Discourse on identity : conversations with white South Africans
Date
2008-03
Authors
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
The uncertainty and insecurity generated by social transformation within local and
global contexts foregrounds concerns with identity. South African society has a
legacy of an entrenched racial order which previously privileged those classified
‘white’. The assumed normality in past practices of such an institutionalised system of
racial privileging was challenged by a changing social, economic and political
context. This dissertation examines the discourse of white middle-class South
Africans on this changing context. The study draws on the discourse of Afrikaansspeaking
and English-speaking interviewees living in urban and rural communities.
Their discourse reveals the extent to which these changes have affected the ways they
talk about themselves and others. There is a literature suggesting the significance of
race in shaping people’s identity has diminished within the post-apartheid context.
This study considers the extent to which the evasion of race suggested in a literature
on whiteness is apparent in the discourse on the transformation of the society. By
considering this discourse a number of questions are raised on how interviewees
conceive their communities and what implication this holds for future racial
integration. What is meant by being South African is a related matter that receives
attention. The study draws the conclusion that in spite of heightened racial sensitivity,
race remains a key factor in the identities of interviewees.
Description
Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.
Keywords
Identity, Discourse, Transition, Race, Dissertations -- Sociology, Theses -- Sociology