in other worlds: on the politics of research in a transforming south africa

In Other Worlds: On the Politics of Research in a Transforming South AfricaAuthor(s): Gustav VisserSource: Area, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 231-235Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004062 .

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Area (2000) 32.2, 231-235

Observations

In other worlds: on the politics of research in

a transforming South Africa

Gustav Visser Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science,

Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE

Email: [email protected]

Revised manuscript received 1 November 1999.

Introduction This essay briefly considers some problems faced by a young Afrikaans-speaking, white, male, South African research student, registered at a foreign university, returning home to conduct fieldwork. These observations point to a particular challenge, facing a particular researcher, with a particular back ground in a transforming South Africa context. How ever, in the experiences reported here the issue of 'placing', 'positioning' and 'ascribing identities' to the researcher in a transitional societal context such as South Africa, perhaps points to potential problems faced by other research students in a similar position. Leading from these observations I suggest that the types of narratives and interpretations researchers in my position can (or might not) produce could potentially lead to an unintended 'silence' concern ing a richer tapestry of interpretations of the South

African post apartheid transition. This essay con cludes by suggesting that we consider these ob servations on a broader canvas, alluding to the possibility that in a rapidly transforming Third World context, similar processes might be experienced too.

The undesirable researcher

The genesis of these notes were found in experi ences gained whilst conducting research in Cape Town, South Africa. Initially I felt I was perhaps the only incompetent researcher among the army of researchers descending on South Africa to unravel

one or more of the multiple mysteries associated with this society of endless transitions. I soon real ized that I was not alone. I increasingly came across old varsity friends who were experiencing similar problems. Our contentions were based on the observation that whilst we were struggling to con duct our fieldwork, our supervisors back in the UK or the USA, as well as many of the older local academics seemingly had little problems in gaining access to information of extraordinary depth and scope. Setting issues of experience, research focus and plain networking skills aside, a rather dishearten ing factor was isolated. In post apartheid society it

would appear that a new 'researcher type' the undesirable social science researcher-has emerged. This person appears to be a young, white, Afrikaans speaking, male, trained at Stellenbosch University or any other former apartheid endorsing 'Afrikaner establishment' and currently affiliated to an European or American institution. It would appear that this status presented problems relating to 'placing' and ascribing certain 'identities' to the researcher by the researched. The basic question the informant or potential informant appears to have asked him or herself was 'where do I place this researcher?' The problem of how I should be perceived, seen, under stood, and finding a category within which to place

me, played an important role in a struggle to get interview appointments, access to certain types of information, as well as conducting some of the interviews. It is to these issues, related to how this researcher appears to have been perceived

ISSN 0004-0894 ?) Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2000



232 Observations

(positioned) by a range of (political/racial and cul tural) groupings or categories of informants, that this discussion now turns.

The research conducted in South Africa was con cerned with coming to a general understanding of how socially just local government was constructed in the minds of the first post apartheid urban man agers, policy makers and political representative. This research was heavily dependent upon a broad range of city council debates, national, provincial and local government policy documents. In addition, inter views with policy developers, local government councillors and bureaucrats were planned to aid the interpretation of this documented information. The case study area was focused on a 'classic' local government-restructuring product-the City of Tygerberg in the Cape Metropolitan Region. The Tygerberg City council and its bureaucracy is the restructured remnants of 16 former apartheid local governments, service areas and management struc tures brought about by the highly controversial amal gamation of the former White Local Authority, Regional Services Council areas of the Tygerberg and the Black southern townships of Cape Town. As such, it represents a cross-section of the South

African society both past and present. Whilst this is a predominantly Afrikaans speaking City, it is also home to the largest Black neighbourhood in the

Western Cape Province-Khayelitsha. Consequent, both the management structure and the political structure is composed of a significantly diverse grouping of people. Nevertheless, despite this diver sity, someone in my position experienced much resistance from an equally diverse range of inform ants mostly, it appeared, due to problems related to 'placing (positioning) me' in this transitional post apartheid flux.

Starting with 'me' viewed by the conservative white Afrikaans male. In this category I would place the former apartheid town councillors, generally

middle-aged and politically aligned to former apart heid implementers and champions-the National Party. It appeared that in this group's mind, questions arose as to why I (as a South African, Stellenbosch educated, Afrikaner male) would be affiliated to a foreign (British) university when my theme of inves tigation was located in South Africa and could have been undertaken locally. Furthermore, it appeared that this group was particularly suspicious of the underlying reasons for my interest in the topic of local government and overtly cautious about the fact that social justice was part of the project title. It

appears that there was a fear that the intention of the project was aimed at criticizing the work they were currently doing. Furthermore, the notion of explain ing their understandings and reasoning behind certain issues was and remains, relatively foreign to councillors who in the past had little obligation to explain or defend the reasoning behind many of their actions.

