Monique Marks

Durban University of Technology | dut · Urban Futures Centre

Despite renewed interest in urban planning since the 1990s, the empirical focus has predominantly been on cities along the Atlantic Rim, with limited scholarly attention placed on African, Asian and Latin American cities. An examination of contemporary discourse and practices of urban placemaking reveals a worrying trend where concerns for, and int...

Welbedacht East (Welbedacht hereafter), situated in the margins of Durban's peripheral south, was a resettlement area for one of eThekwini Municipality's largest slum clearance projects in history. With long work commutes, few income opportunities, and minimal state-provided social facilities, the project is considered to be badly located (Sokhela...

Methadone is a recommended medication for opioid agonist maintenance therapy (OAMT). However, methadone can have cardiac side effects. There is limited South African cardiac safety data on methadone. To describe baseline and 12-month electrocardiographic (ECG) features and cardiac symptomology in people receiving OAMT in Durban, South Africa. Twe...

Problematic drug use is a growing problem in South African urban spaces. In Durban, as in other cities in the country, the dominant response of the capital-oriented Municipality has been to make drug use invisible through prohibition and a promotion of abstinence approaches. This governance mentality and technology has failed dismally, evidenced in...

This article explores the economic lives of 30 migrant women who recounted their oral histories as part of a project on migration, gender, and inclusion in the city of Durban, South Africa. The oral histories include narratives from internal migrants, South African women migrating from rural areas, as well as women arriving from other African count...

Introduction Micro-arteriovenous malformations (microAVMs) are a subtype of cerebral AVM characterized by an arterial nidus less than 1 cm in diameter. Due to their small size, these lesions may be difficult to identify on conventional MRI. They can also be missed or occult on cerebral angiography. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an MRI sequence wh...

Introduction The vasa vasorum are small vessels in the adventitial and medial layers of larger vessels which nourish their walls. When large vessels are occluded, the vasa vasorum may reconstitute them. We hypothesize that their hypertrophy is associated with a hypoplastic or aplastic circulus arteriosus which may be unable to meet the ischemic dem...

Jerome Amir Singh's affiliation was erroneously given as: Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Thecorrect affiliation is: School of Law, Howard College, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. The error appears in the Discussion Document by Adams et al. [https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.202...

The POPIA Code of Conduct for Research, as it is currently being considered, pertains to research conducted in South Africa, which, as part of the research process, uses personal information as defined under POPIA. This Discussion Document outlines the main areas relating to the processing of personal information for research purposes which the pro...

Background and Purpose: Robust collateral blood flow in patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion (AIS-LVO) has been correlated with favorable outcomes. Collaterals are commonly assessed by the number of arteries present on non-invasive CT angiography (CTA) overlying ischemic brain, but blood transit from these arteries thro...

Background and Purpose DEFUSE 3 (Endovascular Therapy Following Imaging Evaluation for Ischemic Stroke 3) infarct volumes at 24 hours did not significantly differ in the endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) versus medical management (MM) only groups. We hypothesized that this was due to underestimation of the final infarct volume among patients with per...

Background: Emerging data points to a potential heroin use epidemic in South Africa. Despite this, access to methadone maintenance therapy and other evidence-based treatment options remains negligible. We aimed to assess retention, changes in substance use and quality of life after 6 months on methadone maintenance therapy provided through a low-t...

Introduction Acute stroke patients with unclear time of symptom onset have traditionally been ineligible for treatment with IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) based on a strict time window of treatment within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. Recently, the use of DWI-FLAIR mismatch to identify patients within the 4.5 hour time window has been suggeste...

Introduction Anterior cranial fossa dural arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs) represent up to 10% of all dAVFs and have traditionally been treated surgically. These lesions derive their arterial supply from the bilateral anterior ethmoidal arteries (ophthalmic artery branches) in nearly all cases. Embolization via the ophthalmic artery poses unique tech...

Background: Moral conservatism within government and communities has resulted in a reluctance to support the provision of opioid agonist therapy for people with opioid use disorders in South Africa. In April 2017, South Africa's first low-threshold opioid agonist therapy demonstration project was launched in Durban. The project provided 54 low-inc...

Introduction Recent landmark randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) leads to improved outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to large vessel occlusion (LVO). Although elderly patients were excluded from several of these initial trials, the available data suggests a benefit of EVT in octo...

Background: Although the treatment benefit of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) was maintained in transfer patients in the early window trials, overall rates of functional independence were lower in both the EVT and control groups among transfer patients. We hypothesized that the imaging-based selection criteria employed in DEFUSE 3 would lead to com...

Background: DEFUSE 3 assessed thrombectomy in patients with evidence of salvageable tissue on brain imaging in the 6 to 16 hour treatment window. Despite substantially better functional outcomes as measured by the modified Rankin Scale at day 90, the study did not find a significant reduction in infarct growth between baseline and 24-hour follow up...

Background and Purpose— DAWN (Clinical Mismatch in the Triage of Wake Up and Late Presenting Strokes Undergoing Neurointervention With Trevo) and DEFUSE 3 (Endovascular Therapy Following Imaging Evaluation for Ischemic Stroke) established thrombectomy for patients with emergent large vessel occlusions presenting 6 to 24 hours after symptom onset. G...

Introduction/purpose MRI offers potential benefits over CT in selection for endovascular stroke thrombectomy. Despite this, only one-fourth of patients in the recently published DAWN and Defuse-3 trials were selected with MRI. Often, the major concern with MR utilization involves possibility of delayed treatment given the time associated with acqui...

Kenneth Gardens is Durban's largest low-income municipal housing estate. Initially built for `poor whites', Kenneth Gardens today is arguably one of the most socially diverse living spaces in the city. While the estate is significant in terms of its size, history and social make-up, very little has been written about it. This book provides a histor...

In the past ten years, the use of low-grade heroin (known as whoonga or nyaope) by people from marginalised communities in Durban, South Africa has become increasingly prevalent. Focus groups held with young homeless people who use whoonga have shown definitive rationality in their choice to use drugs, as well as high levels of a sensibility in ter...

The complex political, structural and socio-economic factors that influence drug use and corresponding responses have contributed to the increasing drug-related burden of disease in South Africa. As a result, the country’s healthcare system is called on to manage the consequences of a public-health problem that has no ‘good solutions’. Internationa...

Promoting digital skills among the youth in marginalised communities can boost their digital resilience, facilitate effective participation in the knowledge economy and foster positive development. However, in developing countries, government and other stakeholders are confronted by several challenges that hamper such projects. These include poor d...

In this article, we critically reflect on the use of the term ‘police culture’ in the literature on policing, using examples drawn from ethnographic research in Durban, South Africa, to question its analytical utility. We argue that the term often serves as a vehicle to express a number of normative presuppositions that serve to homogenize and over...

Introduction: Sex workers, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women and transgender people in South Africa frequently experience high levels of stigma, abuse and discrimination. Evidence suggests that such abuse is sometimes committed by police officers, meaning that those charged with protection are perpetrat...

This article examines the complexities of local community development initiatives within a particular South African context, which of Kenneth Gardens, a low-income housing estate in Durban. The interface between community development, state politics (at a local and national level) and networked arrangements are discussed through the experiences of...

This article presents an ethnographic exploration of the policing of illegal substances in a city in South Africa. Situated contextually, we show how specific illegal drug policing practices are reinforced both institutionally and in the daily practices and activities of law enforcement officials. We explore the tension resulting from the demand fo...

At the present moment, major changes are being proposed to the way that policing should be done in South Africa. These changes do not seem to be informed by any research agenda or by a long term strategic approach aimed at 'smarter policing'. This paper reflects on the possible partnerships that (academic) researchers and police could form with the...

This article aims to reopen the debate about public order policing in South Africa. Rising levels of violent localised protest and increased brutality in policing such events, as well as recent draft policy guidelines on restructuring public order policing by the Ministry of Police, necessitates informed debate. Protest events, in particular violen...

