Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to understand the identity formation process of youths exercising strong agency towards social change in rural South Africa. Through life history interviews of youth entrepreneurs in Qwaqwa, the research found that their agency is not constructed on the understanding of self as an individual being, but their understanding of self lies in continuum to their ancestors.

Paper long abstract:

<Background>

Erikson (1968) proposes that the main task of a person during its youth period is to work on the formation of one’s own identity. A number of sociological research has attended to understand how youth construct their identity in relation to their situated social context, through understanding identity formation work as a social process. Studies have also shown how one’s sense of belonging to a group affects the development of collective identity. This collective identity becomes the source of agency to exercise one’s capability for the betterment of the group and the wider society. Understanding youth’s identity formation is therefore critical in analyzing the agency that youth hold today, and to consider them as active agents of social change.

<Research context>

The case of South Africa depicts a situation where youth are situated in a society attempting to achieve social change towards a ‘rainbow nation’ but struggling with various tensions inherent among different social groups. In South Africa census, youth is defined as those in the age group of 15-34. Based on this definition of youth, they consist roughly 34.4% of the entire population. Today, South African youth are referred to as the “Born Frees”, as they were raised after the 1994 liberation from apartheid rule and are considered to be the drivers of South Africa’s future economic growth. Meanwhile, although decades have passed since the end of apartheid, the legacy still persists in various avenues of one’s life and limits this youth generation’s opportunities. Poverty in rural areas are still evident with scarce job opportunities. Rapid urbanization has created massive outflow of youth to urban areas, but youth unemployment rate is as high as 67%. From this perspective, they are also referred to as “a lost generation” or a “ticking time bomb”. Scholars have argued that imposing the image of the “Born Frees” has had two side effects on the South African youth – positive in a sense that they grew up with a sense of agency to build a ‘rainbow nation’ with high aspirations about their future, but negative in a way that they are often neglected of these ambitions as real opportunities remain absent. However, despite these hardships, there are some youths, who have developed strong sense of agency to act as change agents of their community.

It has been pointed out by various research that there is need to take care of rural development by incentivizing skilled personnel in each rural area. While youth are often victimized for the high rate of youth unemployment rate in South Africa, they should also be looked at from the capability theory perspective – that they are not simply recipients of social grants or aid, but are active agents themselves.

<Research aim and questions>

How is it possible for rural youth, growing up in an environment with relatively limited resources, to develop agency towards the community and become agents of social change? What identity construction process leads to enactment of such strong agency?

This research aimed to uncover the agency of youths by focusing on youth identity formation processes. How did they construct and negotiate among multiple identities - both personal and collective, and how did such identities support the exercise of agency towards social change?

<Methodology/ Analysis/ Conclusion>

It applied a single case study of youth entrepreneurs who are exercising strong agency towards social change in a rural area called Qwaqwa in the Free State province of South Africa. Through life history interviews of youth entrepreneurs in Qwaqwa, the research found that in the context of South African youth, their agency is not constructed on the understanding of self as an individual being, but their understanding of self lies in continuum to their ancestors, harnessing sense of belonging to the place that has enacted their agency to work towards betterment of the community despite various hardships. The research proposes the importance of recognizing the concept of roots and time in human development, especially in the context of rural development where attachment to place is a critical factor to foster change agents.