Remixing the tech: The digital media ecologies of hip-hop artists from Grahamstown, South Africa [PhD thesis]

Description

This ethnographic study describes the digital media ecologies of hip-hop artists in the marginalised township spaces of a town in South Africa. It shows how technology appropriation here is highly contextual and linked to social context, while simultaneously informed by limited digital infrastructure that characterises marginalised communities in the Global South. In describing their social context, the study situates these young people in a post-apartheid space of entrenched racialised inequality, where unemployed black youth have very few economic prospects. Here hip-hop offers protection against despair as it allows a young person to laim a dignified sense of self, which is partly constituted through digital media competency. Through the lack Consciousness philosophy, hip-hop artists in Grahamstown become highly critical of self-defeating narratives rooted in racism, colonialism and apartheid, which often manifest in violent forms of urban masculinity. Instead they find ways to “remix” their identities by incorporating alternative notions of a successful self. These new identities foreground agency and competency, and are informed both by knowledge of African tradition and language, and newly acquired competency in entrepreneurship, artistic genres and digital skills. The study argues that acquisition of digital skills in this space is best conceptualised through the community of practice approach, where skills development is social and linked to a sense of belonging and progress. Just as the hip-hop artists claim agency in remixing their notion of self, they also claim agency in remixing the limited digital technology available to them into various assemblages, so crafting innovative solutions to the constraints of limited and expensive digital infrastructure. Here, through a hip-hop culture that champions overcoming adversity, dysfunctional digital technology is constantly repaired and remixed. Hitherto, research on digital media use in the Global South has predominantly focused on the mobile phone in isolation. This study instead argues for the merits of a holistic digital ethnography, since observations of how these young people combine technologies such as mobile phones, computers and DVD players in everyday life, illustrate how innovation in marginalised spaces may be focused around the remixing of technology. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 5 Dedication ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 6 Chapter One: Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 7 1.1 Hip - hop and digital practices ................................ ................................ ........................ 9 1.2 Young people in South Africa’s townships ................................ ................................ 20 1.3 The argument – understanding the digital media practices of hip - hop artists .......... 22 1.4 Chapter Summaries ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 29 Chapter Two: Constructing a digital ethnography ................................ ............................... 33 2.1 Digital media ethnography and the politics of knowledge production in post - apartheid Grahamstown ................................ ................................ .............................. 35 2.2 First steps of the research journey ................................ ................................ ............... 38 2.3 “Hanging out” and dialogical interpretation ................................ ............................... 43 2.4 Observing people through technology: the camera and social m edia ....................... 47 2.5 Data analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 51 Chapter Three: Hustling for d ignity ................................ ................................ ....................... 57 3.1 The symbolic order, persistent inequality and dreams of meritocracy ..................... 58 3.2 Distinction and the discourse of meritocra cy ................................ .............................. 65 3.3 Structural and symbolic violence and the violence it provokes ................................ 68 3.4 Gossip and “haters” and the internalisation of oppression ................................ ........ 73 Chapter Four: Hip - hop and the remixing of the self ................................ ............................ 84 4.1 Hip - hop and defining the self through others ................................ ............................. 86 4.2 Conscious hip - hop and solidarity with the neighbourhood ................................ ....... 89 4.3 Hip - hop and championing African and township culture ................................ .......... 94 4.4 Hip - hop, remixing and reinventing the self ................................ ................................ 96 Chapter Five: The c ypher and the mobile phone as entry points into the hip - hop community of practice ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 102 5.1 The cypher as entry point into hip - hop as a community of practice ....................... 103 5.2 The larger cypher performance, and the meanings of its mobile practices ............. 112 5.3 The mobile phone as a way of incorporating the self into hip - hop culture ............ 119 Chapter Six: The hip - hop producer and the backyard studio computer ........................ 128 6.1 The digital yard – creating a new sense of personhood with technology through a community of practice ................................ ................................ ............................... 130 6.2 Community of practice in the yard – learning through people ................................ 134 6.3 Meanings of ownership and sharing in the yard ................................ ....................... 140 4 6.4 Materiality, repair and the culture of care and innovation in the yard .................... 148 6.5 The virtual stud io ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 152 Chapter Seven: Distribution of hip - hop media – local and translocal ............................. 157 7.1 Neighbourhood networks via Bluetooth ................................ ................................ ... 158 7.2 USB sharing and backyard “sneakernets” ................................ ................................ 161 7.3 Mobile internet access and the materiality of the network ................................ ...... 163 7.4 Two - step internet assemblages ................................ ................................ .................. 165 7.5 Uploading digital media ................................ ................................ ............................. 167 Chapter Eight : Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 182 8.1 Aims of the study ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 182 8.2 Co ntributions emerging from the research ................................ ................................ 183 8.3 Limitations of the research ................................ ................................ ......................... 191 8.4 Recommendations for further research ................................ ................................ ..... 191 References ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 192