Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and the United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups

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dc.contributor.advisorBosch, Tanja
dc.contributor.authorMaguire, Zachary
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-27T11:42:57Z
dc.date.available2025-02-27T11:42:57Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.updated2025-02-27T10:37:06Z
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation aims to explore the ways in which suburban residents of Cape Town South Africa, and New Jersey, USA use local Facebook groups to talk about crime. While these locations may have many differences, in their respective local Facebook groups they exhibit very similar fears around crime. As suburban development continues to grow in both these countries, examining the culture these spaces help shape remains a valuable project. Notably, authors such as Rachel Heiman, and Nina Eliasoph have worked to outline the ways in which suburban residents work to create and sustain their identity in an American suburban context. Nicky Falkof has worked to do the same for the South African context, showing how fear of crime is reproduced on local Facebook groups. However, this dissertation aims to take these concepts a step further through conceptualizing this culture of fear as a global phenomenon and linking together these two locations. Utilizing scholarship on colonialism, and whiteness, this dissertation will illustrate how local Facebook groups work to reinforce an existing ideological construction of suburban spaces built on colonial ideals of domesticity, and individualism. Through a critical discourse analysis of posts and comments found on local suburban groups, in New Jersey and Cape Town, I illustrate how these spaces serve as key locations for the performance of a middle-class position, where residents work to both contest and reinforce middle-class ideals, of personal responsibility, and rational discourse. All of this is then framed in an economic and social situation of increasing precarity, wherein suburbs and their residents are forced to make sense of increasingly unstable subject positions.
dc.identifier.apacitationMaguire, Z. (2024). <i>Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups</i>. (). ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationMaguire, Zachary. <i>"Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups."</i> ., ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2024. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMaguire, Z. 2024. Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups. . ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Maguire, Zachary AB - This dissertation aims to explore the ways in which suburban residents of Cape Town South Africa, and New Jersey, USA use local Facebook groups to talk about crime. While these locations may have many differences, in their respective local Facebook groups they exhibit very similar fears around crime. As suburban development continues to grow in both these countries, examining the culture these spaces help shape remains a valuable project. Notably, authors such as Rachel Heiman, and Nina Eliasoph have worked to outline the ways in which suburban residents work to create and sustain their identity in an American suburban context. Nicky Falkof has worked to do the same for the South African context, showing how fear of crime is reproduced on local Facebook groups. However, this dissertation aims to take these concepts a step further through conceptualizing this culture of fear as a global phenomenon and linking together these two locations. Utilizing scholarship on colonialism, and whiteness, this dissertation will illustrate how local Facebook groups work to reinforce an existing ideological construction of suburban spaces built on colonial ideals of domesticity, and individualism. Through a critical discourse analysis of posts and comments found on local suburban groups, in New Jersey and Cape Town, I illustrate how these spaces serve as key locations for the performance of a middle-class position, where residents work to both contest and reinforce middle-class ideals, of personal responsibility, and rational discourse. All of this is then framed in an economic and social situation of increasing precarity, wherein suburbs and their residents are forced to make sense of increasingly unstable subject positions. DA - 2024 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - crime KW - South Africa KW - United States KW - Facebook LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2024 T1 - Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups TI - Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationMaguire Z. Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and The United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups. []. ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2024 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41034en_ZA
dc.language.isoen
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Film and Media Studies
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.subjectcrime
dc.subjectSouth Africa
dc.subjectUnited States
dc.subjectFacebook
dc.titleCrime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and the United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMA
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