Participatory Development Approach

Participatory development is a process that involves the participation of the beneficiaries from the inception stage to implementation of the development intervention. This approach enables the society to build their own capacity and self-reliance and it also allows grassroots people to become partners in the development process. Participation is used to collaborate information between community members and all stakeholders involved.

Participatory organisation: Community groups themselves initiate and take part in the development efforts.

Participation as empowerment: Participation comes in form of structural changes and access to resources as an empowerment strategy. The community needs to function as a social unit and make use of non-formal education to create awareness of their needs in the development process.

Examples in the SA context, is building of schools, NGOs and other organisations as a way of participation of the community members to help with needs within the society,

MORDENISATION THEORY

Mordenisation is a process of social, economic and cultural transformation in which a country evolves from pre-industrial or the underdeveloped status to a modern society following the prescriptions of the More Developed Countries.

- Characteristics:

* There is a decline of small, traditional communities meaning with a high proportion of people living in urban areas

* When people have political, economical and social freedom

* The energy to produce comes from modern sources of energy and not from humans and animals

DEPENDENCY THEORY

This theory occurs when some countries (dominant countries) experience growth at the expense of less dominant countries.

-Characteristics:

* They focused on the origins and subsequent development or underdevelopment.

* It was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but can still be a useful tool for explaining global inequalities despite the challenges of the 21st century.

* It advances that all contemporary societies are integrated into a single world economic system which is capitalist.

Poverty defined by experts can be seen as people who live under a specific income level, they are not able to afford basic needs that are set out by societies. A family will have a minimum household income that is considered to be under the poverty line are basically considered to be poor. People living under poverty lack the resources to live a healthy life by following diets. They are most of the time excluded from ordinary activities, patterns and customs due to the course of being under the poverty line.

It is hard for people living with poverty to decide which things they need the most and ones they need averagely. Society gives out certain standards that apply to the needs used and what things and foodstuff are available. Poverty is a situation that will always be within societies.

Poverty is a big issue in South Africa due to a large number being a part of it. But with poverty comes a few benefits for both the individual and the community. As individuals living in poverty, government helps a lot of individuals with social grants, which is what every child gets when the mother is unemployed.  There are usually food parcels handed over to the less fortunate to help with the struggles of getting food. Due to Covid-19 and  the fact that a lot of people lost their jobs, government provided R350 for those who are over 18 and have no source of income. With students who are less fortunate and can't pay for their studies, there is NSFAS to help and fund them so that they can study without worrying about any tuition fees. This is also government helping individuals as a whole.

While for the community, the benefits include those people who collect bottles and other recyclable material to sell it and get money from it, it helps keep the communities clean. Those who also rely on domestic work to get money, these jobs would have not been available if there were no people living in poverty. Helps any household to manage their domestic activities well.All the benefits that come with poverty keep people going and striving for more.

Compare and contrast two theoretical approaches to social problems.

Symbolic interactionist orientation. This theoretical approach argues that people usually construct their roles as they are interacting and never just learn the roles set out by the society. When interacting, the individuals will base the situations on how they understand it and try to reach a mutual understand to a solution. Individuals learn behaviours from engaging in them and that's mostly how social problems arise.

Conflict orientation. This theoretical approach argues that society is characterised by pervasive inequality based on social class, race, gender, and other factors.  Meaning that social problems can arise from just basic problems and situations and then it reflects to inequalities in society. Conflict rises over valued and scarce resources in different kinds of groups.

Both of these theories show different kinds of perspectives when it comes to problems arising in societies. Both can involve inequalities in different ways possible regarding working to find solutions for problems that occur.

Cassie Makhongoana (35096314)

*Depression

This is a social problem because many people in society live with and are affected by depression. People don't often open up about how they feel because they fear being judged. This often leads to people being suicidal due to the fact that they feel like no one cares or no one will understand how they feel. It can be caused by factors like, trauma, failure, rejection and other things that people go through alone. The only way to try and solve this problem is if people start to be aware that its real and have support for those who go through depression.

*Smash-and-grab

This is a social problem because it affects many people in society. being robbed has become a normal thing in society that people don't take it seriously anymore. It is dangerous and can lead to deaths when things go wrong. The only way to solve this social problem is by communities coming together to find the causes of this problem and help those who are less unfortunate.

*Rape

This is a social problem because it happens everywhere in our communities whereby women are most of the time victims to this problem while the predators are still around and are not punished. Rape victims are left traumatized and scared. The only way to help these people is to offer support groups for them to open up and stop blaming themselves for what happened without being judged.

*Fast food

This is not seen as a social problem, whether people choose to eat fast foods or not, it's their own choice.

*HIV/AIDS

This is a social problem that occurs mostly when people have unprotected sex. It can be solved by educating people about HIV/AIDS to minimize the chances of more people dealing with this problem.