‘Facts are Tenacious’-Interweaving Power Pedagogy in Social Capital Theory to Galvanise Participatory Development: A Critique

Abstract

The aim of this research was to measure the level of participation amongst African Traditional Health Practitioners at Thembisile Hani local municipality in Mpumalanga and examine whether trust, reciprocity and power affect public participation in the regulation of African Traditional Medicines in South Africa using a social capital theoretical model. The study employed a quantitative methodology by carrying out a survey using a structured questionnaire and data was analysed using a classical linear regression model where Y = a+ bK + cX+ dL + µ, where a is the intercept of the model, b, c, and d represent regression coefficients, and µ is the random error term. However, the focus of the study was on the public participation regression coefficient (c), whose value gives the effect of public participation. The results show that 57% of respondents believed that the constitution gives them the power to influence public decisions; however that citizen power is not being activated whilst 36% of respondents did not believe that they had similar power. One key reason cited by both respondents was that government will always do what they want to do regardless of what citizens think or say. The correlation between power and public participation (p> = 0.004) in this study was statistically significant. The conclusion is that the creation of social capital requires an inclusion of power pedagogy in social capital theory through a proposed CRCT model which creates centres for power interrogation within networks. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n14p492