Political Identity and Social Change: The Remaking of the South African Social Order (review)

In Political Identity and Social Change, three recent episodes of South Africa's political history are analyzed from a constructivist perspective. The author emphasizes the restructuring of identity through redefinition of identity labels during the Soweto uprising, the debates over the initiation of the tricameral parliament, and the postapartheid concern with crime.

During normal times, identity labels enjoy a certain legitimacy and consensus and serve to delimit expected roles and responsibilities in a variety of situations. Conflict often presents opportunities for critics of these labels, roles, and expectations to challenge them and offer an alternative perspective. Because labels are integral to a system that provides a certain imposed order on the world, the study of these conceptions of identity provides a useful and interesting perspective for exploring various topics. This excellent work could provide interesting reading for a class on nationalism or identity, either at the advanced undergraduate or the graduate level, as well as for any course dealing with South Africa. The early chapter on constructivism summarizes significant thought within that approach succinctly and accessibly for undergraduates.

The chapters on Soweto and the establishment of the tricameral parliament under apartheid seem logical inclusions in a study of identity and discourse in South Africa. They are well-documented and well-written narratives and analyses of these important conflicts under apartheid, but they do not present a serious test of constructivist theory—apartheid South Africa seems an all-too-easy case for a study of racial labels. The value of the analysis, however, is that it goes beyond racial identity in explaining conflict. There is valuable insight and documentation of the linkage between local conditions and identities as the most salient at various phases of the conflict, and their eventual linkages to the broader organizations of regime resistance. Indeed, the story of the fall of apartheid is largely the story of the growing recognition that resistance was possible, but only in the mundane actions of everyday life that challenged the established social order. Cumulatively these small actions transformed identity and discourse about the regime among all groups. If Soweto was viewed in terms of resistance to apartheid and the demand for human rights, rather than in terms of hooliganism or the spread of communism, or if the actors were seen as protestors rather than criminals or outside agitators, important questions were raised about the social order and the government's ability to provide stability.

The strength of the book lies in its analysis and application of constructivist theory. In addition, the author has done valuable primary research through interviews that begin to comprehend the shared perspectives on crime in postapartheid South Africa. More than one hundred interviews were conducted—a tremendous amount of work. Even so, the author is aware that given the fractious nature of the society bequeathed by apartheid, the interviews probably still miss some of the diversity of South African societal perspectives on this important issue. Frueh wisely includes other sources such as newspaper reports, government documents, and other primary and secondary data to give a sense of this variety. Such an empirical approach is in itself an important addition to constructivist scholarship.

While much of the book emphasizes contention, the author is also able to identify areas of commonality. The chapter on postapartheid crime ends with the revelation that all interviewees agreed that crime is "as bad as they say it is" (167); nevertheless, 99 percent expressed optimism that the situation will improve. To be sure, constructivism is not an approach that can explain this optimism or identify policies likely to ameliorate conditions, but this does not detract from the fine scholarship represented here.