An Ethnography of a Mamelodi West Hostel : analysing how Stigma, Gender, Crime and Political Structure is understood outside and within the hostel

Abstract

My honours research was able to scratch the surface of the complexities that surround the Mamelodi West hostel. The aim of this research is to analyze the ways in which stigma is constructed from the outside, and how people inside the hostel react to this stigma. It also analyzes how gender roles and survival strategies contribute to how stigma is constructed in the hostel. Using participatory data collection, I examine how the Hostel Committee is a political structure, which helps the hostel engage with the municipality and acts as a mediator. This research is an examination of the stigmatization that occurs within the hostel, and how it works in contradictory ways.