Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-128). / This critical ethnographic study is concerned with dynamics of race and space in Prince Albert, a rural South African town. Proceeding in the wake of previous studies which have identified mechanisms of informal segregation in urban, post-apartheid contexts, this study aims to explore the ways in which transformation, as a national imperative to democratize South Africa‘s economic, political, and social landscape, is taking shape in small rural towns. It is found that fifteen years after the end of apartheid, Prince Albert’s coloured and white residents remains spatially segregated. It is argued here that this persistent segregation and inequality has become further entrenched by changes which have occurred upon the arrival of white middle class English speaking South Africans during the past fifteen years. Specifically, in advocating for the protection of Prince Albert’s ‘heritage value’ and concomitant development of the tourism industry, these new residents exert a symbolic control of space which centers their own interests and identities and ultimately re-assigns coloured residents a peripheral, disenfranchised socio-economic status.

This qualitative case study examines conceptualizations of post-apartheid democratic citizenship. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in July 2009 with twelve voting age women of colour in the small town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, it demonstrates how traditional theorizations are inadequate for understanding the substantive citizenship some small town women desire, live, and demand. Though the research design began with a traditional definition that citizenship rests on the knowledge of and ability to engage with claiming rights findings demonstrated the failings, and challenged the sufficiency, of this approach. Listening closely to the voices of the women interviewed revealed the importance of emotion. Further, the ways that emotion emerged from these interviews illuminate an under-examined aspect of substantive citizenship: its affective dimensions. The affective issues that emerged were those of perceived elite indifference to the people, conflicted feelings about the post-apartheid state, racialized and gendered hatred and hate speech, and the women's hopes for an ideal public life based on love and respect. Working from a race-conscious, post-colonial, feminist lens, I argue that while a rights-based approach to citizenship is necessary, it cannot fully encompass the complexities of post-apartheid substantive citizenship, especially for small-town women of colour. Considering affect leads to a more meaningful theory of citizenship, one that must rest on a loving, political ethic.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-94). / This minor dissertation examines the various discourses in the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) network in South Africa. The organisations in the network which were observed using participant observation were the South African Bone Marrow Registry and the Sunflower Fund to complement this, the researcher interviewed staff members at these organisations as well as at a public hospital haematology unit in the Cape Town area that conducts BMT. Additionally patients, donors, and their family members were interviewed. Some media related to the BMT network was also analysed. Informed heavily by Troy Duster's work on genetic and social feedback loops, it was found that the discourses reflect a complex interweaving of biological materiality, ethnicity, culture, mortality, health resource rationing, South African nationhood, and the limits of bodily integrity. There is extensive discussion of how the BMT discourses demonstrate the necessity of engagement with several issues: the hybridity of expert and lay intercultural communication, health inequalities, human rights, and the prioritisation of first and third world medicine, the meanings of race, culture, ethnicity, and nationhood in a diverse South Africa, conceptions of donor shortage, and the imperative of saving lives through medical practise.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-138). / Postcolonial theory has been critiqued for essentializing the North and being too theoretical. Yet it has also been described as essential for the ongoing decolonization of our world. Scholars in a range of disciplines have therefore suggested the need to 'examine specific practices and devises in particular times and places' in order to expose and challenge the ways that certain forms of discourse function to maintain imperialist interests and misrepresentations of Africa in the 'West.' To these ends, this study looks at the construction of early European/American travelers' tales and the experience of study abroad in South Africa as two particular practices that are relevant to the concerns of postcolonialism. While much has been written about each of these phenomena on their own, little has been done to bring them into a conversation with each other. To fill this gap, this dissertation draws on narrative analysis, symbolic convergence theory, discourse analysis and postcolonial theory to explore the dominant narratives that emerge in the pre-trip, embodied trip and post-trip tellings of both types of tales. In order to discover the meaning-making processes of these narratives, qualitative methods were used. Firstly, an extensive literature review was undertaken of early travelers' tales (written between 1600 and 1900), images of Africa in the United States, travel and tourism theory and study abroad literature. Eight focus groups and six one-on-one interviews were then conducted with a total of 36 American students, who were either directly enrolled at the University of Cape Town or participants in the School for International Training (SIT) in Cape Town. These interviews were then followed up with email correspondence once the students had returned home. This study found that while study abroad narratives have enormous potential to challenge the negative and inaccurate stereotypes about Africa in the United States, many strains still exist that mirror the rhetoric of early travelers' tales and promote notions of Africa as 'wild', 'dangerous' and 'underdeveloped' and South Africa as the 'light' version of Africa. However, in contrast to the writers of early travelers' tales, the students who participated in this study demonstrated many more instances of critical self-reflection and desire for change.

