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Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm

Farm labouring and dwelling communities are considered among the most vulnerable populations in South Africa. The vast majority of health and wellness studies in these communities focus on the harmful social, psychological and biological impacts of historical, structural and institutional violence....

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Main Author: Conradie, Une
Other Authors: Levine, Susan
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: Department of Philosophy 2025
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access_status_str Open Access
author Conradie, Une
author2 Levine, Susan
author_browse Conradie, Une
Levine, Susan
author_facet Levine, Susan
Conradie, Une
author_sort Conradie, Une
collection Thesis
description Farm labouring and dwelling communities are considered among the most vulnerable populations in South Africa. The vast majority of health and wellness studies in these communities focus on the harmful social, psychological and biological impacts of historical, structural and institutional violence. What has not received sufficient attention is how farm labouring and dwelling communities resist the impacts of ongoing violence. This multimodal study engaged twenty-six participants living and working in a small rural farming community in the Cederberge in an arts-based research process to explore their embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm. The arts-based research process was rooted in Victor Turners' adaptation of liminality to facilitate the co-creation of a research space where the research participants could be both the observers and the observed. What emerged from the participants' artworks, stories, and reflections was their insights and wisdom into wellness and repair, which mirrors contemporary discussions in Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience and the Applied Arts. The research participants portrayed wellness as inseparable from their relationships, emphasising their ability to communicate as a connected and loving community as the foundation for wellness. Embodied love also played a central role in how the research participants portrayed their capacity for daily repair in an environment that causes daily ruptures. By layering the research participants' art, stories and reflections with an interdisciplinary exploration of trauma, the study highlights the importance of being witnessed and bearing witness to moments of resistance and connection to build a collective capacity for repair in an environment that continues to harm.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:31.718Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Department of Philosophy
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42302 Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm Conradie, Une Levine, Susan Farm labouring South Africa Embodiment Repair Arts-based research Farm labouring and dwelling communities are considered among the most vulnerable populations in South Africa. The vast majority of health and wellness studies in these communities focus on the harmful social, psychological and biological impacts of historical, structural and institutional violence. What has not received sufficient attention is how farm labouring and dwelling communities resist the impacts of ongoing violence. This multimodal study engaged twenty-six participants living and working in a small rural farming community in the Cederberge in an arts-based research process to explore their embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm. The arts-based research process was rooted in Victor Turners' adaptation of liminality to facilitate the co-creation of a research space where the research participants could be both the observers and the observed. What emerged from the participants' artworks, stories, and reflections was their insights and wisdom into wellness and repair, which mirrors contemporary discussions in Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience and the Applied Arts. The research participants portrayed wellness as inseparable from their relationships, emphasising their ability to communicate as a connected and loving community as the foundation for wellness. Embodied love also played a central role in how the research participants portrayed their capacity for daily repair in an environment that causes daily ruptures. By layering the research participants' art, stories and reflections with an interdisciplinary exploration of trauma, the study highlights the importance of being witnessed and bearing witness to moments of resistance and connection to build a collective capacity for repair in an environment that continues to harm. 2025-11-24T07:39:31Z 2025-11-24T07:39:31Z 2025 2025-11-21T13:28:34Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42302 en eng application/pdf Department of Philosophy Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Farm labouring
South Africa
Embodiment
Repair
Arts-based research
Conradie, Une
Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
title_full Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
title_fullStr Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
title_full_unstemmed Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
title_short Peace, love and hope: a rural farm dwelling and labouring community's embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
title_sort peace love and hope a rural farm dwelling and labouring community s embodied knowledge of wellness and repair in an environment that continues to harm
topic Farm labouring
South Africa
Embodiment
Repair
Arts-based research
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42302
work_keys_str_mv AT conradieune peaceloveandhopearuralfarmdwellingandlabouringcommunitysembodiedknowledgeofwellnessandrepairinanenvironmentthatcontinuestoharm