The 'liberal' Afrikaans male's view posed similar problems but with a slightly different dynamic. The same question of foreign university affiliation came to the fore but with an added twist-was he one of those pseudo liberals who sold-out and emigrated abroad when democracy was finally brought about? An additional problem was mainly centred on the fear that I might perceive the actions taken at local government level and them in particular, as not having been radical and far-reaching enough in transforming South African local government. The problem here was that it sometimes came across that interviewees were trying to appear as politically correct as possible and telling you what they thought you should hear (this was way beyond the fact that this is in any case a standard problem when conduct ing interviews). The very same fear appeared among some of the Black councillors.

This was a very diverse grouping and care needs to be taken in categorizing them. As was the case

with some of their white counterparts, uncertainty as to what the objectives of the project implied created a range of problems. Frequently, councillors were on the defensive and seeing the project as a possible critique of how local government was performing in the post apartheid era. In this case, the possibility

of an informative interview was nearly impossible. An added problem in this group related to my home language and possibly background, which was immediately evident in my surname. By the time they had realized that much of my education was completed at the former intellectual powerhouse of the apartheid government-Stellenbosch-suspicion

was at its most obvious. This appears to have had at least some negative impacts in this grouping's will ingness to agree to an interview or reveal new or significant insights. In addition, basic communication problems arose, as I cannot speak Xhosa and some of the councillors are not always fluent in English, whilst Afrikaans (as the former oppressor's language) was an absolute no-go zone.

Former white anti-apartheid activists proved to be a particularly difficult group to deal with. Aged 27, you are too young to have been involved in activist



Observations 233

politics in the 1980s and too old to claim that you have not benefited disproportionately from the Apartheid system. It is, in fact, an age cohort that fits uneasily in this group's mind. Their networks in the new government and bureaucratic structures, often due to their involvement in the liberation struggle, are extensive but are simultaneously exclusionary to 'outsiders' like myself. This grouping has understand ings of past events I have only read about, yet appear to doubt the honesty and intention in your interest in obtaining further insights into their views. Ironically, however, not having been closely involved in the resistance movements of the past has lead to differ ent understandings of the past, which in turn is misunderstood by them. Ultimately, however, 'they were there' whilst I was still sitting on my exclusively white Afrikaner school bench. What seems to be lacking in their understanding of 'me' is that I am, in fact, privy to understandings of those who supported apartheid and at least some of the reasons why change was needed, which are not necessarily understandings they are privy to. 'I' and many people like me, straddled the uneasy divide of growing-up in the years of reform apartheid, one foot in the apartheid mindset and the other in reform apartheid transitions. 'I' cannot categorize groupings into camps of 'good' and 'evil' in the same manner they did (and it appears they still sometimes do). The multiple contradictions of both apartheid thinking and the thinking of those who maintained it are alive and real to me, be it because of my parents, family, grand parents, etc. There is, unfortunately, no way 'I' can 'prove' my post apartheid 'worth' to them. This is a great pity, as I desperately need their experiences to understand much of the current transition to a post apartheid society.

The black activists of the past fall into many categories. I experienced two groups-the one group making up the new 'elite' and the other disillusioned and bitter. I dealt mainly with the former grouping, who in some respects came across in similar ways to their white counterparts. Yet this group seemed softer in their approach and some times appeared just a bit amused by how things have changed. It sometimes felt that they knew you are carrying baggage which is not of your own choosing.

And then a matter of age. A variable that tran scends the basic political affiliation, background, education, etc of the interviewees and other inform ants relates to my age. The Afrikaans, English and Xhosa community, as is the case in many of South Africa's communities, ascribes significant importance

to age. A young and 'nat agter die ore' (wet behind the ears) male, quite simply does not command the same type of respect and seriousness someone, for example, in his or her middle-age, would be able to command. Most South Africans are not really familiar with the idea that relatively young students engage in PhD research and not on topics that relate in some way to the exposure of their moral judgements. Whereas I might have been able to cope with some of the other issues regarding the manner in which I was perceived-being younger or being too young for what I needed and desperately wanted to know, could not be transcended.

Discussion

There are three issues that I shall briefly discuss drawing from this (all too) brief illustration of my particular experiences of research in a transforming South African context. My first (and my personal) concern is found in the question-what are the views we shall build of the transitional process in South Africa and will they be adequately reflective of this transitional process? Much of the current social science research work has either as focus or by-product the production of a narrative about this phase of change in South African society. In the past much has been written about the sanitized or lily white histories of the South African social sciences past (cf. Rogerson and McCarthy 1992). These remarks were rightly critical of many geographers, for example, who were apparently disinterested in understanding and recording the greater whole of the South African societal experiences under apart heid (cf. Beavon 1 982). In fact, this is not unique to South Africa but is seen in the seemingly never ending revisitation of colonial experiences across the globe (cf. Driver 1992; Farmer 1983). What is prob lematic is that we run the risk of obtaining an unintended censored view of the South African transitions, with the experiences of this very import ant period of this country's history deployed to sustain entrenched views of South African society (the established older academics) or a new emerging elite (former excluded communities), whilst (I think) unintentionally failing to offer at least the outlines of a much richer tapestry of narratives and interpret ations of this highly fragmented and often confusing epoch.

