| Summary: | A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of
Masters in Community Based-Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities at
the University of the Witwatersrand === Train surfing or staff riding has been a part of the South African working-class economic
fabric since the initiation of segregation under apartheid. Now within contemporary society
the activity has gained great media attention due to the fatalities that are so commonly
associated with it. Despite it being a globally and locally longstanding activity it is still an
area that is under-researched. The current study was aimed at exploring the growing
phenomenon and how it is constructed by youth in Soweto. A total of 32 adolescent boys and
girls between the ages of 18 and 21 were recruited from a public secondary school in Orlando
West, Soweto, to take part in one of four focus groups. The participants’ responses from the
focus group discussions were recorded then analysed using thematic content analysis.
Emerging themes, including what it means to be an adolescent living in Soweto postapartheid,
what adolescents now consider having fun, and what they consider to be risky
behaviour, were explored in the data analysis. In addition, alternative growing phenomena
within Soweto were identified, namely biking and drag-racing. Evident from the analysis was
the pressure felt and experienced by adolescents, especially by male adolescents within
society and the school environment to fit in to popular constructions of a growing adult and
the constructions of hegemonic masculinity in contemporary South Africa. It was also found
that the train surfing participants used the practice as a means to define their identity as
young, black males living in South Africa. However, as much as some of the accounts of the
reasons behind risky behaviours were in line with hegemonic constructions of masculinity,
also revealed were the alternative and opposing voices which appeared to be tense with
emotional, personal and social sacrifices. This fluidity of identity was explored through the
various components of identity such as race, class and gender that all interact within the
context of Soweto and results in differing adolescent identity constructions, such as, the
ambitious and inspired, as well as the risk-taking train surfers who are described as being ‘in
limbo’. The research concludes by shifting contemporary understanding of the phenomenon
from one of thrill seeking to a performance of identity and masculinity that is influenced by
race, class, and gender.
|
|---|
