Melancholia of Freedom: Social Life in an Indian Township in South Africa; Chatsworth: The Making of a South African Township

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-475
Author(s):  
Preben Kaarsholm
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
South African Township

scholarly journals “You Mix Up the Thinking, and then You Look at the Journey”: ‘Pausing’ to Reflect on Masculinities in a South African Township

2020 ◽  
pp. 1097184X2092587
Author(s):  
Antonella (Toni) Pyke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
South African ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Minority Literature ◽  
South African Township ◽  
Gender Change ◽  
Men And Masculinity

Changes in political, social, and economic structures in South Africa during the transition from apartheid to democratic governance in 1994 have put men and masculinity/ies under public and scholarly scrutiny. Attention has generally focused on the links between masculinity and violence, particularly among black men from low-income backgrounds, in attempts to understand the widespread levels of sexual violence throughout the country. Together, but in tension with the focus on men and violence, has been a literature that documents gender change in South Africa. This literature argues for example, that men are embracing fatherhood and becoming more engaged in childcare. Nevertheless this is a minority literature that is overshadowed by a focus on men and violence. In this article, I reflect on the lives of a group of men living in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, who are exploring what it means to be a man in a contemporary township setting, and the issues and challenges they face in attempts to transition their masculine identities.

scholarly journals Qualitative research as theater: fieldwork in a South African township through the prism of Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor

Afrika Focus ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Caroline Masquillier
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
South African ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Real Self ◽  
South African Township ◽  
Insight Into

This autoethnographic paper reflects on the qualitative fieldwork I conducted in a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. By exploring how a metaphor can assist in autoethnographic reflection, I aim to gain insight into how data can best be collected in deprived informal settlements characterized by high crime rates. This autoethnographic paper draws on the autobiographical materials of the researcher as primary data. This self-reflexive route, which relied on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor, helped me to process my various fieldwork experiences in a more systematic manner. Attempting to reconcile my ‘work’ role – a professional, reliable and confidential advisor – with my ‘non-work’ role – my supposed real self – involved emotion management and the tools of the stage outlined by Goffman in order that the fieldwork could be conducted in an atmosphere of trust while maintaining a professional distance.

The Effects of Intergenerational Poverty and Unemployment on South African Township Youth

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ndwakhulu Stephen Tshishonga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Young People ◽  
South African ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
South African Township

Young people throughout the world are an afterthought of policy and program interventions. In Africa, and particularly in third world nations, the irony of sloganizing youth as the cream or the future of the nation exists alongside tendencies and behaviors that impede their development towards being responsible and full citizens which rather aggravates youth underdevelopment and marginalization. It is an undisputed fact that young people have been the vanguard of liberatory struggles that resulted in dismantling colonialism and apartheid. On one hand, the chapter examines strategies adopted to overcome intergenerational poverty by using narratives (daily experiences of youth) of post-apartheid South Africa. On the other hand, the chapter highlights the uncertainties and frustrations of living in a democratic South Africa, with its failure to open up opportunities for their socio-economic growth, the apartheid discriminatory system, and survival.

Theatre as Inclusive Arts-based Research: A Key to Political Art in the Post-democracy?

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-86
Author(s):  
Petro Janse van Vuuren ◽  
Bjørn Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Political Art ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Inclusive Practice ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Applied Theatre ◽  
Artistic Research

In this chapter we investigate different approaches to art as research (arts-based) in relation to applied theatre practice and research from a cultural democratic perspective. In particular, we discuss theatre as “inclusive” practice and research and how this relates to different traditions of arts-based research. Based on literature analyses and experiences from Centres of Applied Theatre Research in South Africa and Norway, we unveil some different and dominant traditions of arts-based research that are currently voiced and familiar in Norway and South Africa. We explore four notions of exclusiveness within European notions of “artistic research”: The alternative epistemology, Knowing for the sake of the arts only, The limited artistic context, and Only qualified artists do artistic research. Seen from a different cultural angle, the South African, we find that tendencies of exclusiveness are challenged by different notions of inclusiveness: The role of the arts and its embeddedness in social life, Inter disciplinarity, The extended political and historical context, Embracing intersectionality. As answers to potential accusations of applied theatre art running errands for the liberalist post-democracy, this chapter discusses inclusive arts-based research as a form of cultural praxis that may negotiate paradoxes of post-democracy

scholarly journals Consuming For Recognition: South African Youth Consumption Of Status Clothing

