Panel 107: Post-Apartheid Generations. Subjectivities and Engagements

Apartheid system has informed ways of thinking and representations of all so-called classes and racial groups in South Africa, in a strong though differentiated manner, while opposing it or/and suffering from it. What about nowadays? Are young generations informed by that legacy or do they conceive of themselves and the surrounding world in different perspective, now that South Africa is a multiracial democracy? The panel will welcome research results’ presentations documenting post-apartheid generations’ lives and forms of thinking. How do young people currently in their 20’s or 30’s, born after the end of apartheid or by the end of it conceive of themselves and the society they are in? What are their views and aspirations on the future of South Africa, Africa and their own? Do they refer to the political past of their country and the Struggle their parents fought or are their choices and rationales informed by radically different perspectives? Are they politically aware? What kind of engagements are they looking forward to in order to be part of their country and their continent? To discuss those questions, the panel is also opened to problematic and methodological reflections on the way to study generational changes and intergenerational relationships in the context of post-apartheid countries. How do we investigate and conceptualize the emergence of new subjectivities or persistence of past ones: re-racialization or fragmentation of society? New kind of divisive policy? Xenophobic thinking? Economic competition amongst groups? Frustration in front of the lack of delivery? Post colonial theory?