Browsing by Author "Powell, Crystal"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Accepting "expecting"? : on being pregnant and studying
    (2009) Powell, Crystal
    Pregnancy can be an exciting experience for - but not limited to - women who have planned their pregnancies and have contemplated their futures as mothers. Similarly. education and the achievements of matriculation, bachelors', masters' and PhD degrees toward the pursuit of a lasting career can be an equally exciting experience for ambitious students who value education in its own right and for their potential futures. For female students who would prefer to finish their education and establish their careers before parenthood, inadvertently becoming pregnant during their studies may serve as a turning point requiring drastic re-evaluation for their lives as students and mothers. The female body and the physical changes that take place during pregnancy often make the pregnant body easily identifiable and ultimately a public object, subjecting pregnant women to attention and interpretation from everyone around them, particularly in places like university campuses where pregnancy is not commonplace. Consequently, pregnancy as an obvious implication of sexual activity can subject pregnant women to gossip around the assumed carelessness of their sexual behaviours. On university campuses, where such gossip around a pregnancy is certain to develop, some women seek refuge by hiding their pregnancies. This dissertation explores the experiences of currently pregnant students and student mothers on two university campuses. I consider their experiences of pregnancy as students, distinguishing between those who were single, dating, or married at the time of their pregnancies. I also consider those who planned their pregnancies vs. those who did not and those who had necessary support systems vs. those who did not, towards an understanding of how they managed the simultaneity of pregnancy and studying. This thesis explores the experiences of these women to understand the manner and extent to which their lives and aspirations as students have been impacted in light of their pregnancies and/or children. While highlighting the difference in values of education for the informants, it shows that becoming pregnant has profound implications on student's lives and that moral, emotional and material support are the critical factors that determine whether the pregnant student or student mother will complete her education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    ICTs and the reconfiguration of 'marginality' in Langa Township: A study of migration and belonging
    (2014) Powell, Crystal; Nyamnjoh, Francis
    Mobility and migration are survival tactics for long-term security and sustainability within Africa and South Africa is perceived as offering opportunities to those seeking greener pastures. South Africa's history of 'selective immigration' has made many local South Africans, particularly the disadvantaged black population, reluctant to welcome African immigrants or 'outsiders' seeking to integrate. This poses considerable difficulties for many migrants attempting to negotiate acceptance. African migrants often end up living on the margins of South Africa, ultimately disconnected from mainstream populations. Langa Township in Cape Town, South Africa, the site of this study, is located at the margins of the city. Its residents, local South Africans and African immigrants, are considered a marginalized population and therefore face multiple challenges of belonging within and outside the township. Such challenges are intertwined with and complicated by the complex realities of marginality. In exploring the role of new Information and Communication Technologies in negotiating migration and belonging, this study focuses on the mobile population of Langa Township. As a settlement initially established by migrants from other South African provinces, Langa residents are able to historicize the significance of communication technologies in the lives of migrants. Ethnographic approaches were used to investigate the role of new communication technologies in Langa, exploring the ways that technology has provided opportunities for development, facilitated the negotiation of various marginalities, and offered new ways of belonging for residents. Fieldwork included extensive participant observation and informal interviews. Concluding that Langa's marginality is not as obvious fixed as generally assumed, the study shows that new communication technologies have both mitigated and exacerbated some complexities of marginality for residents within and outside the township. It reveals that mobile phones (1) manipulate residents – to the extent the residents allow – as much as residents manipulate mobile phones; (2) provide new ways of belonging inside and outside the township; (3) mitigate distance for some residents while burdening others with meeting social obligations against their wishes; (4) provide opportunities for development; and (5) are not used to redefine socio-political relations among residents. These findings are significant for (a) assessing the impact of mobile phones for social, economic and political development, while (b) cautioning against undue euphoria associated with the presumed benefit of mobile phones for underprivileged populations, and (c) challenging stereotypical representations of townships and marginality.