POPULATION AND SAMPLING

For research purposes, population refers to all units, people or things which possess the attributes or characteristics in which the researcher is interested (Keyton 2015). Saumure and Given (2008) define population, as a research concept, to mean every individual fitting the criteria that the researcher has laid out for research participants. The population, for this study, consists of all households residing in the Hills/Westford informal settlement, Olivenhoutbosch and Thulamela areas. Table 3.1 shows the populations and number of households for the three research areas according to Statistics South Africa (2012). For the purpose of this study, a household will be the unit of analysis.

Thulalema local municipality

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Table 3.1: Population and household size in research areas

Area Population Households

Olivenhoutbosch 70 863 23 777

The Hill/Westford 4 768 1 347

Thulamela (Thate & surrounding villages) 6 345 1 655 Source: Statistics South Africa 2012

Although household is a term used in various studies, there is no common understanding of the term or uniform set of criteria through which individuals should be included in a household. A household can refer to a family (husband, wife and children), to a person living alone (lone person household), or to a group of unrelated persons living together (group households) (Qu &Wetson 2013). The United Nations (UN) recommends that definitions of households should follow “Principles and Recommendations”:

“The concept of household is based on the arrangements made by persons, individually or in groups, for providing themselves with food or other essentials for living. A household may be either, a) a one-person household, that is to say, a person who makes provision for his or her food or other essentials for living without combining with any other person to form part of a multi-person household, or b) a multi-person household, that is to say, a group of two or more persons living together who make common provision for food or other essentials for living”. (UN 2015:1)

Beaman & Dillon (2011) find that the variations in the definition of a household have implications in measuring household welfare. According to the Statistic Act, 1999 (Act No. 6 of 1999) a “household” means a group of people who live together at least four nights a week, eat together and share resources, or a single person who lives alone. For the purpose of this study, the definition contained in the Act and applied by Statistics South Africa when conducting surveys was adopted.

Having identified the target population for this study, the next step was to identify the list of households to make contact with, or the list of households the research will be

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analysing (Davis et al. 2014). The paragraphs that follow discuss what a sample is, and the sampling technique used for this study.

A sample, according to Morgan (2008), may be defined as a set of actual data drawn from a larger population of potential data sources. In other words, a sample is part of a research target population. It is almost impossible to contact or perform an analysis on every element of a population, given the fact that populations often consist of many elements. To try to access an entire population takes more time and resources than are available to finish a research project (Davis et al. 2014). For this reason, a sample of households was selected using sampling methods discussed below.

There are two types of sampling methods, namely, probability and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling refers to a technique in which an individual or group has an equal opportunity of being part of a sample (Davis et al. 2014). In contrast, non-probability sampling refers to a technique in which a sample is selected for analysis in ways other than, and distinct from, that based on probability (Babbie 2011). Walters (2014) has observed that non-probability sampling is mostly used in qualitative research methods. Being qualitative in nature, the present study thus adopts a non- probability sampling technique.

Over 70 in-depth interviews with participants were conducted by the author and research assistants across the population areas. It is not the intention of this study to provide a comprehensive, statistical representation of all the vulnerable households in the selected populations. Therefore, the criteria for household selection were a combination of purposive sampling and snowballing. In purposive sampling, the researcher defines the population of eligible data sources prior to selecting who should be in the sample (Morgan 2008). Figure 3.5 categorises the households used in the study by employment status. As pointed out in Chapter 2, most households are only able to save given a regular income.

Thus, participant criteria were as follows:

 Households who receive income from formal employment,

 Self-employed households belonging to some social network, and

 Unemployed households receiving income from social security, e.g. child support grants, pension, disability grants, etc.

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Self-employment or membership of a social network structure (e.g. stokvel, masicwabane, and mogodisano) qualifies a household for inclusion in the study.

Figure 3.5: Household categories included in the study

Source: Compiled by the author

Having set eligibility criteria for participation in the study, what follows next is the actual selection of the participants. Small numbers of participants are a norm in ethnography, and the snowballing technique has proven useful. In snowball sampling, the researcher collects data on an initial small number of informants in the target population, providing the basis for an expansion of the sample depending on the initial data gathered (Babbie 2011). According to Walters (2014:111), one respondent is asked to suggest others, so that the sample grows like a snowball, and “…expands in size as it rolls down the mountain”.