This book proposes a conceptual-empirical framework for exploring forms of continuity and change along psychosocial pathways in South African universities. It illustrates how the psychosocial pathways are grounded in the symbolic narratives and knowledges of young scientists, engineers and architects - all interlocutors in the research from which this book is based. Alala, Mamoratwa, Welile, Odirile, Kaiya, Amirah, Takalani, Nosakhele, Naila, Ambani, Khanyisile, Itumeleng, Ethwasa and Kgnaya provide collective standpoints in the multiplicities within and between the lived lives and told stories of young Black South African women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In doing so, this compelling work advances possibilities for demythologising scientific endeavour as a white male achievement and shifting knowledge communities across gendered, racialised, class and national divides.
This book presents an innovative narrative methodology, utilising the myth of the Minotaur to examine the state of the university at the heart of the hierarchical labyrinth in “post”-apartheid South Africa. Throughout the work the author wrestles with and self-reflexively highlights her own positionality as a white, middle-class South African woman to examine how this affects the production of this research in ways which serve to preserve the colonial knowledge system. With the rise of the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall student movement in South Africa, demanding for the fall of institutionalised racial hierarchies, the author uses the cover image of narrative formations in the spirit of exploration to think with and through undulating networked forms that could possibly forge new psychosocial pathways towards decolonising and reinventing South African universities. This work offers a unique conceptual and methodological resource for students and scholars of psychosocial and narrative theory, as well as those who are concerned about the politics of higher education, both in South Africa and in other contexts around the world.
Author(s): Sabrina Liccardo
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 567
City: Cham
Preface
References
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1: The Labyrinth of the Minotaur in “Post”-apartheid South Africa: Wrestling with the Ghost of a Bull
Wrestling with a Ghost of a Bull
The Labyrinth of the Minotaur in “Post”-apartheid South Africa
Demythologising Scientific Endeavour as a White Male Achievement
Mapping out the Labyrinth’s Coordinate System: A Biographic Visual-Narrative and Decolonising Methodology of (Non)being (Space), (Not)becoming (Power) and (No)belonging (Knowledge)
The Main Characters in This Story: The Lived Lives and Told Storymazes of a Group of Young Black South African Women in STEM Fields
(Re)inventing Pathways into the Centre and “out of” the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: A Conceptual-Empirical Framework of Continuity and Change Along Psychosocial Pathways
Co-mapping Pathways into the Centre of the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: Manichean Hierarchical Entities as a Closed System of Shattering Failure as Paralysis
Reinventing Pathways Away from the Centre and “out of” the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: Rhythmical Whole Infinity Networks as a Complex Adaptive System of Tragic Love in Motion
The Toroidal-Maze of Tragic Love in Motion: Proposing a Complex Systems Programme Model for Translating Psychosocial Pathways into Social Praxis
The Geography of the Work
References
2: Decolonising the South African Higher Education System
Introduction
Higher Education Under the Apartheid Regime
Transformation in Higher Education
The Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall Student Movement in South Africa
The Racialised Gender Gap in STEM Disciplines
Black Women in STEM Disciplines as Occupying Marginal and Central Positionalities and Shifting Social Power Axes
Conclusion
References
3: Theorising a Biographic Visual-Narrative and Decolonising Methodology of (Non)being (Space), (Not)becoming (Power) and (No)belonging (Knowledge)
Introduction
(Re)imagining a Dialectics of Power Formations
Manichean Hierarchical Entities1 as a Metaphor for Racial Power
