Investigating diversity in the function of shelter
type: CreativeWork
description: Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedback. As a concept, resilience is used by various disciplines to analyse ecological, social and social-ecological systems. This has facilitated a variety of interdisciplinary studies in areas of science, urban planning and engineering, to name a few. Resilience theory presents a foundation for understanding why these changes occur and what their consequences are over time. Ongoing research has shown that the main challenge regarding urban resilience is to broaden its scope by including societal aspects, in this case shelter. This study seeks to lay a foundation for understanding why diversity is important in the function of shelter in a typical South African city. Diversity is one of the attributes for building resilience in social-ecological systems, increasing their capacity to adapt to change. Diversity spreads risks, creates buffers and plays an important role in the reorganisation and renewal processes of disturbed systems. This dissertation explores diversity in the function of shelter in the Tshwane urban system and how this diversity has changed over time. One of the key functions of an urban social-ecological system is to provide shelter. Understanding diversity in the function of shelter would have positive effects on current housing interventions and perhaps also assist in giving a deeper meaning to the challenges faced in the delivery of housing in South Africa. A historical comparative study method using qualitative analysis is used in this study. A comparative analysis investigates how the function of shelter has changed in three areas in the City of Tshwane in the last eight to ten decades. Primary and secondary data is analysed to look at how this diversity has changed by looking at physical, financial and tenure-based typologies. By closely examining the history of Pretoria, th…
abstract: Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedback. As a concept, resilience is used by various disciplines to analyse ecological, social and social-ecological systems. This has facilitated a variety of interdisciplinary studies in areas of science, urban planning and engineering, to name a few. Resilience theory presents a foundation for understanding why these changes occur and what their consequences are over time. Ongoing research has shown that the main challenge regarding urban resilience is to broaden its scope by including societal aspects, in this case shelter. This study seeks to lay a foundation for understanding why diversity is important in the function of shelter in a typical South African city. Diversity is one of the attributes for building resilience in social-ecological systems, increasing their capacity to adapt to change. Diversity spreads risks, creates buffers and plays an important role in the reorganisation and renewal processes of disturbed systems. This dissertation explores diversity in the function of shelter in the Tshwane urban system and how this diversity has changed over time. One of the key functions of an urban social-ecological system is to provide shelter. Understanding diversity in the function of shelter would have positive effects on current housing interventions and perhaps also assist in giving a deeper meaning to the challenges faced in the delivery of housing in South Africa. A historical comparative study method using qualitative analysis is used in this study. A comparative analysis investigates how the function of shelter has changed in three areas in the City of Tshwane in the last eight to ten decades. Primary and secondary data is analysed to look at how this diversity has changed by looking at physical, financial and tenure-based typologies. By closely examining the history of Pretoria, th…
language: en
keywords: UCTD, Shelter diversity, Function of shelter, Sustainable housing
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:52:34Z
provider: University of Pretoria
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Pretoria

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/57517