Online Discourses of Protest and Identity Negotiations in Phuthaditjhaba

Abstract

Through critical discourse analysis, this study analysed how the selected social media packaging of protest discourses construct representations of identity negotiations and socioeconomic challenges in Phuthaditjhaba. It focused on protest messages posted by X accounts in Phuthaditjhaba. This entailed analysing the visual content and language used across these social media platforms, thereby providing insight into protesters’ grievances and ways of negotiating their identities. The study draws on Lemanski’s concept of infrastructural citizenship, which describes how residents negotiate their belonging, rights, and relations with the state through their daily interactions with accessible or inaccessible infrastructure. It emphasises access to basic services as a way of performing and claiming citizenship and belonging. This study reflects on how lack of access to infrastructure motivates protests, which influence how a sense of citizenship and belonging is negotiated in Phuthaditjhaba. As part of data sampling, ten images from five X handles that posted discourses on protests between 2020 and 2021 were used, and the collected data were categorised through thematic analysis. Study findings showed that, through protests as a tool for negotiation and confrontation, Phuthaditjhaba residents highlight their resilient identities and the myriad socioeconomic challenges faced by the community.