A second observation might be thought through beyond the mapping of transition in South Africa, and perhaps extended to a more general Third



234 Observations

World context. Numerous scholars have remarked

upon problems (cf. Howard 1994; Katz 1992; Levi Strauss 1989; Merrifield 1995; Robson and Willis 1994; Townsend 1995) and opportunities (cf. Herod 1999; Mullings 1999; Sabot 1999) associated with the unequal relations between foreign scholars, indigenous scholars and the societies under study. In this literature, many authors have pointed to the restraints social, economic, gender, race and cultural background of the researcher and the researched, place on the types of investigations one might be able to undertake (cf. Rose 1993, 1997; Valentine 1997). However, this literature has generally not considered the problems indigenous scholars, tem porarily affiliated to 'foreign' First World universities conducting research in their countries of birth, experience. There is, in fact, nothing new about 'Third Worlders' being placed in such a position as

generations of us have been doing so and have generally managed to complete our research. How ever, as the mobility of academic globalization has afforded Third World scholars the opportunity to attend British and American universities, investing heavily in the much prized 'British or American qualifications', the problems of the positioning of these researcher conducting fieldwork in their home countries must, to my mind, be considered. Reflect ing on the current research methodology texts there is a paucity of work acknowledging these changing contexts within which the late 1 990s 'Third

Worlders' currently conduct their research and field work. The context within which many of us have to conduct research has changed dramatically over the past decade. Many of the momentous changes taking place in the social, economic, cultural and political environments of the Third World came about in the past decade and have substantially changed many of the previous dynamics and research contexts of these societies. South Africa, is but one of these rapidly transforming Third World societies and it is with reference to my particular experiences there that I invite the reader to consider my observations in a broader Third World context. In this essay, among these changing contexts, one aspect alluded to the off-spring of the old elite, for example, caught wrong-footed when their previous positions of privilege are 'undermined' by the arrival of new elites (or old elites in a new societal con text) that holds the past incumbents of power in

suspicion or contempt. In fact, the changing societal realities of South Africa have very quickly 'created' an 'undesirable researcher' who has

suddenly become on 'outsider' in the mind of various categories of informants.

Finally, and tying this essay into James Sidaway (1992) and Clare Madge's (1993) exchanges in this journal-is the issue here perhaps not greater than 'me' struggling to collect data but potentially also

about those facts that might be reworked as knowl edge upon which geographers in a more general audience will someday draw? Are these located concerns of mine perhaps indicative of a more general reality for the Third World research student observing and interpreting the Third World? As a Third World geographer I want to underline the real possibility that there is a dynamic (new) politics of research that Third World geographers, like myself, have to negotiate. My positionality and the manner in which I was perceived has and probably will, influence the 'knowledge' people like myself pro duce and will rework as 'knowledge' upon which First and Third World Scholars will (hopefully) draw. Generalizing my observation, I might stress that 'our' Third World interpretations are also firmly placed in Madge's (1993) who I am, what I represent to the researched and what the researched represent to

me. Madge (1993, 297) asked her First World geo graphical audience, 'Who ... makes knowledge and for whom and why?' She argued that its is worth considering whether research in the Third World today by First World academics is still only possible by dynamic, subtle but on-going Western imperial ism. In light of this suggestion she tentatively ques tioned Sidaway's (1 992) remarks that we can make overseas research part of blurring the distinctions between 'us' and 'them'. Perhaps she is correct to assert that First World geographers have not yet adequately explored the power relations, inequalities and injustice upon which that difference is based. However, is that not true for 'us' in the Third

World too? Should we not also be mindful that the knowledge we might produce 'down South' face the very same problems and inadequacies of

what knowledge is produced by whom and to what end it might be used. Considering the limi tations set on this South African researcher con

ducting research in his own country, I find myself in support of Sidaway's suggestion that overseas researchers should conduct research in the Third

World. I say this, however, not only because this might be part of the 'blurring of the distinction' between the First World 'us' and Third World 'them' but it might, ironically seen against the current geographical debates, aid the blurring



Observations 235

of the distinction between 'us(es)' and 'them(s)' internal to some Third World societies too.

Acknowledgement This essay records some of the themes discussed in a workshop entitled the 'Institutional dynamics relating to the production of the South African nation', undertaken within the Franco-South African Research Programme, University of the Western Cape, on 8 May 1998. I am grateful for the

comments of the participants and in particular those of Professor Simon Bekker and Ms. Martine Dodds from the University of Stellenbosch, who organized and led this workshop. In addition, this essay has gained substantially from comments by Joe Painter and an anonymous referee, to whom I extend my thanks and appreciation.

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