Marita Turpin
@up.ac.za
Associate professor, Department of Informatics
University of Pretoria
EDUCATION
PhD (IT)
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Information Systems, Information Systems and Management, Multidisciplinary
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Mmatseleng Lefike, Marita Turpin, and Machdel Matthee
Wiley
AbstractIn South Africa, corporate social investment (CSI) is deployed as part of Broad‐Based Black Economic Empowerment (B‐BBEE) to assist and empower disadvantaged individuals and communities. Previous research revealed that CSI projects are often short‐lived and unsustainable. This study aims to analyze the impact of South African CSI projects that focus on information and communication technology (ICT) in poor urban communities. A case study was conducted comprising four CSI ICT learning centers in poor urban communities in Soweto, South Africa. An indigenous theoretical construct was developed, in the form of a systems framework, combining aspects of soft systems methodology (SSM), Ubuntu philosophy and autopoiesis. The aim of the systems framework was to study the impact of the CSI ICT learning centers in a holistic manner. The framework contributed as follows: the descriptive components of SSM assisted to describe the social systems of interest, in each case. The ubuntu lens helped to portray how the community members supported each other to benefit from the learning centers. Autopoiesis elements showed how the learning centers were able to self‐produce and collaborate in order to be sustainable. With the insight of the framework, six guiding principles were derived to inform the successful implementation of future CSI ICT interventions.
Sijabuliso Khupe and Marita Turpin
Springer Nature Singapore
Shelley Dowrie, Jean-Paul Van Belle, and Marita Turpin
IEEE
During the COVID-19 pandemic, South African organisations were forced to provide suitable working conditions for its employees. The increased reliance on technology while working from home resulted in technostress. This paper considers how technostress experiences have evolved under the newly adopted hybrid working model. It investigates the underlying causes of technostress experiences and how employees are currently coping with technostress under the hybrid model. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and supplemented with secondary data provided by respondents who are currently working under a hybrid model and who use ICTs for work purposes. The findings reveal several hybrid working specific causes of technostress, including instances of stressful workstation setups, office disruptions and power outage issues as a result of loadshedding (rolling power blackouts). Stresses related to loadshedding appear to be a specific South African issue. To deal with technostress, employees adopted reactive and proactive coping behaviours driven by problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies respectively.
Rutendo Musvosve, Marita Turpin, and Jean-Paul Van Belle
IEEE
The youth in the Global South are facing high levels of unemployment. The platform economy provides new employment avenues, many of which are accessible from anywhere on the globe. Thus, some Global South countries are seeing the platform economy as a potential alternative to traditional employment. The objective of the study is to examine the different platform economy employment opportunities for youth in the Global South. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic by means of the best available knowledge, a systematic literature review was performed using scholarly databases and a thematic analysis. The results show that there are five major categories of platform types with different job opportunities under each. For each platform type, the job opportunities, required skills, entry requirements and related challenges are presented. The contribution of the paper is to provide a literature-based guide on platform opportunities for the youth in the Global South, along with associated requirements and risks.
Juanita Subroyen, Marita Turpin, Alta de Waal, and Jean-Paul Van Belle
Springer Nature Singapore
Setsi Mamabolo, Marita Turpin, and Tendani Mawela
Springer Nature Switzerland
Marita Turpin and Tania Prinsloo
Springer Nature Switzerland
Sifiso Dlamini, Marita Turpin, and Marlien Herselman
IEEE
The global spread of corona virus has had a significant impact on the basic education systems across the world. Nation states and various government departments had to invent means for remote schooling particularly to ensure continuation of learning amidst the pandemic. One of the widely used means of teaching and learning adopted across the world was the use of mobile technologies for remote learning and content sharing. This directly tested the teachers and learners’ resilience in using mobile technologies for teaching and learning. A scoping literature review was conducted to identify technology and pedagogical factors which affected the use of technology for teaching and learning during 2020 school closure. The findings of the literature review identify access to mobile technologies, pedagogical factors like effective usage of technology for teaching and learning, and connectivity as the main barriers for schools in rural areas. Findings from this exercise are used as factors to be considered when building a resilience framework for introducing and using mobile technologies in South African rural schools. The purpose of undertaking such a task is to complete a continuous evaluation of the need to develop a resilience framework and guidelines for the introduction and use of mobile technologies in South African rural schools.
