South Africa’s service-delivery crisis: From contextual understanding to diaconal response

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title South Africa’s service-delivery crisis: From contextual understanding to diaconal response
 
Creator Swart, Ignatius
 
Subject Practical theology; diaconal studies South Africa; service delivery crisis; Christian diaconia; diaconal practice; poverty
Description This article proceeded from the assumption that the theme of service delivery in present-day South Africa could well be qualified by the notion of ‘crisis’, to the extent that this qualification, from a theological perspective and on the basis of comparative social analysis, well recalls the statements in such critical and profound theological documents as The Kairos Document and Evangelical Witness in South Africa on the ‘crisis’ in the latter years of apartheid. The further recognition that the theme of service delivery constitutes an essentially new focus for practical-theological scholarship in South Africa led the author, who has a pertinent interest in the field of Christian diaconia, to thereupon go the full circle of practical-theological interpretation in developing such a focus. This was done by, firstly, attempting to develop a deeper contextual understanding of the problem of service delivery in the country on the basis of the prevailing debate on service delivery in South Africa, after which the ideas from conceptualisations of two different modes of diaconal practice within contexts of endemic poverty in the practical-theological literature were explored. The discussion concluded with a more pertinent consideration of the extent to which these two conceptualisations could be taken as providing direction in conceptualising a transformational diaconal response to the current service-delivery problem.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor not applicable
Date 2013-09-10
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — literary analysis; discourse analysis
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v69i2.1996
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 69, No 2 (2013); 16 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/1996/3793 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/1996/3794 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/1996/3795 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/1996/3792
 
Coverage South Africa apartheid South Africa; post-apartheid South Africa 48; M; W
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Ignatius Swart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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