as well as the designation of "reproductive agents" that they have received. This is partly due to their efforts to support women's economic and career advancement. WID uses the egalitarian philosophy of equal genders, equal gender rights, and equal gender opportunities to emphasize women's place and importance in development and the developmental process.

The WAD Development

The woman and development approach are based on the belief that women's positions will improve only if they are treated equally. It concentrated on the social interactions between men and women, with women always playing productive and reproductive responsibilities in their cultures.

Comparing and contrasting the core tenets of modernization and dependence theories

Introduction

According to Matunhu (2011) modernisation is about Africa following the developmental footsteps of Europe(largely the former colonizer of Africa). According to the concept, modernisation is a transitional process derived from the steps taken by Western countries during their developmental period.Dependency theory is a way of thinking about economic underdevelopment that focuses on the ostensible constraints imposed by the global political and economic order.

comparing and contrasting modernisation and dependency theory

These two principles will assist us in comprehending the relationship between developed and developing nations.According to Matunhu(2011), policies aimed at improving the poor's standard of living frequently include disseminating awareness and information about effective production techniques. The modernisation theory suggests that development is a linear evolutionary process that should follow the stages the way developed countries developed. According to modernisation theorist Rostow, traditional society must move through five major stages in order to become a modern society.

When speaking about similarities, Because of their higher degree of growth, Western countries are considered world leaders, according to the Modernisation and Dependency Theory.Both theories emphasize the disparity between industrialized and developing third-world countries. Both theories acknowledge a developmental gap between developing and developed countries.The difference between these theories is that dependency theory holds that some countries prosper at the expense of others, especially through colonization.While the modernisation hypothesis holds that as technology advances, all nations will become wealthier, and poor countries will be able to follow in the footsteps of the wealthier, more modernized nations.The dependency theory focuses on economically underdeveloped countries and claims that developed economies are the source of global poverty, while the modernisation theory primarily focuses on economically developed countries and claims that richer countries are the solution to the development challenges.

Finally, modernisation and dependency theory are two opposing viewpoints that attempt to describe the same phenomenon.

Reference

Matunhu, J., 2011. A critique of modernization and dependency theories in Africa: Critical assessment. African journal of History and Culture, 3(5), pp.65-72.

There are many meanings and definitions to the word "Poverty". Many of us relate it to the thought of homeless people living on streets or to people living in harsh conditions without money of food.Poverty can be seen, and also not seen.

Townsend's work makes it quite clear that poverty is not the lack of money but encompasses things other than strictly material needs.Townsend said that there are two types of poverty, relative poverty and absolute poverty.

Townsend, in particular, pioneered a relative deprivation approach to poverty that covered a wide range of aspects of living standards, both material and social.According to Townsend (Townsend, 1979) he defined poverty as the lack of resources to obtain the types of diet, habits, and living conditions and facilities that are normal, or at least generally encouraged or permitted, in the context to which they belong.

poverty begins with the inability to adequately satisfy the most needs of humans.Peter Townsend distinguished between absolute and relative poverty but relative poverty is not easy to define and is still being contested.

• Depression has been a social problem throughout history.it is a condition/behaviour that has negative consequences.
• It is considered asocial problem because it can be fatal and has been referred to as the world’s number one problem.
• Many factors contributes to depression. Such as faulty mood, stressful life events.it is believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression. It is often said that it results from a chemical imbalance, but the figure of speech does not capture how complex the condition/behaviour is.
• Depression is simply harder to resolve. You cannot just “make it go away”. Additional treatment such as therapy and complementary treatment may be necessary to help ease.

• Smash-and-Grab is a social problem because it has negative consequences
• It is considered a social problem because it cannot exist without society.
• It is caused by unemployment, poverty and other unidentifiable factors contributing to its cause
• Crime cannot be resolved but there are strategies that can be used to ease down its rates.

• Rape has been a social problem worldwide because it affects a lot of people.
• It is considered a social problem because it does not only affect the victim but it affects every individual.
• Caused by many factors
•  It is a problem that needs to be addressed to show that this negative issue does really exists

• Fast food is not a social problem because it does not affect everyone and it cannot be resolved by looking only the aspects of fast food as other individuals are born obese and it can be changed by watching what one consumes

5. HIV/AIDS is a social issues because it affects lot of individuals with and without it.it can be addressed as a social issue to show that it does exist