Developing and validating a social model for xenophobic violence in South Africa
Date
2014-01-08
Authors
Crawley, Kieron
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Abstract
Widespread outbreaks of xenophobic violence within informal urban settlements is a
recent feature of South African Society that has troubled politicians and challenged
social analysts. While the number of “episodes” has been limited, such has been their
ferocity that in 2008 they garnered huge media attention both at home and abroad.
The potential to shatter the image of the “rainbow nation” and to compromise the post
apartheid nation-building project has not been lost on Government, who along with
political scientists and sociologists are keen to build a better understanding of “what is
going on”1.
This study re-examines the dynamics surrounding xenophobic episodes in an attempt
to make sense of the range of social theorem that have been put forward by analysts
and commentators to explain the phenomenon. Drawing specifically upon Relative
Deprivation Theory and looking closely at the dynamics of social rank and access to
opportunity – the study explores a hypothetical framework that suggests the critical
role of opportunity shock in transforming a volatile environment for xenophobia into a
potentially explosive one.
The main body of the report sets out feedback and analyses of the model arising from
interviews with recognised experts, while a discussion section of the report uses
concepts and ideas that have emerged from conversation to set out a number of areas
that would seem to warrant more investigation in the research of this troubling social
phenomenon.
Description
MM (P&DM) thesis
Keywords
Xenophobia