Abstract
M.A. (Anthropology)
Based on the aforementioned platform, this study seeks to account on how the
changing effects of the climate is being explained and experienced by small-scale
farmers in the urban agricultural sector in Soweto. The analysis of local account on
climate change was viewed on four key social anthropological themes, namely
perceptions, knowledge, valuations and responses.
A qualitative research design was used in which observations alongside series of indepth
interviews technique were adopted with the intention to obtain grounded data
on the experiences and local knowledges on changing climate of small-scale farmers
in the Soweto community. A purposive sampling design was used to select
participants who are actively engage in small-scale farming operations in Soweto. To
validate the results of the outcome, a diversified sampling population was used.
The findings of this research reveals that changes in climate are not only seen
through perceptions, the daily engagement with these changes give small-scale
farmers an idea to associate them with what has occurred in the past. This then
gives them a platform to come up with different socio-cultural explanations for the
occurrence of such events. Explaining the occurrence of these climatic changes
allows these small-scale farmers to find ways in which they can adapt to them. Using
local knowledge, that takes into account the evolution of information, the small-scale
farmers have been able to amalgamate different types of information to form one
part of knowledge that is able to tackle the effects that climate change cause.