Sociological Impacts Of Electricity Deprivation On The Chiawelo Community In Soweto, Africa: An Essay.

The Importance of Electricity in Modern Society

Electricity has become one of the most important things in the modern world. The need for electricity and power has been growing ever since it's discovery. Every day a new technology is discovered however without electricity most of them becomes useless. Electricity has become the backbone of the modern day society(Kambule 2019). The availability and the use of electricity has become the benchmark for determining the modernization and development of a society or a nation. As a matter of fact the availability of electricity on a particular region becomes the basic criteria and requirement for any society or community’s development. However there had several regions in Africa their electricity has not reached yet. The regions of Africa struggle a lot in order to get access to usable electricity. There have been multiple regions which has not been connected to the electricity grid or add the availability of electricity in any form. This is not availability of electricity within the African continent often puts them under the category of dark continent and restricts there technological growth and development. This also restricts the modernization of the continent resulting into various social impacts. Chiawelo, community of Soweto, Africa is one of those communities whose face a huge struggle for electricity and its availability(Kambule et al 2018). They are also considered as one of the most backward and non modernized societies of the world. Hence this research paper aims to identify the relation between electricity and the social negative impacts over the community . Africa is often considered to be one of the least developed continents of all. 

Recently electricity has become one of the necessities that an individual has to perform their day to day activities in their life. Electricity has become as important as food, water, shelter and clothes. Access to 24 hours of electricity is very important for a civilization to grow and develop as well as prosper. However, certain regions of Africa are deprived from this basic amenity resulting into a poor civilizational development. This also greatly impacts this social life of the people living in this region (Kambule et al 2018). The Chiawelo comminity is currently in a fight against the pre-paymment electricity strategy of Africa that that is household have to pay high fees for electric city services prior to utilizing the services. This strategy clearly cut them out of the electricity as most of the people add from the working class and are unable to pay such high prices. This creates a huge social impact and slows down the growth of the community of that region (Kambule et al 2021). 

Chiawelo comminity Community is a community situated in Soweto Africa who was struggling to fight against the installation of prepayment meters that forces and individual to pay for electricity prior to the usage. Along with that there is a high cost of electricity for domestic electric city users in the South African region. There have also been problems where the electric company regularly cuts down the electricity services and power supplies to the consumers (Glaser2019). As the region consists of mostly people from the working class hence, this type of treatment discourages them from accessing sustainable clean energy in the region. This has been seen that in most of the cases the meters that were used had been tampered which makes them money collecting machines. This has a great negative impact on the social life of the people living in the region. As most of the people of the region live and fall under the middle class economic category a 20% hike in the electricity prices becomes too much for them to pay resulting in two then being cut off from the power source(Sarkodie. and Adams 2018). The non availability of free and sustainable electricity in the region not only impacts the economic life of their place but also creates a huge social impact as the society is being deprived of the one of the basic necessities of modern life. This increases a lot of unethical and chaotic activities within the region. The paper wants to study the impacts and consequences of the electricity deprivation in the region and the community and how this thing is impacting these social life of the individuals living in there (Nhamo et al 2018). 

Electricity Deprivation in Africa

As far as the scope of this research is concerned the paper would like to identify various social and economic impacts that has been caused by the lack of electricity in the region. The paper word take a detailed insight about the current ongoing problems of the region as to why and how the electricity deprivation is affecting the day-to-day life of the Chiawelo Community people. The paper would fried deep into the sociological impacts of electricity on the lives of the people and how the access to sustainable electricity could improve the quality of life in the region. The paper would also look into the economic backgrounds and the sources of power supply in the region which would help the paper to identify the key areas of problem. The paper would also take into account the personal opinions and views of the people living in the region as well as go through a total analysis of all the conflicts that has occurred between the government and the people of the region (Bos et al 2018). The paper would also look into the better rising cost of electricity in the region and how it has been impacting the lives of the common men of the region. 

The paper would also investigate the issues that related to constant power supply of the region. The paper would also look into the fact that why the government has been frequently shutting down the power supply in the region and provide recommendations and suggestions about how to improve electricity coverage of the region.  

The aim of the study is to understand the sociological impact of electricity and its availability on the Chiawelo Community people of Soweto region in Africa.

The research objectives are:

1. To understand Social and cultural life of the people  in Chiawelo Community  and the influence of electricity
2. To find out the various challenges and obstacles and  barriers in the  societal development that  has been created  by the lack of electricity
3. To suggest the probable means by which the community can easily figure out the various means of getting access to affordable , clean and sustainable electricity.

RQ1. What are the social and cultural implications on the community due to the lack of electricity in the region? 

