New distinctions : the impact of class and race on the cultural preferences of youth in Cape Town and Belo Horizonte

Sociological treatments of the reproduction of social inequality in South Africa largely focus on its historical, political and economical aspects while references to popular culture are commonly used to describe differences, often in combination with racial discourse, rather than explain them. As a result much of South African cultural sociology, especially with regards to youth culture, is entailed in in-depth ethnographic descriptions of particular subcultures. Less common is scholarly work dealing with the role of taste and cultural preferences in the reconfiguration of common perceptions of 'otherness', both in class and race terms. This dissertation shifts the focus towards the structural aspects of popular culture and, particularly, youth culture. First, inspired by Bourdieu's work on distinction, it explores the segregating potential of contemporary youth culture in South Africa, especially where class and race con- notations meet. It then follows this thread of adapting Bourdieu's work to contemporary South African youth by identifying the media as a crucial factor alongside family and school for the preservation of racialised class characteristics. In a third step it takes the observations made in the South African context and compares them to youth culture in Brazil in order to establish the existence of common structures of difference that exist in different countries as a result of glocalization. The thesis established in this dissertation is that the cultural preferences of youth often come with class and race connotations. This interplay between class and race can be explained historic- ally as well as structurally through media consumption, which plays a significant role in the way young people learn to dress, speak, carry themselves and generally position themselves in relation to others. Due to global cultural flows these processes do not remain purely local phenomena but they find expression in localised forms as common structures of difference around the globe, thus structurally undermining local efforts to build a non-racial, non-classist society. These conclusions are based on primary research using a multi-method approach combining surveys on taste and racial attitudes with school-going youth in South Africa (Cape Town, n=1196) and Brazil (Belo Horizonte, n=860) with in-depth focus group interviews (only Cape Town). Using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis (survey data) combined with qualitative data analysis (interviews) it was possible to demonstrate that there are clear differences in the cultural and media preferences of South African youth along class and race lines, which are reflected, to a lesser extent, in the cultural and media preferences of Brazilian youth.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Schenk, Jan-Christof

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Seekings, Jeremy

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15684

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15684