Masculinity, respectability and divergence among migrant informal traders in Johannesburg
- Authors: Igbanoi, Osikhena Leo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Immigrants , Masculinity , Interpersonal relations
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/296712 , uj:32331
- Description: Abstract: Although migrant masculinities exhibit diverse forms of solidarities in host countries, existing masculinity-migration studies have not duly accounted for how their exercise of agency associated with the construction of masculine respectability results in migrant-migrant contestations among them. This study fills in this gap by interrogating the masculine relationships among African men in Johannesburg. Employing qualitative in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, data was collected from 20 young, male migrants from four African countries - Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia – across 4 informal business sites in Johannesburg over a period of 6 months. This information was subsequently thematically analysed using Creswell’s (2009) six-step data analysis approach. Findings reveal that in their articulations of masculine respectability, the migrant men create and co-create each other in the social fields that they inhabit through gendered agency. Sometimes such enactments of masculinity are material they construct and reconstruct themselves materially, for instance, as providers and heads of households. At other times, the men turn to other social means to construct self-esteem, including employing past and present cultural and symbolic social resources like educational attainment, age, legal status in South Africa, etc. In the relational contexts that the bodies of the men interact, they mobilise individual and collective agencies to forge useful relationships and solidarities. Yet, these are mostly instrumental in nature thus tend to be frequently disrupted by individual and group senses of respectability that result in tensions among them. The manifest outcomes include verbal and physical contestations and co-constructions, which sometimes are also violent in nature. These, then, lead the men to make calculated decisions to engage minimally with each other while maintaining strategic solidarities. The thesis adds a significant voice to studies on migrant masculinities by interrogating the complex realities and relationships that migrant men are embedded in within host contexts. Ultimately, it presents a critical perspective of masculinitymigration literature that is largely fixated on xenophobia discourses, which tend to locate migrant men as victims during the migratory process. , D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)
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- Authors: Igbanoi, Osikhena Leo
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Immigrants , Masculinity , Interpersonal relations
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/296712 , uj:32331
- Description: Abstract: Although migrant masculinities exhibit diverse forms of solidarities in host countries, existing masculinity-migration studies have not duly accounted for how their exercise of agency associated with the construction of masculine respectability results in migrant-migrant contestations among them. This study fills in this gap by interrogating the masculine relationships among African men in Johannesburg. Employing qualitative in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, data was collected from 20 young, male migrants from four African countries - Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia – across 4 informal business sites in Johannesburg over a period of 6 months. This information was subsequently thematically analysed using Creswell’s (2009) six-step data analysis approach. Findings reveal that in their articulations of masculine respectability, the migrant men create and co-create each other in the social fields that they inhabit through gendered agency. Sometimes such enactments of masculinity are material they construct and reconstruct themselves materially, for instance, as providers and heads of households. At other times, the men turn to other social means to construct self-esteem, including employing past and present cultural and symbolic social resources like educational attainment, age, legal status in South Africa, etc. In the relational contexts that the bodies of the men interact, they mobilise individual and collective agencies to forge useful relationships and solidarities. Yet, these are mostly instrumental in nature thus tend to be frequently disrupted by individual and group senses of respectability that result in tensions among them. The manifest outcomes include verbal and physical contestations and co-constructions, which sometimes are also violent in nature. These, then, lead the men to make calculated decisions to engage minimally with each other while maintaining strategic solidarities. The thesis adds a significant voice to studies on migrant masculinities by interrogating the complex realities and relationships that migrant men are embedded in within host contexts. Ultimately, it presents a critical perspective of masculinitymigration literature that is largely fixated on xenophobia discourses, which tend to locate migrant men as victims during the migratory process. , D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)
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Burning to be men? Conspicuous consumption as a performance of masculinity in the activities of Izikhothane in Tembisa
- Authors: Mnisi, Jabulani Goodhope
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Poverty , Marginality, Social , Subculture , Youth , Masculinity
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/454836 , uj:40235
- Description: Abstract: Burning to Be Men? is a study that investigates the role of consumption in the performance, enactment, and pursuit of masculinities in the subculture of ukukhothana. The phenomenon of ukukhothana involves township youths who predominantly come from impoverished economic backgrounds who engage in conspicuous consumption. The fieldwork was conducted in Tembisa, the second largest township in Gauteng, in the East Rand. I worked with The Good Fellas, which is one of the longest running and most popular crews in the area of Phomolong. Studying the consumption patterns of people is a very complex undertaking. This is particularly the case in the South African context, given that consumption studies as a discipline have mostly been developed outside of Africa. Finding a single theory to study a peculiar South African subculture such as ukukhothana was a challenge. In order to get over this challenge, I relied on multiple theories. I used theories of consumption, subculture, masculinity, and evolutionary psychology. When all of these are combined, they provide a lens through which I could read the consumption behaviour of izikhothane... , Ph.D. (Communication Studies)
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- Authors: Mnisi, Jabulani Goodhope
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Poverty , Marginality, Social , Subculture , Youth , Masculinity
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/454836 , uj:40235
- Description: Abstract: Burning to Be Men? is a study that investigates the role of consumption in the performance, enactment, and pursuit of masculinities in the subculture of ukukhothana. The phenomenon of ukukhothana involves township youths who predominantly come from impoverished economic backgrounds who engage in conspicuous consumption. The fieldwork was conducted in Tembisa, the second largest township in Gauteng, in the East Rand. I worked with The Good Fellas, which is one of the longest running and most popular crews in the area of Phomolong. Studying the consumption patterns of people is a very complex undertaking. This is particularly the case in the South African context, given that consumption studies as a discipline have mostly been developed outside of Africa. Finding a single theory to study a peculiar South African subculture such as ukukhothana was a challenge. In order to get over this challenge, I relied on multiple theories. I used theories of consumption, subculture, masculinity, and evolutionary psychology. When all of these are combined, they provide a lens through which I could read the consumption behaviour of izikhothane... , Ph.D. (Communication Studies)
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