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Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being

This study provides insight into the experiences of mobility and migration in contemporary South Africa, contributing to a field of literature about multiculturalism and urban public space in globalizing cities. It is a study of how the mystique of conviviality configures amongst a diverse migrant a...

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Main Author: Brudvig, Ingrid
Other Authors: Nyamnjoh, Francis
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Social Anthropology 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Brudvig, Ingrid
author2 Nyamnjoh, Francis
author_browse Brudvig, Ingrid
Nyamnjoh, Francis
author_facet Nyamnjoh, Francis
Brudvig, Ingrid
author_sort Brudvig, Ingrid
collection Thesis
description This study provides insight into the experiences of mobility and migration in contemporary South Africa, contributing to a field of literature about multiculturalism and urban public space in globalizing cities. It is a study of how the mystique of conviviality configures amongst a diverse migrant and mobile population that frequents Bellville's central business district surrounding the train station - an area located approximately 25 kilometres from Cape Town, and a prominent destination for informal trading, shop keeping, and other ad hoc livelihoods. Understanding the emergence of conviviality and the forms it takes in this particular locality lies at the heart of this thesis. I argue that conviviality emerges out of shared understandings of Bellville as a zone of mobility, of safety and of livelihood opportunities; and of negotiated meanderings within particular spaces of the Bellville central business district. Bellville's migrant networks become convivial when individuals innovatively sidestep away from tensions broiled in rhetoric of the "outsider" and instead negotiate space - both physical and social - to derive relations that often result in mutual benefits. This study also takes into consideration the greater international political and local socio- economic factors that drive migration, relationships and conviviality, and how they are intertwined in the everyday narrative of "insiders" and "outsiders" in Bellville. The Bellville central business district demonstrates the realities of interconnected local and global hierarchies of citizenship and belonging and how they emerge in a world of accelerated mobility. Ethnographic research in Bellville further demonstrates how the emergence of conviviality in everyday public life represents a critical field for contemplating contemporary notions of human rights, citizenship and belonging.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:30.019Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Social Anthropology
publisherStr Social Anthropology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14051 Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being Brudvig, Ingrid Nyamnjoh, Francis Social Anthopology This study provides insight into the experiences of mobility and migration in contemporary South Africa, contributing to a field of literature about multiculturalism and urban public space in globalizing cities. It is a study of how the mystique of conviviality configures amongst a diverse migrant and mobile population that frequents Bellville's central business district surrounding the train station - an area located approximately 25 kilometres from Cape Town, and a prominent destination for informal trading, shop keeping, and other ad hoc livelihoods. Understanding the emergence of conviviality and the forms it takes in this particular locality lies at the heart of this thesis. I argue that conviviality emerges out of shared understandings of Bellville as a zone of mobility, of safety and of livelihood opportunities; and of negotiated meanderings within particular spaces of the Bellville central business district. Bellville's migrant networks become convivial when individuals innovatively sidestep away from tensions broiled in rhetoric of the "outsider" and instead negotiate space - both physical and social - to derive relations that often result in mutual benefits. This study also takes into consideration the greater international political and local socio- economic factors that drive migration, relationships and conviviality, and how they are intertwined in the everyday narrative of "insiders" and "outsiders" in Bellville. The Bellville central business district demonstrates the realities of interconnected local and global hierarchies of citizenship and belonging and how they emerge in a world of accelerated mobility. Ethnographic research in Bellville further demonstrates how the emergence of conviviality in everyday public life represents a critical field for contemplating contemporary notions of human rights, citizenship and belonging. 2015-09-23T07:31:24Z 2015-09-23T07:31:24Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14051 eng application/pdf Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Social Anthopology
Brudvig, Ingrid
Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
title_full Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
title_fullStr Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
title_full_unstemmed Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
title_short Conviviality in Bellville: an ethnography of space, place, mobility and being
title_sort conviviality in bellville an ethnography of space place mobility and being
topic Social Anthopology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14051
work_keys_str_mv AT brudvigingrid convivialityinbellvilleanethnographyofspaceplacemobilityandbeing