The South Africa of today remains a largely divided society in which people of racialised groups often still regard one another with suspicion. This is not only a case of black and white since racially inflected attitudes and perceptions are just as rife amongst segments of the coloured and black community. This holds particularly true where resources are as scarce as in the townships of Cape Town's Cape Flats. The 'Community Healing Project' facilitated by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) uses dialogue and debate as main tools in a community-level reconciliation project between Langa, a black African township, and Bonteheuwel, a coloured township. Using the IJR's intetTention as a case study, this thesis deals with community dialogue as a means of correcting misconceptions and promoting attitudinal change. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of the intervention on some participants and its importance for the prevention of future conflict. The thesis draws on various disciplines to provide a theoretical framework for community dialogue interventions. Participant observation, indepth interviews as well as a critical discourse analysis of two IJR publications are then employed to identify and discuss some of the practical challenges as experienced in the implementation of the project. The analysis of the semi-structured in-depth interviews is centred on four distinct but closely interconnected themes. The analysis of the data suggests that despite some frustrations the community intervention has impacted significantly on participants' lives and the relations between the two communities and the IJR's approach proves meaningful for the participants. Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-87).

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis examines the subjective constructions of identity in the narratives of 'helpers' in the small town of Pofadder in the Northern Cape. It focuses on the impact of historical narratives on their intersectional positioning. This was part of a broader, national, Small Towns and Rural Transformation Research Project. The research trip took place over a two week period in July 2010, and interview subjects were identified through a combination of purposive and snowball sampling to best represent the variety of demographics and positionalities in the town.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation is a study of intercultural learning and community mobilisation within eMzantsi, an organisation that seeks to bring together previously segregated communities in the Southern Peninsula, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, through various artistic activities and programmes. The programmes all culminate in a Carnival, which has occurred annually since 2005. This dissertation seeks to show how, if at all, eMzantsi is serving as a site for intercultural learning within the communities and how, if at all, it is promoting community mobilisation. In order to conduct this study, I interviewed key leaders in the organisation. I also did a document review of the current thinking on intercultural communication research in South Africa, with reference to the Southern Peninsula in the Western Cape. The study deals with the perceptions that key participants in eMzantsi have of the communities they work with and the possibilities they foresee for mobilisation and intercultural learning. This is linked to their perceptions of South African identities. Intercultural communication was an all-encompassing theme that brought to the fore varied dynamics of culture, communication and power that in turn led to the different ways in which eMzantsi staff mobilised community based organisations. These core themes underlie the main findings of the project. The dissertation findings are discussed in several categories, based on the perceptions of black, coloured, and white communities in the Southern Peninsula. These categories include the positionality of the members being interviewed, the concept of intercultural learning, what draws people in to the project, who is excluded from the project, challenges that have been faced over the years, the successes of the programme, the importance of community support, and lastly, ideas and recommendations for the project with a special focus on intercultural learning. These different aspects of the dissertation reveal that there are differing dynamics in intercultural acceptance and engagement within the communities of the Southern Peninsula. The research also shows that there are different ways of learning culture, and that culture in itself, is not static.

Includes bibliographical references. / The shift from apartheid to a constitutional democracy in South Africa, brought with it a plethora of questions concerning ideas of nationhood, citizenship, and organisational transformation. Integrally caught up in the revolution, the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) faces transformative challenges on scales far larger than most other organisations in the country. From being the strong arm of the oppressive elite, it has has to restructure and rearticulate its function while simultaneously attempting to maintain law and order. Like many other corporations and organisations, the SAPS has engaged in interventions aimed at aiding the fluidity of this process. This thesis is an analysis of one such intervention. It attempts to ascertain the extent to which members are changing as a result of particular diversity workshops conducted in a region of the Western Cape.

Includes bibliographical references. / The purpose of this study is to explore how the social construction of head-hair impacts the lived experiences of a small group of 'Coloured' women living in Cape Town. In the first part, the dissertation argues that colonialism stigmatized the bodies of 'non-whites' as inferior; establishing racist, sexist, and classist perceptions of the human body in comparison to a 'white' imagery. The Apartheid regime in South Africa, in part, heightened these beliefs through social and structural means. All though not static, the influences of these racist ideologies remain prevalent in 21st century South African society and are prevailing in perceptions of hair. The thesis then reviews literature from a Euro-American context –concentrating on the 'black' American experience; to display the ways, in which straight and coarse hair textures are imbued with racist, sexist, and classist perceptions and meanings.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis explores the attitudes and approaches of a group of South African diversity practitioners on the connection between individual, body and society in their work.