Efforts by police organisations to unionise and to increase their social and labour rights is an international phenomenon, and one that is becoming more vigorous in the Southern African region. However, many governments are wary of police unions and limit their rights, or refuse to recognise them at all. This gave impetus to the formation of the In...

Introduction: Prior studies based on MR data have shown that large perfusion lesions with long perfusion delays (Tmax>10s) are associated with poor functional and imaging outcomes. It is uncertain if the same associations exist for patients imaged with CT perfusion (CTP). Hypothesis: Patients with large volumes (>100mL) of tissue with a Tmax delay...

Introduction: The relationship between clinical outcome and arterial occlusive lesion (AOL) location in patients after endovascular therapy is not fully determined. We aimed to investigate if the location of the arterial occlusive lesion (AOL) is an independent predictor of good functional outcome. Hypothesis: AOL location impacts clinical outcome...

Background: Previous studies have shown an association between reperfusion and good clinical outcome, but it is unknown if this association differs depending on the site of the arterial occlusive lesion (AOL). We pooled individual patient data from prospective endovascular stroke studies to assess this. Methods: We included data from the endovascul...

In the late apartheid period South African suburbs began to change dramatically in both their appearance and design. Essentially, housing was designed with the aim of keeping intruders out. This included constructing increasingly high walls, implementing electrified fences and laser beams. Alongside these ‘investments’ and design innovations came t...

This article argues that international community-based research projects, embedded in university community engagement sites, offer a dynamic learning environment. It further argues that community-based learning, community engagement and service learning should be seen as allied pillars of tertiary education, using an international community-based r...

In the late apartheid period South African suburbs began to change dramatically in the way they looked and in the way in which they were designed. Essentially, housing was designed with the aim of keeping ‘intruders’ out. This meant a turn toward increasingly high walls, electrified fences and laser beams. Alongside these ‘investments’ and design i...

Objective: Ischemic stroke patients with areas of VLCBV on baseline imaging are at increased risk for hemorrhagic transformation following iv tPA induced reperfusion. The underlying hypothesis is that regions of low CBV are highly susceptible to reperfusion injury. We examined the DEFUSE 2 study data, and tested whether the presence of VLCBV assess...

In this article we seek to move beyond conventional understanding of the state as the central provider of security and justice to think in a broader way about what donors might do to improve policing. We take a critical look at the nature of the state in South Africa today with an emphasis on policing being delivered through pluralized arrangements...

This paper explores the slow pace of change within police organizations. It examines some possible reasons for this slowness, and suggests that new policies and legislation do not automatically bring about desired transformation within the police. The paper argues that effective police transformation may require a more radical challenge of establis...

After more than a century of providing other sorts of communal services, organized Jewry in Johannesburg, South Africa began to provide security in the uncertain period after the end of apartheid. In documenting the short but eventful history of these initiatives, we stumble upon a paradox. In the very process of taking charge of its own security,...

Background: The optimal diagnostic evaluation for patients with a spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) or intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) remains controversial. We aimed to assess the utility of early magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis and management of these patients. Methods: Consecutive patients with spontaneous ICH or IVH...

Roadblock operations are a very prominent feature of the policing landscape in South Africa. They are increasingly being employed as a tactic for crime reduction and as a mechanism for reassuring the public that police are ‘out there’, providing a visible service. The paper draws on limited observation of police roadblocks in Durban and on intervie...

This article explores new ways in which the police are thinking about, or should be thinking about their role in a plural, neo-liberal, and networked society. It draws on the vision developed by the Nexus Policing Project of the Victoria Police, Australia. This article argues that the public police have clung onto the dream that they are able to mo...

This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part explains the meaning of ethnography and provides examples from the authors' own ethnographic research endeavours. Second, it explores ways of transforming knowledge and imaginings into action or practice. Here it considers the notion of praxis as discussed by Marx and Engels in German Ideolog...

This article explores the distinct but related notions of ‘minimal’ and ‘minimalist’ policing in the context of South Africa. We argue that these conceptions can shape a new vision for the future of policing in this country, one which is especially needed at a time when the political elites are seeking to re-militarize and centralize policing. This...