RQ2. What are the various social challenges and obstacles that in fact this societal development of the community due to the lack of electricity? 

RQ3. What are few of the ways through which the community could easily get access to affordable, clean and sustainable electricity in the region? 

According to Marcondes dos Santos and Perrella Balestieri ( 2018) sustainable sources of electricity and access to power supply all the time is one of the defining factors of the society's growth and development. As per the findings of this paper it has been found that the lack of electricity often leads to the generation of social vulnerabilities, loss of economy and other great impacts. In another research by Safari and others(2022) had clearly stated that the pattern of electric consumption has a strong relationship on these social development of any region or community. According to the findings of the paper it has been stated that high energy consumption families often referred to the developing and changing of the lifestyles and utilization of modern gadgets. According to the research by Sumper, and Ferreira ( 2020 ) it has been stated that the UN has already declared the access to clean and sustainable electricity as a part of their sustainable development goals. The paper has also found that Electricity has become the fundamental aspect of the development of the society as this leads through the increase connection with the global authorities and powers. In another independent research by Wu and other researchers ( 2019) the development and stimulation of the electricity and power sectors of any country has a huge positive influence in this sectors of economy as well as the social development of the country. As for this community get a greater chance of modernizing themselves with attraction of more industrial sectors in the region. 

Electricity Deprivation in Chiawelo Community of Soweto, Africa

Electricity access has become an important and integral part of the of the society (Salite 2021). the modernization and sustainable development of the society orphan requires and increased amount of electricity access that is both reliable and affordable. Development of the society is directly related to the access of electricity in the region. According to Cotton and others ( 2019) it has been found that the political economies who have invested more on the growth and development of the energy accessibility and sustainable energy transitions have a more dominant economic model than any other. The government practices in providing  electricity at a reliable and affordable price as rate to the rapid development of this social communities. In another research by Grum and Grum ( 2020) the sustainability and the access to social resources such as electricity is very important for meeting the basic sustainable requirements of the community and the society. The paper has also suggested that in order to access various regular utilities such as water supply and other public infrastructure electricity plays a very important role. This idea has been supported by Lopez -Gonzalez and others ( 2018) and have stated that access to electricity is directly related to the poverty reduction in the region . According to the findings of the paper the generation of social sustainability of hybrid microgrids the social community by allowing them to access electricity.

Multiple researchers have been conducted over the availability and accessibility of electricity and its impact on the societal growth and development. Search have clearly talked about how the accessibility of electricity could improve the lifestyle and modernization of the society. However there is a lack of research on the various problems and barriers that the social community my face in accessing electricity in the region at the same time there is also a lack of research regarding the Chiawelo community and the problems of electricity in the region. Therefore this paper aims to study and kill the gaps in the research lived by previous researchers and provide a detail and deep insight about the social impacts of the lack of electricity in the Chiawelo community in Africa 

Research philosophy is the process through which the research study could be developed and analyzed in the utmost details. The research philosophy could be divided into three different types based on the approach which are interpretism research philosophy, positivism research philosophy and realism research philosophy (Hürlimann 2019). If positivism research philosophy is used when a study is required to as an in depth analysis at the other hand interpretism research philosophy is mainly used to deal with different management related activities and functions. The amalgamation and mix approach of both the research philosophies is known as the realism research philosophy. According to the needs and requirements of this paper positivism research philosophy would be the best suitable research philosophy (Ahlskog 2020). This would help the paper to critical analyze each and every aspect of this study and reach to the conclusion logically. The other two research philosophies would be rejected as they depend on an individual's own perception which may vary from one person to another.

Research Objectives

Research design similar to the research philosophy has been divided into three different categories the analytical or descriptive research design, the exploratory and the explanatory research designs(Dannelsl 2018). The descriptive or analytical research design could be defined as the research design that helps in investigating this study or the topic to the minute detail in a much descriptive and analytical way. On the other hand the exploratory research design is generally used to study a concept or an idea at its very initial stage whereas the explanatory research design helps this study to establish a relationship between two different variables that are under consideration. As the paper is an investigative paper the analytical research design would suit best for the research as it would help the paper to study the given topic in great details and reach the conclusion effectively. The other two research design would be rejected .

As for the needs and requirements of this paper the paper would utilize both primary and secondary methods of data collection in order to collect the data. For collecting the primary data the paper would be utilizing different methods such as interviews for qualitative primary data and survey for quantitative primary data. The paper would be also utilizing different types of secondary data collection method and sources in order to collect data (Yame 2020). The paper would be utilizing all the printed academic journals , literatures and articles available in the online platforms as well as in the printed format in order to collect the secondary data. The paper would also utilize the government records of electricity consumptions as a secondary quantitative data.