Rhythmic Whole Infinity Networks2 as a Metaphor for Disrupting Racial Power
Standing on the Border Between Manichean Hierarchical Entities and Rhythmic Whole Infinity Networks
An Analytic Framework of Narrative Formations of Being, Becoming and Belonging
Relational Selves as a Discursive, Embodied and Narrative Construction
Being as Socially Positioned in “What I Am”: Dividing and Rhythmical Forms of Space (Existential “Ontoepistemology” [Barad, 2007])
Belonging as Identifications and Emotional Attachments to Social Locations in the Space “Where I Am”: Entity and Networked Forms of Knowledge (Epistemology)
Becoming as the Re-valuation and Re-positioning of “Who I Am”: Hierarchical and Holistic Forms of Power (Axiology)
A Decolonising Narrative Research Framework of Embodied Forms of (Non)being (Space), (Not)becoming (Power) and (No)belonging (Knowledge)
A Biographic Visual-Narrative Interpretative Method of the Lived Life (Being/Space), Told Story (Becoming/Power) and Enstoried Lives (Belonging/Knowledge)
Research Questions
The Women in This Research Project
The “Recruitment” into a STEM Scholarship Programme at an HWU
An Invitation to Participate in This Research Project
Biographic Visual-Narrative Interview Conversations
Part One: Told Story
Part Two: Symbolic “Objects”
Part Three: Particular Incident Narratives in the “Lived Life”
A Multi-layered Narrative Analysis of Context (Being/Space), Form (Becoming/Power) and Content (Belonging/Knowledge)
Layer 1 (Textual Content): Active Listening During the Interview Conversations and Transcription of the Audio Recordings into Narrative Texts
Layer 2 (Context): Constructing Biographical Chronologies of the Lived Life
Layer 3 (Context and Form): Identifying Topical Flows of Events and Experiences
Layer 4 (Context): Identifying the Tone of Talk Within Each Topic and a Critical Analysis of the Positionalities of the Participants and the Researcher
Layer 5 (Context): Analysing Particular Incident Narratives (PINS) from the Narrator’s Lived Lives and Symbolic “Objects”
Layer 6 (Textual Content): Identifying Symbolic Themes or Motifs Across Different Topics of Events and Experiences
Layer 7 (Visual Content): Identifying Symbolic Metaphors Across Different “Objects”
Layer 8 (Form): Identifying Stages of Biographical Turning Points
Layer 9 (Form): Formulating Particular Storymazes
Layer 10 (Form): Relating Different Storymazes and Identifying Patterns of Connections
Layer 11 (Context, Form and Content): Identifying the Relationship Between Storymazes and Dialectical Forms in the Cover Image
Conclusion
References
4: The Lived Lives and Told Storymazes of Young Black South African Women in STEM Fields
Introduction
Labyrinth Story
Kgnaya
Lived Life
Told Story
Ethwasa
Lived Life
Told Story
Itumeleng
Lived Life
Told Story
Khanyisile
Lived Life
Told Story
Rhythmical Storymaze
Ambani
Lived Life
Told Story
Naila
Lived Life
Told Story
Nosakhele
Lived Life
Told Story
Looped Storymaze
Takalani
Lived Life
Told Story
Amirah
Lived Life
Told Story
Kaiya
Lived Life
Told Story
Network Storymaze
Odirile
Lived Life
Told Story
Welile
Lived Life
Told Story
Mamoratwa
Lived Life
Told Story
Alala
Lived Life
Told Story
Sabrina Liccardo (the Researcher on This Project)
Lived Life
Told Story
Reference
5: Pathway A: The Discursive-Circulatory System of (Non)being a Science Person—The Lived Social Life of Institutional Culture
Introduction
Research Questions
Institutional Culture as the Material-Discursive Context of the Hidden Curriculum
The Context of the Hidden Curriculum as Material-Discursive Formations in the Dialectical Interplay Between Dividing Lines or Zones of Nonbeing a “Person” and Rhythmical Flowing Infinity Threads of Being a Person
A Color-line Dividing Zones of Nonbeing a “Person”
White Supremacy
The Materiality of Ideology
Rhythmical Infinity Threads of Being a Person
Rhythms
The Margins of Hegemonic Discourse as a Space of Resistance
A1) Space as Our Second Skin
A2) Being as Our Skin: Spatiality as the Material-Discursive Body of Social Structure-Agency
A3) Social Structure-Agency as Our Blood Vessels
A4) Discourses as Our Blood
Conclusion
References
6: Pathway B: The Storied-Nervous System of (Not)Becoming Modern Scientists—The Told Psychic Life of Pedagogy
Introduction
