Cultural trends and community formation in a South African township: Sharpeville, 1943-1985.

[摘要] Thesis examines cultural expressions and communityattachment, and their relation to each other, in thecreation and maintenance of urban identity. In examiningthis, the thesis considers a number of key cultural formsin Sharpeville such as boxing, football, musicialperformance, youth. gangs, and styles of dress. It arguesthat, conceptually, community is never static; ratherit is a state of existence, a perception, for a groupingof people. At a given time they may consider themselvesto be collectively part of or constitute a community; atanother, their attachments may be to a different entity -the local neighbourhood, for example.The empirical data was derived mainly from primarysources although due to the historical time-periodexamined - namely 1943 to 1985 - there was some referenceto secondary sources. The research involved mainlyin-depth interviews and participant observation. Byadministering a questionnaire, key informants withinthe various cultural areas examined were identifed andinterviewed at length, sometimes more than once.The thesis argues that communities only gain a sense ofcohesion, identity and unity at certain specifichistorical moments; at other times the cultured focuswithin them may in fact express quite other meanings thanthose of community for their members. This identity isseen thus as both a product of the structural featureswhich inform, influence and even dictate its direction aswell as the responses and actions of the residentsthemselves, in shaping its outcome.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand