African youth constructions of safety: A multi-country photovoice study

In this doctoral dissertation, I examined Mozambican, South African, and Zambian youth explanations of safety, the lack of safety, and danger. I was particularly focused on resisting epistemic violence and supporting youth epistemic agency in this project. The study is situated within a multi-African country Photovoice project and underscores the importance of considering youth constructions of safety within their socio-political contexts and their everyday lived realities, often shaped by unequal globalised power relations, colonial legacies, and contemporary socio-economic dynamics. Through a presentation and analysis of both the unmediated and mediated youth accounts of safety and danger, I highlight how youth may enact epistemic agency and the complexities and fluidity evident in youth knowledge-making processes. Aligned with the tenets of critical psychology, liberatory psychology, and decolonial community psychology, as well as positive youth development and social justice approaches, I represent youth in the study as competent and conscious social and epistemic agents, challenging the view that academia is the singular site of legitimate knowledge production, and that policymaking is the domain solely of adult politicians and decision-makers.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of the Western Cape

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Bawa, Umesh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Shefer, Tamara

• Photovoice
• Epistemic justice
• Participatory action research
• Textual analysis
• Discourse analysis

Licence

• https://uwcscholar.uwc.ac.za/bitstreams/97e730f8-b86c-4677-a99d-3b3fe1331689/download