Project Overview
Community-Based Peace Initiatives in Cape Town
Department(s)
Peace and Conflict Studies
Abstract
Student assistants will help Prof Thomson and her research collaborators at the University of Cape Town develop ethical and methodological protocols to interview past and present PAGAD leaders. The research will develop protocols, including but not limited to ethics clearances and interview scripts. Ethics clearance will be needed from Colgate's IRB and the South African National Research Council. The student assistant(s) can work remotely from the United States, and the start date is flexible, depending on the candidate(s).
The proposed research analyzes the phenomenon of popular justice through the case of PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs). It was formed in 1992 by local community leaders, particularly teachers, who were fed up with the proliferation of gang violence and the drug trade on the Cape Flats. In the scholarly literature and popular media, PAGAD's community initiatives are represented as violent attacks against "moral degenerates" who deal drugs to school kids (Pillay 2020). This leads academics and journalists to conclude that the shootings, arson and petrol bombs that PAGAD members employ to rid their working-class communities of drugs and guns are forms of righteous violence. This framing effaces how both pre- and post-Apartheid governments encouraged vigilantism instead of attending to the security needs of non-white communities.
The proposed research will go beyond the frame of righteous violence to explore the social and religious networks that give rise to PAGAD. Through life history interviews and participant observation, the research will document why PAGAD continues to act as the primary arbiter of community safety in the Cape Flats district on the outskirts of Cape Town. The purpose is to gather the life history of the founders of PAGAD -- men and women now in their 60s and 70s -- to understand and explain two phenomena: 1) the gap in community safety that led to PAGAD's formation at the end of the Apartheid era (1990-1994) and 2) the present-day relationship between South African Police Services and the current PAGAD leadership.
Student Qualifications
Ideal candidates are PCON majors who have taken at least PCON 202. Non-PCON majors who have completed PCON 202 will also be considered. Students should be able to work independently and read closely and conceptually, write clearly and be curious about community-led peace initiatives.
Number of Student Researchers
1 or 2 student
Project Length
8 weeks
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