Research Questions
Pedagogy as the Storied Form of the Hidden Curriculum
The Form of the Hidden Curriculum as Storied Formations in the Dialectical Interplay Between Hierarchies of Not-Becoming “Modern” People and Whole Infinity Loops of Becoming Modern Peoples
Hierarchical-Heteropatriarchal Lines of Not-Becoming “Modern” People
Hierarchies
White-Based Cultural Notions of the Masculine-Feminine
Whole Infinity Loops of Becoming Modern Peoples
Boundless Wholes
Temporal Metaphors as Whole Infinity Loops Within the Margins of Hegemonic Discourses
B1) Time as Our Third Eye
B2) Becoming as Our Eyes: Temporality as the Storied Body of Cultural Memory
B3) Cultural Memory as Our Spinal Cord
B4) Stories as Our Brain
Conclusion
References
7: Pathway C-entre. The Narrative-Respiratory System of (No)belonging to Knowledge Communities: The Collective Psychosocial Life of Social Scientific Research
Introduction
Research Questions
Social Scientific Research as the Symbolic Narrative Content of the Hidden Curriculum
The Content of the Hidden Curriculum as Symbolic Narrative Formations in the Dialectical Interplay Between Entities of Inclusion-Exclusion (i.e. No-Belonging) and Infinity Networks of Belonging to Knowledge Communities
Inclusion-Exclusion Lines of (Neo)liberal Entities as No-Belonging to Knowledge Communities
Entities
Existing Patterns of Power and Privilege Are Sedimented in Entities of Knowledge as Static Forms of Capital
Recognition, Nonrecognition, Misrecognition and the Performing Class-Coded Acts
Shaping Institutions Through Enacting Rules, Norms, Forms and Practices
Infinity Networks of Belonging to Knowledge Communities
Networks
Rhythmical Flows of Infinity Networks Within Knowable Whole Loops and the Unfolding of Symbolic Worlds as the Dialectics of Space-Time
C1) Chronotopes as Expressed Through Symbols Is the Air, We Breathe
C2) Belonging as Our Breath: Chronotopes as the Symbolic Narrative Body of Knowledge
C3) Knowledge as Our Lungs
C4) Symbolic Narratives as Our Heart
Conclusion
References
8: Towards a Complex-Reproductive System of (Re)pairing Being, Becoming and Belonging to Knowledge Communities in South Africa
Introduction
Research Questions
Complex Systems Theory
Co-mapping Pathways into the Centre of the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: Manichean Hierarchical Entities as a Closed System of Shattering Failure as Paralysis
Pathway A: The Discursive-Circulatory System of Zones of Nonbeing a “Science Person”: An Institutional Culture Structured by a color-line
A1) Body: Bounded Space as Our Tainted Second Skin Function Through Isolated System Boundaries
A2) Body: Nonbeing as Wounded Skin Function Through a Goal-Maintaining System
A3) Soul: Social Structure-agency as Our Clogged Blood Vessels Function Through Linear Self-organisation and Predictable Emergent Behaviour
A4) Soul: Dominant Two-dimensional Discourse as Our Constricted Blood Function as Weak Attractors
Pathway B: The Storied-Nervous System of Not-becoming “Modern” Scientists: Pedagogies Re-formed by Hierarchical-Heteropatriarchal Lines
B1) Body: Linear Time as Our Tunnel-Visioned Third Eye Operates Through Too Clearly Defined Hierarchies
B2) Body: Not-Becoming as Our Wilfully Short-Sighted Eyes Function Through Linear Causality
B3) Soul: Sedimented Cultural Memory as Our Unmalleable Spinal Cord Function Through Negative Feedback Loops
B4) Soul: Single Story Scripts as Our Narrow-minded Brain Function Through No Learning, Self-Development or Growth
Pathway C-entre: The Narrative-Respiratory System of No-Belonging to Knowledge Communities: Social Scientific Research Re-formed by (Neo)liberal Entities of Inclusion-Exclusion
C1) Body: Chronotopes Expressed Through One-dimensional Symbols as the Stale Air We Breathe Function Through Entropy
C2) Body: The (Neo)liberal Inclusion-Exclusion Logic (i.e. No-belonging) as Our Breathlessness Function Through the Separation of Elements
C3) Soul: Atrophied Knowledge as Our Punctured Lungs Function Through Controllability, Predictability and No Change
C4) Predictable Symbolic Narratives as Our Shattered Heart Function Through the Maintenance of Predictable Order, Stability and a State of Equilibrium
