Browsing by Author "Larvio, Minna"

The contemporary South Africa has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world which strongly influences the lives and future prospects of the South African youth. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the lives of young men in a context, where their possibilities to gain employment and reach successful adulthood and manhood are restricted. The attempt is to find out what the young unemployed South African men think about manhood and masculinity and how they navigate in their lives to become the men they aspire to be. In addition, the study discusses about the connections and contradictions between the young men’s perceptions and the current reality of the South African society. The study is influenced by the ethnographic research tradition and it provides a concise description of South Africa and of the direct environment the young men live in. The theoretical framework is built on the concepts of youth, masculinity and social navigation. The data consists of eight ethnographic group conversations with 36 young unemployed South African men, which were implemented during the spring of 2013 in a Non-Profit Organization located in Cape Town, South Africa. The collected data was further analyzed by using content analysis. The results of the study reveal that social issues such as crime, substance abuse, violence and unemployment have a crucial influence on the young men’s lives in South Africa and have forced them to reshape their understanding of real manhood as well as improvise in their lives while navigating their ways towards adulthood. According to the results, the young men oppose the empowerment of women and support the traditional gender order in which an ideal man is a strong breadwinner of the house. However, their masculine identity seems to be under a threat due to their worsened possibilities to maintain the position of the breadwinner in the contemporary South Africa. Although the young men want to educate themselves further and get employment, it seems that in their communities it is almost impossible to be part of a group, feel safe or get income without joining criminal activities. Studying other societies is essential for social work because many social phenomena are universal and the knowledge gained from studies carried out in different contexts compels to reflect the societal practices of one’s own country and question the old models of thinking. This study paints a picture of a country where the young people try to get the best out of the recourses there are available for them. The young unemployed South African men feel included in their own communities but, however, when examining their possibilities on a broader societal scale, it seems that young South Africans are often forgotten and excluded from the wider societal practices. Thus, the study raises a question whether young men even have any other options than joining criminal activities in order to survive and fulfil the expectations of being a real man in the contemporary South Africa. Furthermore, the study challenges to contemplate the role of the surrounding societal structures in determining the possibilities one have and the challenges one will face.