Changing identities in urban South Africa : an interpretation of narratives in Cape Town
Date
2008-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
Identity reflects and aims to control one’s experience. It is an act of consciousness which is
neither essential nor immutable but a social construct open to change as circumstances,
strategies and interactions fluctuate. It needs therefore to be situated historically and
relationally, as identity is a matter of social context. This thesis sets out to investigate
processes of identity formation in post-apartheid South Africa, i.e. a context marked by
deep changes at both symbolic/material structural levels, in particular within the urban setup.
On the basis of focus group discussions with residents of Cape Town, various, and at
times contradictory, strategies of identification are explored. Residents’ discourses are
analysed on the basis of two entry points, that of the context or the ‘scale’ within which
discourse occurs (from the local, to the urban, the national and the continental) and that of
the traditional categories of class, race and culture. The narratives that urban citizens draw
upon to make sense of their lives and environment illuminate the emergence of new social
boundaries among citizens which, though volatile and situational, reveal a changing picture
of South Africa as a nation.
Description
Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.
Keywords
Identity Cape Town, Social change Cape Town, Identity narratives Cape Town, Dissertations -- Sociology, Theses -- Sociology