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Structural transformations of the South African society. A discourse analysis of mundane reasoning
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 July 2012
End Date
30 June 2014
Status
ongoing
Keywords
discourse analysis
transformation
narrative study of lives
South Africa
qualitative methods
sociology of the local
race
ethnicity
culture
Description
South African society at large is commonly understood to have undergone and to undergo major structural transformations, among others in the political, economic, educational, and cultural sphere, interconnected with processes of globalization. Social scientific studies of contemporary societies that analyse these processes and the accompanying questions of future social developments often do so only in a macro perspective, either theoretically, using quantitative methods and survey data, or by analysing texts that document high-level measures and legislation. In contrast, this project aims at analysing how "ordinary people" make sense of the current developments on several levels. This mundane perspective is decisive as transformation processes are not "abstract" forces; instead, they rest upon social and discursive practices of individuals.
This project will analyse the discourses that structure mundane reasoning and thus structure societal transformations. It will do so using open, narrative interviews. The methodologically controlled selection of diverse, contrasting biographical constellations will allow distinguishing the relevant discourses and developing a typology thereof. The study focuses on a case of institutional transformation in the Higher Education Sector, pertaining mainly to organisational efforts to craft inclusive diversity and the students' discursively shaped perceptions thereof and ways of dealing with it. It will thus contribute to an empirically solid understanding of how South Africans deal with the challenges of societal transformations today.
This project will analyse the discourses that structure mundane reasoning and thus structure societal transformations. It will do so using open, narrative interviews. The methodologically controlled selection of diverse, contrasting biographical constellations will allow distinguishing the relevant discourses and developing a typology thereof. The study focuses on a case of institutional transformation in the Higher Education Sector, pertaining mainly to organisational efforts to craft inclusive diversity and the students' discursively shaped perceptions thereof and ways of dealing with it. It will thus contribute to an empirically solid understanding of how South Africans deal with the challenges of societal transformations today.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Sociology of knowledge approach to discourse; transformation; sociology of the local; narrative study of lives; race
ethnicity and culture
Method(s)
Narrative-biographical interviews
ethnographic interviews
participant observation
grounded theory
ethnographic semantics
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Division(s)
Eprints ID
218231
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PublicationBlack, White and In-Between: Affective and Emotional Facets of Performing Diversity in ‘Tiny Publics'( 2013-08-31)
;Coetzee, Jan KKotze, P ConradThe paper is concerned with the affective and emotional facets of belonging to, living in and relationally identifying with groups on the campus of a historically white South African university. It focuses on the transformation of student residences, initiated by institutional efforts aimed at increasing the ‘racial’ diversity. The corresponding population categories, however, intersect with a ‘hinterland’ of other relational and categorical identifications and self-understandings, the inclusion or exclusion of which in/from the explicitly acknowledged notion of diversity is negotiated locally within the ‘tiny publics’ (cf. Fine & Harrington) and established idiocultures of the groups. These groups are not understood to be ‘generic’ interaction vessels, but spaces for the creation of shared meaning and collective action that are connected to local traditions and histories. Three facets will be analysed: a) What are the affective and emotional dimensions of becoming a member of and identifying with the group? b) What are the affective and emotional qualities at stake when the group culture and the corresponding identifications (are about to) change? c) How do students negotiate intersecting but conflicting identifications and self-understandings: What is at stake for individuals to (openly) deviate from or comply with cultural expectations of the group? The paper explores these issues through narrative interviews with students living in residences on the university campus. The narratives will be read in context of the students’ socio-cultural backgrounds, as these have historically been influential in shaping the group cultures.Type: conference paper