Metaphors from Alice in Wonderland illustrate firstly the ridiculous ...

I met Alice at our agreed point-of-departure. Instead of using a GPS (Global
Positioning System) to make sense of our journey, I used a MPS (Metaphor
Positioning System) and BBM, using the browser option on our mobile phones to
record Alice‟s route. Science differs in Wonderland, where the different branches of
Arithmetic are Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision, and where the
future is beforehand documented on the Oraculum – a calendar of all the days of
Underland, each having its own title and illustration.
We had no predetermined “route” or “course” and, therefore, had no ETA
[estimated time of arrival] or ETE [estimated time [en route] or [geo-fencing]
boundaries] for our journey. My “position” was the present “epoch” and Alice‟s 150
years ago. Our position was somewhere between the beginning and the end of the
journey. The UFS campus was our “control point” and I could locate Alice‟s actual
position on the “moving map” screen. Adapted from screenwriter Linda
Woolverton‟s Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Theoretical framework
For the purpose of this study, a qualitative, post-critical and postmodern Appreciative approach
(Bushe, 2005; Cooperrider, 2010; Whitney, Trosten-Bloom & Rader, 2010) is applied to the processes
of institutional identity transformation at the UFS. The study is primarily located within the field of
Higher Education Studies, but borrows notions from industrial and social psychology, visual culture
and management studies.
Research problem, aim and objectives
The apparent devastating Reitz debacle in February 2008, when four White students humiliated four
Black service workers while capturing the incident on video (CNN, 2008), introduced major changes
to the UFS. These actions of transformation must have been so radical that it resulted in the World
Universities Forum‟s 2011 Award for Best Practice in Higher Education. I had to make sense of these
processes of change at the UFS and, as a staff member at the institution, observed the numerous
changes, which urged me to engage with it on various conscious levels. However, as I engaged on
my journey towards coming to terms with the changes, I realised that in my subconscious mind I had
also changed, resulting in my final article.
This study, as a juxtaposed journey with Alice, was driven by the following questions: What is the
authentic identity of the UFS when it needs to identify and brand itself? Is the institution aware of
that identity which lies at its heart?
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