Alexandra Parker
Biographic Data
| ID | 4690538 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexandra Parker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexandra |
| FAMILY NAME | Parker |
| SIGNATURE | PARKER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3946-1587 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“She’s Here and I’m Not”: Parenthetical Parenting, Hegemonic Masculinity, and the Hidden Geographies of Oppression in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa
Prevailing societal beliefs about gender constructs and fathering practices perpetuate a hidden geography of infrastructural violence and oppression in the Gauteng City-region of South Africa. Using the frames of hegemonic, failed, and respectable masculinity, we demonstrate how the notion of breadwinning, coalescing with material deficits, often pushes fathers into situations we term parenthetical parenting, in which their relationships with the…
The imperative of planetary mental health: Insights, recommendations, and a call to action
An alarming progression of human-centred and environmental concerns has marked the Anthropocene, including climatic changes and the inextricably linked deterioration of human mental health. Expanding on the 2015 Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health , we propose that mental health be explicitly included within the planetary health approach . This inclusion acknowledges the importance of population mental health as part of p…
Physical activity and depression symptoms in people with osteoarthritis-related pain: A cross-sectional study
Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of chronic pain and is associated with high rates of depression. Physical activity reduces depression symptoms and pain levels. It remains unknown if physical activity is associated with lower symptoms of depression irrespective of pain levels in individuals with osteoarthritis. We explored whether pain mediated or moderated the relationship between levels of physical activity engagement and depression symptoms. …
The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo
States in the Global South have consistently invested in large-scale, vanity infrastructure projects, which are often not used by the majority of their residents. Using a mixed-method and comparative approach with findings from Greater Maputo, Mozambique, and the Gauteng City-Region exposes how internationally-supported and expensive transport projects do not meet the needs of lower-income urban residents, and meanwhile, widespread, everyday mode…
Mobility Intersections: Gender, Family, Culture and Location in the Gauteng City-Region
The morphology of many South African cities has changed little over the last 25 years: with some of the poorest communities still living on the peripheries in informal settlements and old townships. The resulting spatial mismatch, with difficulties of access and mobility, has been recorded and engaged with elsewhere; the day-to-day implications for households and families have been less well-considered. In work that was undertaken between March 2…
Places of gold: Imaginaries of aspiration in Johannesburg films
Depressive symptoms and violence exposure in a population-based sample of adult women in South Africa
Depressive symptoms are a major burden of disease globally and is associated with violence and poverty. However, much of the research linking these conditions is from resource-rich settings and among smaller, clinical samples. Secondary data from a household survey in Gauteng Province of South Africa examines the cross-sectional association between adult women’s elevated depressive symptoms and markers of violence. Using tablet computers, partici…
Creative writing: Urban renewal, the creative city and graffiti in Johannesburg
Graffiti has flourished in the post-apartheid period in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a context where investment in the inner city carries large risks and the city struggles to support arts and culture. In the Maboneng precinct, graffiti and street art have become prolific alongside the recent redevelopment of the neighbourhood. Embracing the global creative city discourse, property developers in Maboneng have co-opted public art, street art and…
Many ways to care: Mobility, gender and Gauteng’s geography
Despite growing scholarship recognising every-day mobility and the manifestations of geographies of care of children and their caregivers, their practices are still under-researched and largely viewed as deviations from the norm. Cultural expectations, socio-economic conditions, and identities, amongst a host of other intersectional factors, influence how ‘care’ is understood and practised in different households and individuals. Based on signifi…
The Evolution of Technology and Physical Inactivity: The Good, the Bad, and the Way Forward
Since the beginning of time people explored and developed new technologies to make their activities of daily living less labour intense, more efficient and, consequently, more sedentary. In addition, technological advances in medicine throughout history have led to a substantial increase in life expectancy. However, the combination of increased sedentary behaviour and increased life-expectancy resulted in a sharp increase in overweight and obesit…
Accessing Quality Education in Gauteng: Intersecting Scales of Geography, Educational Policy and Inequality
Scale of Belonging: Gauteng 30 Years After the Repeal of the Group Areas Act
Physical activity and exercise in youth mental health promotion: A scoping review
BACKGROUND/AIM: This scoping review examined the breadth and outcomes of controlled trials testing the effect of physical activity and exercise interventions across all mental health outcomes for mental health promotion and indicated prevention studies in young people. METHODS: The literature search was conducted using 'Evidence Finder'. RESULTS: Thirty publications were included. Available evidence suggested that interventions of varying intensi…