As far as the sampling methods is concerned the paper would utilize both probability and non probability sampling methods in order to define collect their sample population for the research. The probability sampling method is basically a sampling technique in which all the individuals within the chosen sample pool at equal chances of getting selected as the sample for the research without any bias (Draper et al 2018). Whereas the non probability sampling method word incorporate some or the other kind of bias while selecting samples from the sample pool(He et al 2018). The paper would also be utilizing simple random sampling methods in order to get a more clear understanding of the given research topic. According to the needs and requirements the paper has targeted to collect responses from more than 150 people in the survey form as well as get the interview of 10 people including the government officials and authorities and local people.

As far as the data analysis methods are concerned the paper would be utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data analysis method. The paper for analyzing the quantitative data collected through the different quantitative data collection methods well at first convert all the available quantitative data into different numeric formats such as percentages and averages and then compare each of the data in order to reach and identifiable conclusion (Moser. and Korstjens 2018). The findings of this data will then be represented in various pictorial formats such as graphs, pie charts and histograms in order to help others to understand the findings more easily (Taguchi 2018). In order to analyze the qualitative data the paper would at first divide the qualitative data findings into various themes and then studied them accordingly and get a clear extraction from the thematic analysis of each of the qualitative data. The qualitative data will then be presented into various tabular format in order to help others identify the findings of the paper.

Methodology

The paper in order to ensure reliability and validity of the research would go through various techniques and methods such as develop and trained individuals taking qualitative interviews in remaining objective and honest with your responses at the same time develop and design research tools which would avoid any kind of subjective approach towards the research (Fuller et al 2020). The use of triangulation method would be done in order to analyze the qualitative research data to further enhance the reliability and validity of the research. In order to maintain the same for the quantitative research methods a proper statistical analysis of the data would be done and it would go through a secondary checks by other members in order to ensure the accuracy of the results. The responses would be utilized and analyzed by blazing different softwares such as SPSS software in order to calculate and evaluate the quantitative research. The representation of the data in various graphical and pictorial formats would help the individuals to further empower the validity and reliability of the data collected. 

The research paper have decided to follow the ethical guidelines strictly throughout the entire research. The paper would ensure that all the individuals participating in this survey are participating on their own will without any force or pressure. The paper would take the written consent of the individuals before allowing them to participate in the interview or survey process. Apart from that the individuals would be briefed about the research as well as ensure about their safety of the confidential information(Cascio et al 2021). The paper would also ensure that the paper does not highlight or showcase any kind of symbol or logo of any organization company or institution yeah the form of advertisement in the research procedure rather this would be ensured and highlighted that the research paper is only for the academic purpose. There would be various areas where Brian permission be required in order to access which would be duly taken such as getting an appointment of the interviewer prior to the interview. Moreover an authorization letter would also be issued from the institution before conducting the research and those authorization rater would be presented everywhere where the research is being conducted. As the paper would be utilizing secondary data the paper would ensure that all the resources and materials used from previous researchers are well cited and avoid any kind of plagiarism in the paper. Apart from that the paperwork not allow or anyone violating any ethical guidelines and considerations of research.

Time will be the greatest limitation of this research as it is known that no matter how much time is given for research it always falls short to complete the research effectively. Apart from that the availability of the resources would become the second most important problem or limitation for the research. Many of the secondary resource materials are locked or inaccessible and requires a authorization from higher authority which would be a problem in few of the cases(Greener 2018). There can also be responses that are fake which may greatly compromise the findings of the result at the same time while analysis the number of responses may fall short in order to reach any conclusion effectively. There might also be problems of getting an appointment of the interviewee within the scheduled time. However the research paper has planned as well as taken up various measures in order to avoid all these limitations as much as possible.

Findings and Analysis

Finally this section would discuss about the chapter summaries of the proposed chapters of the research paper. The Capital One of the research paper would include an introduction giving out the complete background and rationale of the research along with the aims and objectives that the research wanted to identify and answer. The second chapter would include the analysis and literature review part where a complete review of different literatures related to the given subject and topic would be done along with the analysis of the data and its findings would be presented. The third chapter of this research paper would include the methodology section which would describe about the various methods and tools that had been used as well as the process that has taken in order to conduct the complete research. This section would also include the results and graphic called parts of the analysis which would represent the findings of the data. Finally the 4th chapter would represent the conclusion section which would conclude the entire paper in the end.  

Fig: Gantt Chart

(Source: As created by the author)

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