Russel Jowore and Marita Turpin
Springer International Publishing
Osama Aradeh, Jean-Paul Van Belle, and Marita Turpin
IEEE
This paper investigates how e-participation in government decision processes can improve the livelihoods of poor, marginalized and disadvantaged groups, specifically refugees in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. The study used a quantitative approach to examine refugees’ perspectives. Two hundred and eighty-one (281) analyzable surveys were collected. The analysis illustrated how ICT-based participation has played a role in raising information awareness among refugees, and saving them time and money. The results also showed how the results of e-participation influenced the livelihood outcomes such as reducing poverty, increasing well-being, and reducing the impact of vulnerability factors. The results have shown evidence of benefits of access to e-participation tools and positive refugee attitudes in most of the study’s themes and hypotheses.
Marita Turpin and Jean-Paul Van Belle
Academic Conferences International Ltd
This paper showcases an innovative student research project in a South African taught Masters programme, where students learnt to apply a sound research methodology in the real world, and align their work with a global research project. The Fairwork (https://fair.work) project assesses the extent to which gig work platforms in a number of countries conform to ‘fair work’ principles for their workers. The Fairwork project has a clearly defined and rigorous research methodology used by senior academics around the world to rate labour-broking platforms such as those in e-hailing (Bolt, Uber) or delivery services (UberEats) to rate their adoption of fair work principles for their workers. The University of Pretoria adopted this research methodology in the context of a student-based group project in a taught 2020 “Digital Economy” Masters programme. Student groups used the same methodology and interviewed South African platform workers to score seven different platforms. The key motivations and intended benefits were that the research methodology was already tried and tested, students should able to apply the skills taught in an earlier (theoretical) research methods course, subject specific knowledge around the gig economy had to be researched and was internalized, each group had the freedom to select its own platform, results could be validated against publicly available ratings, students engaged themselves in real world empirical research, and their research outputs had a real world relevance. In addition, this project turned out to work well under Covid19 partial lockdown circumstances. The student submissions exceeded the expectations of everyone involved, and some groups produced research results which matched the level of highly experienced researchers. This project also provides a strong contribution to the academic community, not only because it provides a validation benchmark and alternative research approach to the Fairwork project, but also because this project is easily portable to similar courses in other country contexts.
Nandipha Dilla and Marita Turpin
Springer International Publishing
Hubeidatu Nuhu, Jean-Paul Van Belle, and Marita Turpin
Springer International Publishing
Amantha Naicker, Marita Turpin, and Jean-Paul van Belle
Springer International Publishing
Sifiso Dlamini and Marita Turpin
Springer International Publishing
Paul Machete and Marita Turpin
Springer International Publishing
Albie van Zyl, Marita Turpin, and Machdel Matthee
Springer International Publishing
Marita Turpin, Machdel Matthee, Sean Kruger, and Jean-Paul van Belle
IEEE
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will dramatically change our work and personal lives. New developments in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data and the internet of things (IoT) hold big promise but also present challenges to our entire society. However, only a very small fraction of the population is sufficiently versed in the new technologies to be able to make informed decisions on matters that will affect all our future lives. In addition, many people feel threatened and fear that they will lose their jobs. Even students in the fields of Information Systems (IS) and IT management do not feel familiar with and confident about their ability to navigate the world of 4IR. This study reports on a series of projects that have been undertaken in South Africa to encourage IS/IT students and professionals to embrace IoT technologies and to upskill themselves in this field. The projects have been undertaken from 2016 to 2019 at a South African university, by making use of a makerspace as well as a maker philosophy. Results indicate that the students and professionals were able to increase their skills as well as their confidence and attitude to engage with IoT technology. The contribution of this study is to suggest good practices for the use of IoT and a maker philosophy to prepare students and professionals for the world of 4IR.
Ronel Smith, Marita Turpin, and Marlien Herselman
IADIS Press
Copyright: 2019 IADIS Publications. Due to copyright restrictions, the attached PDF file only contains the abstract of the full text item. For access to the full text item, kindly consult the publisher's website.
Ronel Smith, Marita Turpin, and Marlien Herselman
Springer International Publishing
Marita Turpin
South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists
South Africa is an ideal test bed for ICT4D research, since on the one hand it has stark development challenges, and on the other hand it has well established ICT infrastructure that could be utilised towards socio-economic development. Not surprisingly, a plethora of ICT4D projects are executed in South Africa by a variety of role-players. This paper focuses on how effective South African researchers are in converting ICT4D research activity into significant research outputs. Since effective research is assessed by journal publications, a review was done of papers published by South African authors in the prominent international ICT4D journals. It is found that while South Africa has a prominent presence in ICT4D journals, this prominence is concentrated in one research institution and one ICT4D journal. A surprising finding is that cooperation among research institutions that leads to co-authored publications is very low, even among neighbouring institutions. Future research is suggested to investigate the good practices of the most prolific research institution, to investigate reasons for the low cooperation between institutions and to more thoroughly investigate the research contributions made by the South African authors.