Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Multi-paradigmatically qualitative, and largely in the fashion of the critical theory, this study
seeks to explore how a selection of Kenyans construct, manipulate and negotiate ethnic
categories in a discussion of national politics on two Facebook sites over a period of fourteen
and a half months, at the time of the 2013 national elections. Kenya has at least 42 ethnic
communities, and has been described as a hotbed of ethnic polarisation. The study is interested
in how the participants use language to position themselves and others in relation to ethnicity,
as well as to draw on or make reference to notions of Kenyan nationalism.
The data for this study is drawn from Facebook discussions on two different groups: one ‘open’
and one ‘closed’. The data also includes participants from different ethnic groups and political
leanings. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Engagement and Face-work are used as
theoretical frameworks to explore how participants draw on different discourses to construct
their ethnicities and position themselves as Kenyan nationals. The analysis also explores how
informants expand and contract the dialogic space, as well as how they perform face-work
during these interactions.
CDA is important since the study examines ways in which participants participate in societal
struggles through discourse, as either effectively supporting, sustaining, reproducing or
challenging the status quo or power imbalances, especially as members of particular ethnic
groups. The theory of Engagement is also important for the study since it helps explain how
participants source their value positions and align each other as they open up or close down the
dialogic space in their arguments or discussions. The notion of Face-work is used as an
important complement to Engagement to further explore the nature of interaction between
participants.
The data has been analysed in two main ways: linguistically and thematically. The linguistic
analysis generally reveals that the participants in the closed group paid much more attention to
face-work, and used both expansive and contractive resources of Engagement almost in equal
measure, while their open group counterparts tended more towards contractive resources and
paid less attention to face-work. The interactions of both groups, however, point to the existing
ethno-political mobilisation and polarisation in the country. The study also teases out several
extra discursive strategies which it proposes for consideration as possible add-ons to the
Engagement framework. Lastly, the thematic analysis reveals new important ways through
which participants conceive ethnicity, especially as constituting interethnic relations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6685 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Ondigi, Evans Anyona |
| Contributors | Bock, Zannie |
| Publisher | UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE |
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