The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education
Students in secondary and tertiary education settings face a wide range of ongoing stressors related to academic demands. Previous research indicates that academic-related stress can reduce academic achievement, decrease motivation and increase the risk of school dropout. The longer-term impacts, which include reduced likelihood of sustainable employment, cost Governments billions of dollars each year. This narrative review presents the most rece…
Taking Streets Seriously
Geraldine Pratt and Rose Marie San Juan, Film and Urban Space: Critical Possibilities
The intersection of the city and of architecture with cinema is a rich field for enquiry. Film production, since its very inception, has depicted the burgeoning city and screened these images to an urban audience.1 In 1985, geographers Jacqueline Burgess and John Gold compiled one of the earliest anthologies that looked at the representation of the city on screen, Geography, the Media and Popular Culture.2 Film and its relationship to the city ca…
The spatial stereotype: The representation and reception of urban films in Johannesburg
Stereotypes are people or things categorised by general characteristics of the group based on a truth that is widely recognised and function to reduce ideas to a simpler form (Dyer, 1993). Not all stereotypes are pejorative but can be a form of othering of people (Bhabha, 1996) and come about through a friction with difference (Jameson, 1995). In Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a conflation of people and space that results in a form of spati…
Men's perceived barriers to help seeking for depression: Longitudinal findings relative to symptom onset and duration
Men's help seeking for depression continues to gain focussed research and clinical attention. In this study, 125 men ( M = 39.02 years) provided data on perceived barriers to mental health help seeking, and self-reported depression at baseline, and 15 weeks. Longitudinal depression caseness was used to investigate group differences in perceived barriers to help seeking. Those experiencing unremitting depression reported the highest perceived help…
Urban Film and Everyday Practice
While urban films often reinforce spatial stereotypes, they can also produce a resistant reading that helps transgress spatial boundaries, especially in in urban contexts where spatial inequalities an
The Influence of Film
Screen images and narratives, including those of films and documentaries, contribute to a collective knowledge and memory of spaces and places in the city. Knowledge of the city is provided in a simplified and shortened form, often through the use of stereotypes. The book shows how Johannesburg is represented in film, and how these images contribute to the discourse of the city. The city is saturated with stimuli and detail, leaving the viewer to…
Physical Materiality and Imageability
As the starting point for exploring the representation of Johannesburg in films, this chapter examines the representation of the physical city of Johannesburg on the screen. The first section explores the edges, landmarks and paths that make up the urban landscape of Johannesburg, drawing on the work of Kevin Lynch’s Image of the City (Lynch, 1960) in understanding the parallels between the city and its representations. These material elements ar…
Urban Film and Everyday Practice: Bridging Divisions in Johannesburg
Identity
Identity is a site of multiplicity or hybridity and is not fixed. Identities shift and evolve with varying contexts and relationships and are socially constructed largely from without, through social, historical, political and cultural structures (Abes, Jones & McEwen, 2007). To illustrate this construction of identity Jones and McEwen have generated a model that has a central core of personal identity around which six key aspects of identity orb…
Evidence Translation in a Youth Mental Health Service: Clinician Perspectives
An evidence–practice gap is well established in the mental health field, and knowledge translation is identified as a key strategy to bridge the gap. This study outlines a knowledge translation strategy, which aims to support clinicians in using evidence in their practice within a youth mental health service ( headspace). We aim to evaluate the strategy by exploring clinicians’ experiences and preferences. The translation strategy includes the cr…
Development of suicide postvention guidelines for secondary schools: A Delphi study
In order to respond effectively and safely to the suicide of a student, schools need to undertake a variety of postvention actions. These are the first set of postvention guidelines produced worldwide for secondary schools that are based on expert opinion using the Delphi method
Creative writing: Urban renewal, the creative city and graffiti in Johannesburg
Graffiti has flourished in the post-apartheid period in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a context where investment in the inner city carries large risks and the city struggles to support arts and culture. In the Maboneng precinct, graffiti and street art have become prolific alongside the recent redevelopment of the neighbourhood. Embracing the global creative city discourse, property developers in Maboneng have co-opted public art, street art and…
Many ways to care: Mobility, gender and Gauteng’s geography
Despite growing scholarship recognising every-day mobility and the manifestations of geographies of care of children and their caregivers, their practices are still under-researched and largely viewed as deviations from the norm. Cultural expectations, socio-economic conditions, and identities, amongst a host of other intersectional factors, influence how ‘care’ is understood and practised in different households and individuals. Based on signifi…
