Masters Degrees (Sociology and Social Anthropology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Sociology and Social Anthropology) by Author "Barnard, Jana"

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    Racial discourse among white Afrikaans-speaking youth : a Stellenbosch case study
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-03) Barnard, Jana; Van der Waal, C. S.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to present a picture of the racial discourses circulating among white Afrikaans-speaking youth in South Africa, with closer focus to students at the Stellenbosch University (SU). Fifteen years into democracy, Afrikaans-speaking whites find themselves in a position where their ‘Afrikaner’ identity does not enjoy the same government-supported security as under apartheid. The responsibility is thus shifted onto white Afrikaans-speakers themselves to negotiate and secure this identity in the light of new challenges brought on by the post-apartheid context. In this regard, the white Afrikaans-speaking youth, in particular, are faced with the ambivalence of being both exposed to a habitual scheme of normalised racial divisions, as well as to a context where ‘old’ frameworks need to be transcended in the name of survival in multi-racial South Africa. SU, a historically white, predominantly Afrikaans-medium university, is currently faced with the challenges of government-induced transformation and the attended ‘language debate’, the aims of which are to make the university more accessible to non-white sectors of society who, under apartheid, was excluded from this institution. Making use of interviews and participant observation among students on the SU campus, an attempt was made to shed light onto the types of discourses employed by white Afrikaans-speaking Stellenbosch students to negotiate their position in this setting, as well as to determine to what extent such discourses are racially based. With the help of a social anthropological approach to discourse analysis, the discourses encountered during fieldwork were considered within the context of macro-historical processes, and were conceptualised as complex sets of meanings produced within the context of interaction, appropriated and employed by individuals, strategically and artistically, in response to moment to moment situations. It is argued that these discursive processes are immensely complex, as it is influenced and shaped by a plethora of factors. These youth are, firstly, faced with a received framework in which dualistic and racial distinctions are subconsciously reproduced. Secondly, they take part in a rhetoric in which group boundaries manage to reproduce itself and, lastly, they are exposed to a popular discourse, reinforced by the media, that strongly relies on race-based sense-making. However, politically induced transformation ideals do call for a readjustment of priorities within white ‘Afrikaner’ discourse and students have been observed to respond to this in creative ways. Finally, it is argued that the heavy emotional baggage accompanying the race topic, exacerbated by media emphasis and the ‘racist taboo’, can lead to denial and indifference among white Afrikaans-speakers so that no space is created for constructive engagement with the topic.