3. Methodology
3.2 Research strategy
3.2.2 The interviewees
Potential interviewees were identified through a variety of methods. First, I decided to approach people and ask to interview them, based on their engagement with AbM.
This included their participation and their active engagement (or lack thereof) in meetings, community visits, events, and marches. Secondly, through initial interviews I have asked people to suggest other interviewees (a technique commonly referred to as “snowballing”69). The AbM website provided names of prominent members, for example those who signed press releases or were mentioned in other documents.
68 I further describe this issue on my conclusion Chapter, under limitations, section 8.2.
69 Snowballing, or chain referrals, can be useful to learn more about social networks, for instance, how much one individual values another; but they can lead also to lock-‐ins into certain groups of like-‐minded
While visiting AbM branches, I also attempted to identify individual members who were not leading or seemed to be less engaged in AbM activities. My intention was to identify different members, a diversity of individuals and potential differences in political voices.
In total I identified 60 possible interviewees, and of those I was able to conduct full interviews with 30 AbM members, 2 AbM supporters, and 1 government official. I was not able to interview the other 27 potential subjects identified mainly due to difficulty in arranging a time and place for interview.
A break-‐down of the 30 AbM interviewees by gender, language, age, religion, education, employment, income, and residential status is provided below:
Table 2: Gender
Women Men
13 17
Table 3: Language
isiZulu native speakers isiXhosa native speakers English native speakers
18 (60%) 7 (23%) 5 (17%)
people and thus bias the interview data. I used the snowballing technique to identify some interviewees, but also in combination with other techniques described in this section, thus the biasing effect would be small.
Table 4: English language Skills70
Unable to speak English Felt able and confident to speak English
6 (20%) 24 (80%)
Table 5: Age groups Equal or older than 40
years old Between 26 and 40
years old Between 18 and 25 years old
14 (47%) 11 (37%) 5 (16%)
Table 6: Religion
No Religion Christian Hindu Muslim
3 (10%) 24 (80%) 2 (7%) 1 (3%)
Table 7: Educational level Attended or were attending a University level
degree
Graduated from school (finished 12th grade –
“Matric”);
Not finished school, attended between grade 8
and grade 12
3 (10%) 6 (20%) 21 (70%)
70 A clarification should be made about English language skills data: data on interviewees does not reflect language skills among the majority of AbM members. The majority of AbM members are not fluent, or speak little English.
Table 8: Employment status
Employed Self-‐employed Unemployed (either
dependent on family, friends or government
grants)
12 (40%) 5 (17%) 13 (43%)
Table 9: House status
Owned a RDP house71 Rented a shack in a peri-‐
urban settlement Owned a shack72
3 (10%) 6 (20%) 21 (70%) (This number includes
the interviewees who were evicted from Kennedy Road informal settlement after the
attacks)73
71 RDP stands for Reconstruction and Development Programme, for the South African government.
Housing is one of the products of this program. See discussion in the contextual background, Chapter 4.
72 To own a shack does not mean an individual has security of tenure. Many interviewees had built their shack within an informal settlement – usually with the permission of the ‘local chief’ – or had bought a shack from another resident, freeing them from rent payments but giving them no other entitlements.
73 I describe these events, and provide further details in Chapters 5 and 6, sections 5.1.1 and 6.2.2.
Figure 3: Income74
- 4 interviewees were born and lived in a peri-‐urban settlement at the time of data collection; while the remaining 26 interviewees were all originally form rural areas in the states of Kwazulu-‐Natal and Eastern Cape. From this group, all stated to have moved to urban centres – and three to a peri-‐urban settlement – in pursuit of further education (high school) or work opportunities.
- Other information on mobile phone expenditure and percentage of personal airtime spent with AbM related activities is further described in the analysis and discussion, Chapter 6.
Apart from AbM members, I conducted interviews with two AbM supporters, both academics, who have been involved with AbM since its creation. One is a resident in Durban, and the other was from Durban but lives in Grahamstown. These interviews provided an outside view on the organisation, its context, and the interactions between AbM members and external (non-‐shack dwelling) supporters over a 5-‐year period. In addition I had informal discussions with 5 supporters, on the topic of
74 For the unemployed or self-‐employed individuals, interviewees provided an approximate amount they receive per month coming from donations of family, friends, partners income, government grants, or anything that represent an amount of money which they can spent individually and – if applicable -‐ for their dependents.
cooperation, mobilizations, general interaction and ICTs use with and amongst members of AbM. I was also able to observe some examples of groups and individual supporters (e.g. journalists, international social movements, students, church groups), who came to visit, for meetings, to learn through exchange, and support AbM for short periods of time (typically between 1 to 4 weeks).
Finally, I conducted one interview with a high-‐ranking government official – from the housing department. The interview focused on what kind interactions, cooperation, links, and means used to communicate with AbM and the department.75
These interviews, with academics, other supporters outside the organisation, and the government official, aimed at gaining insights into and information about the context, organisational features, and impact of the developing and developed political voice.
Lastly, I had a number of informal talks and discussions with other AbM members that, although not in formal interview settings, contributed valuable information about members’ engagement, events, crises, and ICT use, as well as general background information and context. For instance, informal talks with Kennedy victims, provided me with important information about mobile phones role in channelling support and maintain bonds among these members.