A socio-technical inquiry into semiotics and ethnology in South Africa, with special reference to electricity

Abstract

Demand Side Management (DSM) within a South African context requires a transdisciplinary approach to comprehend electricity consumption. Current research suggests a technical determinism, whereby design teams fail to acknowledged social factors and cultural influences when conceptualising DSM artefacts. The result of which, is that artefacts fail to be adopted by the market, and consumer behaviour and electricity consumption remains unchanged. The thesis aims to demonstrate the hypothesis, that semiotics and ethnology may affect sustainable residential electricity management in South Africa. The ubiquitous literature on electricity management is administered by means of the theoretical lens, Sociotechnical Theory. Mixed method instrument obtain fieldwork data from three of the eleven official South African languages: Afrikaans, English and IsiXhosa.