The spatial stereotype: The representation and reception of urban films in Johannesburg
Stereotypes are people or things categorised by general characteristics of the group based on a truth that is widely recognised and function to reduce ideas to a simpler form (Dyer, 1993). Not all stereotypes are pejorative but can be a form of othering of people (Bhabha, 1996) and come about through a friction with difference (Jameson, 1995). In Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a conflation of people and space that results in a form of spati…
Men's perceived barriers to help seeking for depression: Longitudinal findings relative to symptom onset and duration
Men's help seeking for depression continues to gain focussed research and clinical attention. In this study, 125 men ( M = 39.02 years) provided data on perceived barriers to mental health help seeking, and self-reported depression at baseline, and 15 weeks. Longitudinal depression caseness was used to investigate group differences in perceived barriers to help seeking. Those experiencing unremitting depression reported the highest perceived help…
Putting Technology Into Youth Mental Health Practice: Young People’s Perspectives
Although young people aged 16 to 25 are particularly susceptible to mental ill-health, they are difficult to engage in ongoing treatment. Meanwhile, young people are more engaged with digital technologies than ever before, with the Internet and mobile technologies reaching ubiquity in young lives. Despite this, it is unclear from the literature how young people’s high technology use may be harnessed for the better management of youth mental healt…
Urban Film and Everyday Practice
While urban films often reinforce spatial stereotypes, they can also produce a resistant reading that helps transgress spatial boundaries, especially in in urban contexts where spatial inequalities an
The Influence of Film
Screen images and narratives, including those of films and documentaries, contribute to a collective knowledge and memory of spaces and places in the city. Knowledge of the city is provided in a simplified and shortened form, often through the use of stereotypes. The book shows how Johannesburg is represented in film, and how these images contribute to the discourse of the city. The city is saturated with stimuli and detail, leaving the viewer to…
Physical Materiality and Imageability
As the starting point for exploring the representation of Johannesburg in films, this chapter examines the representation of the physical city of Johannesburg on the screen. The first section explores the edges, landmarks and paths that make up the urban landscape of Johannesburg, drawing on the work of Kevin Lynch’s Image of the City (Lynch, 1960) in understanding the parallels between the city and its representations. These material elements ar…
Urban Film and Everyday Practice: Bridging Divisions in Johannesburg
Identity
Identity is a site of multiplicity or hybridity and is not fixed. Identities shift and evolve with varying contexts and relationships and are socially constructed largely from without, through social, historical, political and cultural structures (Abes, Jones & McEwen, 2007). To illustrate this construction of identity Jones and McEwen have generated a model that has a central core of personal identity around which six key aspects of identity orb…
Evidence Translation in a Youth Mental Health Service: Clinician Perspectives
An evidence–practice gap is well established in the mental health field, and knowledge translation is identified as a key strategy to bridge the gap. This study outlines a knowledge translation strategy, which aims to support clinicians in using evidence in their practice within a youth mental health service ( headspace). We aim to evaluate the strategy by exploring clinicians’ experiences and preferences. The translation strategy includes the cr…
Development of suicide postvention guidelines for secondary schools: A Delphi study
In order to respond effectively and safely to the suicide of a student, schools need to undertake a variety of postvention actions. These are the first set of postvention guidelines produced worldwide for secondary schools that are based on expert opinion using the Delphi method
The spatial stereotype: The representation and reception of urban films in Johannesburg
Stereotypes are people or things categorised by general characteristics of the group based on a truth that is widely recognised and function to reduce ideas to a simpler form (Dyer, 1993). Not all stereotypes are pejorative but can be a form of othering of people (Bhabha, 1996) and come about through a friction with difference (Jameson, 1995). In Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a conflation of people and space that results in a form of spati…
Men's perceived barriers to help seeking for depression: Longitudinal findings relative to symptom onset and duration
Men's help seeking for depression continues to gain focussed research and clinical attention. In this study, 125 men ( M = 39.02 years) provided data on perceived barriers to mental health help seeking, and self-reported depression at baseline, and 15 weeks. Longitudinal depression caseness was used to investigate group differences in perceived barriers to help seeking. Those experiencing unremitting depression reported the highest perceived help…
Taking Streets Seriously
Geraldine Pratt and Rose Marie San Juan, Film and Urban Space: Critical Possibilities
The intersection of the city and of architecture with cinema is a rich field for enquiry. Film production, since its very inception, has depicted the burgeoning city and screened these images to an urban audience.1 In 1985, geographers Jacqueline Burgess and John Gold compiled one of the earliest anthologies that looked at the representation of the city on screen, Geography, the Media and Popular Culture.2 Film and its relationship to the city ca…