Reinventing Pathways Away from the Centre and “Out of” the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: Rhythmical Whole Infinity Networks as a Complex Adaptive System of Tragic Love in Motion
Pathway C-entre: The Narrative-Respiratory System of Belonging to Knowledge Communities: Decentring and Overwriting (Neo)liberal Entities of Inclusion-Exclusion with Rhythmical Whole Infinity Networks
C4) Soul: Unpredictable Symbolic Narratives that Hovers on the Border of Chaos as Our Webwork Heart
C3) Soul: Living Knowledges as Our Heartened Lungs Function Through Uncontrollability, Unpredictability and Constant Change
C2) Body: Belonging as Our Regenerative Breath Function Through Interconnecting and Interacting Elements
C1) Body: Chronotopes Expressed Through Multi-Dimensional Symbols as the Fresh or Spirited Air We Breathe Function Through Negative Entropy
Pathway B: The Storied-Nervous System of Becoming Modern Scientists: Dismantling Hierarchical-Heteropatriarchal Lines with Whole Infinity Loops
B4) Soul: A plurality of Stories as Our Broad-Minded Brain Function Through Learning, Self-knowledge and Growth
B3) Soul: (R)evolving Cultural Memory as Our Malleable Spinal Cord Function Through Positive Feedback Loops
B2) Body: Becoming as Our Farsighted Eyes Function Through Circular Causality and Retroactive Loops
B1) Body: Circular Time as Our Visionary Third Eye Function Through the Hologrammatic Principle or Holism
Pathway A: The Discursive-Circulatory System of Being a Science Person: Puncturing a color-line with Rhythmical Infinity Threads
A4) Soul: Multi-Dimensional Discourses as Our Fluid Blood Function as Strong Attractors
A3) Soul: Social Structure-Agency as Our Unclogged Blood Vessels Function Through Nonlinear Self-Organisation and Unpredictable Emergent Behaviour
A2) Body: Being as Our Sutured Skin Function Through Multigoal-Seeking, Reflective and Changing Complex Systems
A1) Body: Unbounded Space as Our Infinitely Open Second Skin Function Through Open and Permeable System Boundaries
Conclusion
References
9: The Toroidal-Maze of Tragic Love in Motion: Proposing a Complex Systems Programme Model for Translating Theoretical Pathways into Social Praxis
Introduction
Research Questions
Programme Model
Programme Goals
Pathway A: The Discursive-Circulatory System of Being a Science Person
Goal 1: Puncturing a color-line with Rhythmic Infinity Threads
A1) Body: Repairing the Tainted Second Skin (Bounded Space) of Institutional Culture Through Open System Boundaries
A2) Body: Repairing the Wounded Skin (Nonbeing) of Institutional Culture Through Multigoal-Seeking, Reflective and Changing Complex Systems
A3) Soul: Repairing the Clogged Blood Vessels (Social Structure-agency) of Institutional Culture Through Nonlinear Self-Organisation and Unpredictable Emergent Behaviour
A4) Soul: Repairing the Constricted Blood (Dominant Two-Dimensional Discourse) of Institutional Culture Through Multi-Dimensional Discourses as Strong Attractors
Pathway B: The Storied-Nervous System of Becoming Modern Scientists
Goal 2: Dismantling Hierarchical-Heteropatriarchal Lines with Whole Infinity Loops
B1) Body: Repairing the Tunnel-Visioned Third Eye (Linear Time) of Pedagogy Through the Hologrammatic Principle or Holism
B2) Body: Repairing the Wilfully Short-Sighted Eyes (Not-Becoming) Of Pedagogy Through Circular Causality and Retroactive Loops
B3) Soul: Repairing the Unmalleable Spinal Cord (Sedimented Cultural Memory) of Pedagogy Through Positive Feedback Loops
B4) Soul: Repairing the Narrow-Minded Brain (Single Story Scripts) of Pedagogy Through Learning, Self-Knowledge, Growth and Maturity
Pathway C-entre: The Narrative-Respiratory System of Belonging to Knowledge Communities
Goal 3: Decentring and Overwriting (Neo)liberal Entities of Inclusion-Exclusion with Rhythmical Whole Infinity Networks
C1) Body: Repairing the Stale Air (Chronotopes as one-dimensional symbols) of Research Through Negative Entropy
C2) Body: Facilitating Regenerative Breath (Belonging) Through Interconnecting and Interacting Elements
C3) Soul: Repairing the Punctured Lungs (Atrophied Knowledge) of Research Through Uncontrollability, Unpredictability and Constant Change
C4) Soul: (Re)pairing Fragmented Pieces of Our Shattered Heart Through Unpredictable Symbolic Narratives that Hovers on the Border of Chaos
References
References
Index
