Views From the Margins: Exploring How Vulnerability Contributes to Shaping Men’s Identities in Informal Urban South Africa

Abstract

Globally, the proliferation of informal settlements continues unabated, challenging us to understand life in these risk-prone urban ‘hotspots’. Although women and children are vulnerable to risks in these marginalised environments, young men are more often considered generators of risk while their own susceptibilities are disregarded. Addressing this oversight, this study, undertaken in informal areas of Cape Town, South Africa, using a range of qualitative methods, investigated the vulnerabilities of young Xhosa men. The findings reveal conflicted masculine identities, shaped by the complex environments young men encounter in navigating life on the margins. Demonstrating the tensions shaping their identities and behaviour, the nature of their vulnerabilities is shown to be constructed over time in response to the changing landscapes young men encounter. It also reveals how they develop individualised defence mechanisms and coping strategies to survive in these environments, contesting the hegemonic forms of masculinity they are more often labelled with.