This Article draws on two case studies in which in-depth group and individual interviews were conducted with key male informants about their involvement in violent service delivery protests in South Africa. It provides a gendered analysis of these events by focusing on Connell's (1995) notion of hegemonic masculinity, which refers to dominant cultural stereotypes in which men are expected to aspire to power, status, and wealth, and how these expectations are implicated in service delivery protests. The Article argues that socio-economic pressures seem to be influencing young men to become involved in violent service delivery protests as a way of imagining and reimagining new forms of masculinities in post-apartheid South Africa.
violent masculinities
Prof. Malose Langa is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in the School of Community and Human Development, Department of Psychology, at the University of Witwatersrand and Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Recompilation.
