Catriona Macleod

Foucauldian Feminism: the Implications of Governmentality

Foucauldian discourse has stimulated debates amongst feminists concerning its usefulness for the feminist endeavour. A specific criticism centres around his concentration on the micro-strategies of power and the resultant implication for emancipatory practice. We counter these arguments by introducing Foucaults work on governmentality. We explore some of the central tenets of this work that attempts to integrate micro- and macro-level analyses of power, grounding our theoretical discussion with an analysis of some of the discursive constructions surrounding adolescent sexual and reproductive health in South Africa. Finally, we discuss the implication of governmentality for resistance and feminist political practice

South African psychology and 'relevance' : continuing challenges

During the apartheid era, psychology was accused of being irrelevant, and of advertently or inadvertently bolstering apartheid. Since 1994, much has changed in psychology. However, much has remained the same. In a situational analysis of research in psychology over the last five years it emerged that quantitative methods based on ‘hard’ science theory, as well as the traditional topics of assessment, psychotherapy, counselling, psychopathology and stress continue to dominate psychological research. A minority of studies utilise theoretical frameworks and tackle topics that illuminate the interweaving of the individual with the sociopolitical context. Knowledge is being generated chiefly about urban, middle-class adults living in the three wealthiest provinces, with university students being the most popular source of participants. Historically white universities continue to dominate the publishing scene, and collaboration takes place chiefly with high-income countries. A comparison of these results with the key issues raised in the United Nation Development Programmes South Africa human development report 2003 shows that psychology has a long way to go before it can establish its ‘relevance’ credentials.

A Decade Later: Follow-Up Review of South African Research on the Consequences of and Contributory Factors in Teen-Aged Pregnancy

In this paper, we review South African research conducted in the last 10 years on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy. We discuss research into the rates of teen-aged pregnancy, the intentionality and wantedness of pregnancy, the disruption of schooling, health issues, consequences for the children, welfare concerns, knowledge and use of contraception, timing of sexual debut, age of partner, coercive sexual relations, cultural factors and health service provision. We compare this discussion to the reviews on the same topic appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology a decade ago. We find that there are several changes in focus in the research on pregnancy amongst young women. We conclude that, in general, there has been an improvement in the breadth of data available, mostly as a result of representative national and local surveys. A better teasing out of nuances around particular issues and a grappling with theoretical issues are also evident in recent research.

Teenage Pregnancy and the Construction of Adolescence Scientific Literature in South Africa

The depiction of teenage pregnancy as a social problem relies on the assumption of adolescence as a separable stage of development. Utilizing a Derridian framework, the author analyses how the dominant construction of adolescence as a transitional stage: (1) acts as an attempt to decide the undecidable (namely, the adolescent who is neither child nor adult, but simultaneously both) - an attempt which collapses in the face of teenage pregnancy; (2) relies on the ideal adult as the endpoint of development; and (3) has effects in terms of gendered and expert/parent/adolescent power relations.

The ‘Causes’ of Teenage Pregnancy: Review of South African Research — Part 2:

This article forms the second of a two-part series in which South African research on teenage pregnancy is reviewed. Part 1 of the series dealt with the consequences of teenage pregnancy; this paper reviews the ‘causes’ thereof. International literature is incorporated in the discussion by way of comparison. Contributory factors which have been investigated by South African researchers include: reproductive ignorance; the earlier occurrence of menarche; risk- taking behaviour; psychological problems; peer influence; coercive sexual relations; dysfunctional family patterns; poor health services; socio-economic status; the breakdown of cultural traditions; and the cultural value placed on children. Preston-Whyte and colleagues present a revisionist argument, stating that early pregnancy may represent a rational life choice for certain adolescent women. The article is concluded with comments on methodological problems encountered in the South African research, and a discussion on the implications in terms of policy formulation.

Teenage Pregnancy and its ‘Negative’ Consequences: Review of South African Research — Part 1

Teenage pregnancy emerged as a social issue within the United States in the 1970s, and somewhat later in South Africa. In this article I review South African research and literature concerning the consequences of teenage pregnancy, because it is on this level that teenage pregnancy is formulated as a problem. The literature is reviewed against the backdrop of some international research in order to provide a basis for comparison. Research on the disruption of schooling, socio-economic disadvantage, obstetric outcomes, inadequate mothering, neglect and abuse, relationship difficulties and demographic concerns is reviewed. Various gaps in the South African literature are identified. These include an inadequate theoretical grounding, a lack of gender and historical analyses, and no exploration of the power relations within which teenage pregnancy occurs.

‘White Excellence and Black Failure’: The Reproduction of Racialised Higher Education in Everyday Talk:

Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, much effort has been expended on overcoming the institutionalised racism that characterised apartheid. The transformation of higher education, particularly with regard to the merging and incorporation of institutions, is such an example. This article is an analysis of discourses on race emerging in the talk of students and staff during the incorporation of a historically white satellite campus (Rhodes University East London) into a historically black university (University of Fort Hare). The argument, which relies on Esseds notion of everyday racism, infused with insights from discursive psychology, is that higher education institutions are racialised through the intricate interweaving of macro-level processes and discourses that recur in everyday talk and practices. In their talk, the participants in the study persistently assigned racialised identities to the institutions (Rhodes is white and Fort Hare is black) and invoked a ‘white excellence/black failure’ discourse. ‘White excellence’ folds in on, and is reproduced by, the desirable, modern, urban space and an appeal to Euro-American standards. Institutions and individuals are positioned as being able to overcome ‘black failure’ by moving into white space and through intense personal labour.

A Performative-Performance Analytical Approach Infusing Butlerian Theory Into the Narrative-Discursive Method

Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.

Economic Security and the Social Science Literature on Teenage Pregnancy in South Africa

Feminists have argued that the association made between teenage childbearing and long-term lower socioeconomic status hides a multitude of socially constructed inequalities. I extend this position by analyzing how the association is linked in the South African literature on teenage pregnancy to economic security. I utilize Foucaults conceptualization of the method of security. Security refers to institutions and practices that defend and maintain a national population as well as secure the economic, demographic, and social processes of that population. I analyze how the traits of the method of security are deployed with regard to teenage pregnancy; how reproductive adolescents are viewed as disrupting the production of the economic self and fracturing population control, thereby threatening economic security; and how the invocation of economic security allows for the legitimation of various regulatory practices.

Waging war: discourses of HIV/AIDS in South African media

This paper explores a discourse of war against HIV/AIDS evident in the Daily Dispatch, a South African daily newspaper, from 1985 to 2000, and discusses the implications of this in terms of the way in which HIV/AIDS is constructed. The discursive framework of the war depends, fundamentally, on the personification of HIV/AIDS, in which agency is accorded to the virus, and which allows for its construction as the enemy. The war discourse positions different groups of subjects (the diseased body, the commanders, the experts, the ordinary citizens) in relations of power. The diseased body, which is the point of transmission, the polluter or infector, is cast as the ‘Other’, as a dark and threatening force. This takes on racialised overtones. The government takes on the role of commander, directing the war through policy and intervention strategies. Opposition to government is couched in a struggle discourse that dove-tails with the overall framework of war. Medical and scientific understandings pre-dominate in the investigative practices and expert commentary on the war, with alternative voices (such as those of people living with HIV/AIDS) being silenced. The ordinary citizen is incited to take on prevention and caring roles with a strong gendered overlay.