#KeepItReal: discursive constructions of authenticity in South African consumer culture
- Authors: Plüg, Simóne Nikki
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Consumer behavior Consumers' preferences -- South Africa Brand choice -- South Africa Marketing -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64973 , vital:28641
- Description: Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde (1915), Matthew Arnold (1960), Erich Fromm (1997) and a proliferation of contemporary self-help gurus, variously assert that it is preferable for people to focus on “being”, or to value “who you are”, instead of emphasising “having” or the material possessions you have acquired. These discourses assert that individuals content with “being” are happier and more fulfilled than those involved in the constant (and alienating) motion of acquiring material goods as representations of themselves (de Botton, 2004; Fromm, 1997; James, 2007). This thesis provides an in-depth critical exploration of one of these ideal “ways of being”: authenticity. It does not seek to discover what authenticity is in an empirical sense, nor to define what it should be in a normative sense, but to map the cultural work done by changing and often contradictory discourses of personal authenticity. More specifically, this study uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method to critically discuss the discursive constructions of subject authenticity in South African brand culture. The sample consisted of (1.) ten marketing campaigns of several large, mainstream brands, which were popular in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, and (2.) fifteen smaller South African “craft” brands popular in the “artisanal” context. The analysis is presented in two distinct, but interrelated, sections (namely, Selling Stories and Crafting Authenticity), where the relevant discourses of authenticity for each data set are explored in depth. Through this analysis the thesis provides a critical discussion of the ways in which these discourses of authenticity work to produce and maintain, (or challenge and subvert), subject positions, ideologies, and power relations that structure contemporary South African society.
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From ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’ to ‘without perfect health, there is nothing’: discourses of healthy lifestyle in the construction of young adult identities in urban South Africa
- Authors: De Jong, Michelle
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Health , Cleanliness , Social structure -- Health aspects , Health behavior , Social medicine
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64940 , vital:28638
- Description: This research explores popular constructions of “healthiness” as individual lifestyle choices in the context of contemporary South African consumer culture, and how these constructions relate to formations of subjectivity. This is a qualitative study conducted within a social constructionist, theoretical framework. Data was collected using in-depth, semi structured interviews and are analysed using a Foucauldian inspired version of discourse analysis. A critical stance is taken towards the assumption in these discourses that their version of healthiness is always and unquestionably positive. Special attention is paid to the lifestyle and marketing media discourses appropriated in understandings of personal health through self-management, and of the optimization of health in the pursuit of well-being. The ways in which different discourses of healthiness facilitate the construction of specific identities are considered in order to untangle some of the problems created by the moralism underpinning popular consumer health discourse. How constructions of healthiness and aspirant healthy lifestyles support, and are supported by, the ideologies and practices of neoliberal capitalism are also explored. From this perspective, healthiness as lifestyle consumption choices can be seen as an ideological apparatus that produces the subjects necessary to reproduce the social order (Althusser, 2001), functioning not only positively amongst the social classes with the leisure and economic resources to pursue these options, but also negatively as victim-blaming of those who are excluded. The argument here is not that health is bad or that people should not be bothered with activities aimed at promoting good health, but that in a context where the concept of health is idealised as always positive and beneficial, the potentially harmful consequences of some of the health discourses we make use of may be occluded. This idealisation of health or ‘healthism’ may also function to divert attention away from some of the challenges to health that are not the direct result of personal behaviours and are unlikely to be remedied through individually focussed interventions, for example, inequality and inadequate access to basic resources. Six discourses which were used to construct understandings of health are analysed. These include Happiness, Freedom, Control, Care, Balance and Goodness. The ways in which these discourses played a role in constructing the kinds of subject positions which were made available to participants, and the possible implications this has, are explored in depth.
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Training intervention for volunteers supporting victims of intimate partner violence in South Africa
- Authors: Thomas, Samantha
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Intimate partner violence -- Psychological aspects , Victims of family violence -- Services for -- South Africa , Marital violence , Victims of dating violence , Family violence -- Law and legislation , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/65079 , vital:28679
- Description: Intimate Partner Violence continues to be a significant social problem in South Africa, requiring a systematised and effective response at multiple levels. The organisation at the centre of this research offers crisis intervention to victims of intimate partner violence, providing basic psychological support, legal information and referrals. The volunteer crisis interventionists are exposed to numerous in-depth accounts of violent and distressing victimisation, making them more vulnerable to vicarious traumatisation. Through this work, their prior assumptions about personal safety, the trustworthiness of other people, and basic justice in the world, are challenged. The challenge to these assumptions increases the likelihood of countertransference victim blaming responses, as it is often easier to hold the client responsible for the tragic event than for the support worker to transform their own assumptions about safety and justice. This victim blaming response is supported by the dominant patriarchal ideology which frequently seeks to maintain the systems of oppression, excusing the perpetrator and placing responsibility on the victim. It was therefore clear that in order to do this work effectively, volunteers needed to be trained to identify their countertransference reactions and emotional responses, as well as undergo a critical re-assessment of their ideas relating to intimate partner violence and victimisation. Using an Intervention Research paradigm, this research designed and developed a training programme based on transformative learning theory, moving away from traditional information models of training to a focus on emotional skills and critical self-insight. The phases of the intervention refined the intervention in order to ensure that the research objectives were met and that the programme could be easily replicated. The evaluation of each phase showed an increased capacity for critical insight, and evidence for a transformative shift in the trainees understanding and approach to intimate partner violence.
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