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 919-928
Author(s):  
Hilda Bongazana Dondolo ◽  
Nkosivile Welcome Madinga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Survey Questionnaire ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Status Consumption ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
African Youth ◽  
South African Township

Buying expensive and fashionable brands to portray social status is increasing rapidly among South African township youth. The South African youth mainly spend their income on status-depicting clothing in order to conform to social settings and groups and to be noticed by their community. This study investigates the factors influencing the need to consume status-depicting clothing items among South African township youth. A self-completing survey questionnaire was administered to 400 youth consumers from three township malls in the Sedibeng district, Gauteng region of South Africa. Regression analysis was employed to analyse the data. The results suggest that materialism, fashion clothing involvement and group identity are key factors predicting status consumption among South African township youth consumers (aged 18-24 years). Marketers interested in targeting status conscious township youth consumers are advised to devise their advertisements in such a way that they emphasise the brand or product’s ability to indicate status.

In the Blood: The Consequences of Naturalising Microsegregation in Workplace Social Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 674-708
Author(s):  
Hugo Canham ◽  
Christoph Maier
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
South African ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Capitalist Class ◽  
Marginalised Groups

This study explored workplace social networks in order to understand practices of inclusion and exclusion in the context of an increasingly diverse workplace in post-apartheid South Africa. We found that the ways in which space is occupied shows marked continuities with the era of formalised segregation during the preceding periods of colonialism and apartheid. We contend that intergroup relations theory and homophily assist in providing a partial understanding of the pervasive microsegregation observed within a South African organisation. We offer that a historied account of the continuing race-based accounts of microsegregation is more productive for understanding this phenomenon in a country with a past that formalised segregation across all areas of social life. We explore the meanings that people assign to segregation patterns within the workplace based on data emerging out of 54 interviews, nine naturalistic observations and a group discussion conducted within the headquarters of a major bank in Johannesburg. Discourses of linguistic and cultural differences were used to rationalise segregation and naturalise racialised differences. The material effects of segregation were noted to be particularly onerous for Black bankers. As a capitalist class, we however found that Black bankers resist, adapt, subvert and reinscribe power relations in ways that simultaneously serve their interests while also potentially limiting their opportunities. We point to the agentic aspects of social networks for marginalised groups and contend that representation is not sufficient to ensure inclusion.

scholarly journals Towards a fusion of horizons: Thematic contours for an urban public theological praxis-agenda in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan De Beer ◽  
Ignatius Swart
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Fusion Of Horizons ◽  
The Commons ◽  
African Context ◽  
The City

This article proposes a ‘fusion of horizons’ in constructing urban public theologies in South Africa. This is done through the introduction of five interrelated themes that have emerged from the on-going knowledge and idea production by a distinguishable counterpoint in contemporary scholarly, intellectual and activist engagement with the urban, in the authors’ own South African context but also wider internationally. In advancing a praxis-agenda for urban public theology, the authors subsequently identify the following, albeit not exhaustive, themes: southern urbanisms and the factor of unprecedented urban migration; ‘right to the city’ and urbanisation from below; a reclaiming of the commons; the making of ‘good cities’; and actors of faith in relation to urban social life.

scholarly journals The Public Accounts of a ‘Private’ Act: Domestic Violence in the Eyes of Mamelodi, a South African Township

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Mazibuko Nokuthula Caritus ◽  
Ikechukwu Umejesi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
South African ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The Public ◽  
Home Space ◽  
South African Township ◽  
Black Township

Domestic violence against women is a serious social and public health problem facing women in South Africa and other countries. This social malaise in South Africa is often seen as “private” – committed within the home space, or “imperceptible” to the public. In other words, domestic violence is framed as a phenomenon that takes place exclusively behind the closed doors of the home. This study contends with this notion of “imperceptibility” in the domestic violence discourse. Using qualitative data from Mamelodi, a black township in Pretoria, South Africa, this paper argues that the notion of imperceptibility is reductionist and helps to perpetuate the act. The commission of domestic violence does not only take place in the privacy of the home; it is also committed in public, and it is visible to the community where it takes place.

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