Breaking free : exploring dialogue for collective action in the Footballers 4 Life Intervention at the Heidelberg Correctional Centre.
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Date
2013
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Abstract
Many community development initiatives place great emphasis on the need for the a
participatory approach towards development. Here the beneficiaries are expected to engage in
dialogue and collective action in order to be empowered and consequently developed. This
study therefore seeks to explore the elements of dialogue and collective action in a crime
prevention and health promotion intervention that was administered by a non-governmental
organisation called Footballers for Life (F4L) at the Heidelberg Correctional Centre
(Johannesburg, South Africa) from March to August 2011 amongst a group of 40 male
offenders. Premised on the idea that true human development should be participatory and
therefore dialogical, this study used Participatory Communication to explore dialogue for
collective action within the mentioned intervention. Participatory Communication was applied
through the use of the Communication for Participatory Development Model (CFPD), which
was used as a guide through which dialogue for collective action was explored. Furthermore,
F4L is an organisation that uses retired professional football stars who, acting as role models,
offer a unique approach towards effecting behaviour change amongst the communities they
work with. Hence in this regard this study used the Social Cognitive Theory to primarily
explore the significance of role modelling towards behaviour change in the F4L programme at
the Heidelberg Correctional Centre. Taking a qualitative research approach, this study used
interviews, focus groups as well as a participant observation schedule to collect the relevant
data. This data was analysed through a thematic analysis which was facilitated through the use
of a data analysis software package called NVivo. The study reveals how the offenders were
excluded from the initial dialogue that took place between F4L and the prison in the recognition
of the problems facing the offenders and planning of the intervention. Upon invitation to join
the F4L programme the offenders went into it without any sense of ownership or clear
understanding of what the programme was about potentially threatening the envisaged purpose
of the programme. However, the study also found that the democratic leadership style and
genuine efforts of the F4L head Coach (Silver) were able to play a key role in fostering a sense
of brotherhood and therefore ownership of the developmental process amongst the offenders
leading to the attainment of certain individual as well as social outcomes, i.e. self-reliance,
empathy, budgeting skills, collective efficacy as well as communal trust.
Description
Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.
Keywords
Communication in community development--South Africa., Criminals--Rehabilitation--South Africa., Footballers 4 Life (South Africa), Theses--Culture, communication and media studies.