South Africa continues to ramp up public campaigns to rein in escalating water demand against the backdrop of dwindling and erratic supply. While the water conservation campaign appears to resonate with commercial and urban water users, it does not seem to have gained traction with rural and periurban residents. Using the sequential mixed methods, this paper explores the water conservation attitudes, behaviour and intentions of rural and periurban respondents in four South African communities. Results reveal respondents consider water conservation important and are favourably disposed to conserving water. Attitude, subjective norm and behavioural control emerged as significant factors influencing respondents’ water conservation intentions. The study concludes that rural and periurban residents are yet to develop a social ethic of water conservation essential in creating sustainability of resource use.
This entry introduces William Stephenson's best‐known exposition of his play theory,
The Play Theory of Mass Communication
, first published in 1967 and reprinted in 1988. The thesis is that audiences derive “communication‐pleasure” from using mass media such as newspapers, radio, and television. In short, audiences
play
with media products as opposed to having to
work
to obtain information from them. Unlike other interpersonal theories of play leaning toward anthropology, Stephenson's is about intrapersonal “subjective play” leaning toward psychology. Newcomers to Stephenson's “play theory” are often put off by the way his discussion is integrated with explanation of Q‐methodology—a form of factor analysis he invented—and his criticism of objectivist paradigms in use in the social sciences. However, without taking into account Stephenson's Q‐method and his criticism of the objectivity bias in the social sciences, one may easily lose sight of what his play theory is all about.
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