The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education
Students in secondary and tertiary education settings face a wide range of ongoing stressors related to academic demands. Previous research indicates that academic-related stress can reduce academic achievement, decrease motivation and increase the risk of school dropout. The longer-term impacts, which include reduced likelihood of sustainable employment, cost Governments billions of dollars each year. This narrative review presents the most rece…
Physical activity and exercise in youth mental health promotion: A scoping review
BACKGROUND/AIM: This scoping review examined the breadth and outcomes of controlled trials testing the effect of physical activity and exercise interventions across all mental health outcomes for mental health promotion and indicated prevention studies in young people. METHODS: The literature search was conducted using 'Evidence Finder'. RESULTS: Thirty publications were included. Available evidence suggested that interventions of varying intensi…
The Evolution of Technology and Physical Inactivity: The Good, the Bad, and the Way Forward
Since the beginning of time people explored and developed new technologies to make their activities of daily living less labour intense, more efficient and, consequently, more sedentary. In addition, technological advances in medicine throughout history have led to a substantial increase in life expectancy. However, the combination of increased sedentary behaviour and increased life-expectancy resulted in a sharp increase in overweight and obesit…
Accessing Quality Education in Gauteng: Intersecting Scales of Geography, Educational Policy and Inequality
Scale of Belonging: Gauteng 30 Years After the Repeal of the Group Areas Act
Places of gold: Imaginaries of aspiration in Johannesburg films
Depressive symptoms and violence exposure in a population-based sample of adult women in South Africa
Depressive symptoms are a major burden of disease globally and is associated with violence and poverty. However, much of the research linking these conditions is from resource-rich settings and among smaller, clinical samples. Secondary data from a household survey in Gauteng Province of South Africa examines the cross-sectional association between adult women’s elevated depressive symptoms and markers of violence. Using tablet computers, partici…
Creative writing: Urban renewal, the creative city and graffiti in Johannesburg
Graffiti has flourished in the post-apartheid period in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a context where investment in the inner city carries large risks and the city struggles to support arts and culture. In the Maboneng precinct, graffiti and street art have become prolific alongside the recent redevelopment of the neighbourhood. Embracing the global creative city discourse, property developers in Maboneng have co-opted public art, street art and…
Many ways to care: Mobility, gender and Gauteng’s geography
Despite growing scholarship recognising every-day mobility and the manifestations of geographies of care of children and their caregivers, their practices are still under-researched and largely viewed as deviations from the norm. Cultural expectations, socio-economic conditions, and identities, amongst a host of other intersectional factors, influence how ‘care’ is understood and practised in different households and individuals. Based on signifi…
The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo
States in the Global South have consistently invested in large-scale, vanity infrastructure projects, which are often not used by the majority of their residents. Using a mixed-method and comparative approach with findings from Greater Maputo, Mozambique, and the Gauteng City-Region exposes how internationally-supported and expensive transport projects do not meet the needs of lower-income urban residents, and meanwhile, widespread, everyday mode…
Mobility Intersections: Gender, Family, Culture and Location in the Gauteng City-Region
The morphology of many South African cities has changed little over the last 25 years: with some of the poorest communities still living on the peripheries in informal settlements and old townships. The resulting spatial mismatch, with difficulties of access and mobility, has been recorded and engaged with elsewhere; the day-to-day implications for households and families have been less well-considered. In work that was undertaken between March 2…
Physical activity and depression symptoms in people with osteoarthritis-related pain: A cross-sectional study
Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of chronic pain and is associated with high rates of depression. Physical activity reduces depression symptoms and pain levels. It remains unknown if physical activity is associated with lower symptoms of depression irrespective of pain levels in individuals with osteoarthritis. We explored whether pain mediated or moderated the relationship between levels of physical activity engagement and depression symptoms. …
“She’s Here and I’m Not”: Parenthetical Parenting, Hegemonic Masculinity, and the Hidden Geographies of Oppression in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa
Prevailing societal beliefs about gender constructs and fathering practices perpetuate a hidden geography of infrastructural violence and oppression in the Gauteng City-region of South Africa. Using the frames of hegemonic, failed, and respectable masculinity, we demonstrate how the notion of breadwinning, coalescing with material deficits, often pushes fathers into situations we term parenthetical parenting, in which their relationships with the…
Sociology (15 works) · Political science (13 works) · Geography (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Art (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychiatry (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works)