States of (Be)longing: The Politics of Nostalgia in Transition Societies By Vadim Nikitin A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE: MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (SOCIOLOGY) In THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES School of Sociology and Social Studies Department of Sociology University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Supervisor: Dr Noel Chellan June 2012 Acknowledgements I thank my supervisor, Dr Noel Chellan, for his unrelenting support, guidance, long philosophical discussions and initial faith in this dissertation. Your trust in my madness may finally be somewhat vindicated! Gratitude is also due to Professor Sooryamurthy for fighting for me during the admission process, and Professor Khan and Mduduzi Mtshali for their enthusiasm and support for my project. A warm thank you to Oleg and Nina, my mom and dad, for their love and all the stories they told me about their past lives in the USSR, but most of all, for the fearful ultimatums that motivated me to go through with this project when resolve flagged. My gratitude to comrades Lars Gausdal, David Francis and Khadija Sharife for keeping me firmly from the straight and narrow; to Jeane and Pierce Davis and Nadia and Jarrod Gabriel for all the moral sustenance and couples therapy; and Emma, Robin and the entire staff of my office at the St. Clements Garden Nursery Café, Musgrave, for all the green tea, lime drizzle, pep talks, laughs and tolerance of my wifi consumption. Jacob Dlamini shared his gregarious and astute insights, and Jill Bradbury at Wits provided extremely helpful correspondence. Thank you to Jo Rushby and Vishnu Padayachee, as well as Robert Suberg, for granting me political asylum at Ike’s Books, and to Ashwin Desai for all the verbal abuse. Needless to say, Brad Hope, George Olken, John Minervini, and Mahvish Khan are responsible for the usual antics, as well as pushing me to come up with ever more audacious potential titles. A special mention should also be made of the Berea Ibis and Falconry Lovers Association, with apologies. The largest and most obscenely inadequate thanks, however, are due to the logic-defying love and masochism of one Ilaria Regondi, who has mysteriously stuck by me throughout this harrowing ordeal (and many others). I could not have done it without you! To all the respondents who gave up their time to share their views and fascinating stories with me – you made this research come to life. Finally, thank you to all those friends and acquaintances who asked me what my dissertation was about (and many others who wished they hadn’t), and forced me to engage in endless arguments about nostalgia and its meaning... What can I say – who knows if one day I will long for these dissertation-writing days!? i Plagiarism Declaration This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature Vadim Nikitin Date April 11, 2012 ii Abstract South Africa and Russia achieved two of the most remarkable political transformations in modern history, yet significant numbers of their citizens feel a longing for aspects of the old regimes. While there have been some studies of nostalgia among older Russians and South Africans, the following is the first comparative qualitative examination of the phenomenon among young members of the countries’ inaugural “born free” generations: those who came into the world just before or after the fall of Apartheid and Communism, and have had little or no experience of life prior to regime change. Its purpose is to examine how and why young people growing up in post-authoritarian transition societies experience, and long for, the past. I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven South African and five Russian youths, recruited through purposive sampling, who reflected on the ways in which the recent past impacts their lives, self-perceptions and socio-political identities. While they differed in some areas, respondents from both countries identified several broadly shared areas of nostalgia, clustering around a perceived loss of community, moral values, personal safety and social trust; and a concomitant rise in individualism, materialism and anomie. Employing a Marxian engagement with symbolic interactionism and interpretative phenomenological analysis, I analyse their transcribed testimonies in light of the relevant scholarship on nostalgia, social memory and transition studies, alongside theories of post-modernity and critical sociology. I conclude that their nostalgia may be the product of Russia and South Africa’s belated and compressed transition from “modern” to “post-modern” societies; a rebellion against the harsh transition to a Baumanian “liquid” life characterised by economic precariousness and the fraying of social bonds; and/or an expression of profound ambivalence that struggles to reconcile nostalgic regrets about the risks and human costs of globalised capitalist polyarchy, with a hunger to exploit the freedom and opportunities it offers. iii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ANC – African National Congress ANCYL – African National Congress Youth League AWB – Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging COSATU – Congress of South African Trade Unions DA – Democratic Alliance GEAR – Growth, Employment And Redistribution IPA – Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis KOMSOMOL – Communist Youth League (in the Soviet Union) NP – National Party SASCO – South African Students Congress UKZN – University of KwaZulu-Natal USSR – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics VF+ – Freedom Front Plus iv List of Appendices Appendix A: Ethical Clearance Letter from the University of KwaZulu-Natal Appendix B: Informed Consent Form for Respondents Appendix C: Questionnaire for South African Youth Appendix D: Questionnaire for Russian Youth v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... i Plagiarism Declaration ............................................................................................................... ii Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................................ iv List of Appendices ..................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One: Strike While the Nostalgia is Hot!....................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 A Personal Note ................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 A Brief Overview of Russian and South African Transitions ............................................. 5 Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework ................................................ 12 2.1 Collective, Cultural and Social Memory ........................................................................... 12 2.2. Nostalgia in Post-Communist Russia and Post-Apartheid South Africa .......................... 17 2.3 Politics and Nostalgia-Marketing in Russia ....................................................................... 21 2.4 A Nostalgia Gap? ............................................................................................................... 25 2.5 Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................... 27 2.6 Why Phenomenology? ....................................................................................................... 29 2.7 Why Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis? .............................................................. 31 2.8 A Brief Note on Reflexivity ............................................................................................... 32 2.9 Study Limitations ............................................................................................................... 33 Chapter Three: Results and Analysis ....................................................................................... 34 3.1 Cast of Characters .............................................................................................................. 34 3.2 “We Want to Live That Life”: Nostalgia in Space and Time ............................................ 39 3.3 “You Needed Your Neighbour’s Cabbage, and They Needed Your Potato”: Lamenting Lost Community ...................................................................................................................... 40 3.4 Watching Your Back all the Time, Even Though you Have “All This”: Danger in Abundance ............................................................................................................................... 45 3.5 “I Wish I Was a Part of It”: The Struggle and its Double .................................................. 47 3.6 From “Survival” to “Survival of the Fittest” ....................................................................