Drawing on research work conducted in the city of Durban, this article demonstrates that, to a large extent, policing functions are being carried out by agents other than the police. The article explores community safety groupings operating in three diverse areas in the greater Durban area. We demonstrate in this article that these groups have dive...

This paper is co-authored by a group of researchers and practitioners who have worked together for sustained periods of time, having learnt that new wisdoms result as much from sharing knowledge and expertise as it does from forging relationships that are deeply personal. It explores ways in which police and academic researchers can work together t...

To test whether dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI-based CBF measurements are improved with arterial input function (AIF) partial volume (PV) and nonlinear contrast relaxivity correction, using a gold-standard CBF method, xenon computed tomography (xeCT). Eighteen patients with cerebrovascular disease underwent xeCT and MRI within 36 h. PV was mea...

In South Africa, police and public authorities acknowledge that feelings of insecurity are rising, and that diverse 'nodes' for governing security have been established. As such, the notion of a police monopoly is more a dream than a reality. In this light, we suggest that public policing policies and practices surrounding partnerships reveal an in...

In South Africa, police cling to the idea of a policing monopoly and prove reluctant to exhaust possibilities for sharing the load of creating safety. Nevertheless, they operate knowing that feelings of insecurity are rising and diverse ‘nodes’ for governing security have been established. Police and public authorities realize that a policing monop...

This descriptive paper tells the story of the daily difficulties that members of the Public Order Police (POP) unit in South Africa experienced in their attempts to create a more diverse (in terms of race and gender) and representative police organization. This story is told through recordings of observations and conversations that span a 4-year et...

Purpose – Efforts by police organisations to unionise and to increase their social and labour rights is an international phenomenon, and one that is becoming more vigorous in the Southern African region. However, many governments are wary of police unions and limit their rights, or refuse to recognise them at all. This paper aims to discuss the iss...

Police departments today are more attractive places than they used to be for experiments in participatory management and other forms of workforce empowerment, but experiments of this kind in law enforcement remain disappointingly rare. The articles in this special issue, drawn from an international, cross-disciplinary conference on ‘police reform f...

This paper argues that police members from all ranks possess potential to challenge the beliefs and meanings that inform their daily practices, and are able to alter their routines when innovative practice and new ideas assist them in responding to new dilemmas. The paper suggests that both scholars and practitioners pay insufficient attention to n...

This article has no abstract

Throughout the world, including in South Africa, there is a growing recognition that the state police are but one actor within a hybrid policing field involved in the production of security. How exactly this mix works at micro levels, and through what processes and with what outcomes requires a great deal of investigation. Based on an ethnographic...

Cerebral ventricular enlargement and reduced cortical volume are correlates of chronic schizophrenia. We investigated whether genetic risk for psychosis related to differences in foetal brain development as measured by prenatal ultrasonography. Routine foetal cerebral measures at 19-23 weeks of gestation were compared between the offspring of 35 wo...

This paper considers the challenges for Australian police unions in the 21st century. The empirical evidence is drawn from research conducted by two of the authors for the Police Federation of Australia (PFA) in 2003?2004 Police Federation of Australia. 2004?2005. Annual report Canberra. The paper first outlines the changing field of policing in wh...

This article investigates the effects of antenatal depression and anxiety on spontaneous preterm birth resulting either from preterm labor or preterm premature rupture of membranes. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 681 women with singleton pregnancies consecutively recruited between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation in the Obstetrics Departmen...

This paper explores the struggles for labour and social rights on the part of police officers in democratising countries. The paper suggests that the rights of police officers and labour– management relations are important issues to be acknowledged if we are serious about deepening the democratic practices of police, particularly in democratising c...

This (normative) article explores the importance of police unions in the quest for democratic policing. The authors argue that if we are to expect police to behave democratically, it is important for police themselves to experience democratic engagement within the organizations in which they work. That is, if police are expected to defend democracy...

Scholars and practitioners now recognise the importance of ‘governing through networks’ if policing agendas are to be promoted effectively and democratically. Central to such an agenda of networked governance is the identification or creation of community-based structures and processes that can be harnessed by, and linked to, other forms of governa...