Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 7(1) 2019, v–xi  |  2307-6267  |  DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3688   v

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Guest editorial

Space, Language and Identity Politics in Higher Education
Philippa Tumubweinee* & Thierry M. Luescher**

*   Dr Philippa Tumubweinee is an architect and Head of the School of Architecture and Geomatics, 
University of Cape Town, South Africa. Email: philippa.tumubweinee@uct.ac.za

**   Prof. Thierry M. Luescher is Research Director in the Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town, 
and Associate Professor of Higher Education affiliated to the University of the Free State, Mangaung/
Bloemfontein, South Africa. Email: tluescher@hsrc.ac.za

As a way of introducing the theme tackled by this guest-edited issue of the Journal of Student 
Affairs in Africa (JSAA), it is worthwhile to pose a question, albeit a rhetorical one: Why 
would a journal dedicated to theoretical, practical and reflective contributions on student 
affairs entertain a special issue on space, language and identity politics in higher education? 
An answer to this may be found in an exposition by Benedict Anderson (2006) in Imagined 
Communities. Anderson argues: 

Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in 
which they are imagined.  (Anderson, 2006, p. 7)

In Anderson’s view, style has the potential of producing further assumptions about space 
and time. The notion of style in our case, it may be argued, refers to the JSAA which 
is the medium through which the student affairs discourse is presented; grounded in 
and in reference to the intellectual and technical resources that represent an “imagined 
community” of student affairs in higher education across Africa. 

It is instructive that the representation under reference occurs primarily through 
the medium of a code: language. Notwithstanding the shared language and platform, in 
the imagined community created by JSAA, the multitude of actors participating in the 
professional and scholarly student affairs discourse are nonetheless bounded by space 
and time. We are connected by the same encircled, fixed landscape within which we 
simultaneously exist. In following this logic through, the simultaneities of space and time 
exemplified by JSAA are at the heart of the ways in which actors in the student affairs 
community across the continent consider themselves part of a community and build an 
identity informed in an imagined community. By design, the special issue will address itself 
to the post-colonial time and the space of higher education in geographical regions with a 
colonial legacy. The contributions in the guest-edited issue singularly and collectively grapple 
with the nuances attendant to the intersections between space, language and identity 
politics in higher education in geographical regions with a colonial history. 

https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3688
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vi   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 7(1) 2019, v-xi  |  2307-6267  |  DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3688

Overview of the Articles in This Issue
In the South African context, the politics of space, language and identity in higher education 
have been brought into sharp focus by the 2015/16 student movement. It is largely due 
to the student movement and campaigns like #RhodesMustFall, #OpenStellenbosch, 
#AfrikaansMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #RUReferenceList, to name but a few,1 that the 
debates of the mid and late 1990s on the Africanisation of higher education and curriculum 
reform, the transformation of institutional cultures, and the meanings and implications of 
advantage and disadvantage in higher education, are receiving renewed attention. All the 
articles in this guest-edited issue respond in various ways to matters raised in the course 
of the 2015/16 student movement or attribute the political salience of their analysis to 
concerns raised by various student campaigns since 2015.

The opening article by Philippa Tumubweinee and Thierry M. Luescher called 
‘Inserting Space into the Transformation of Higher Education’ focuses specifically on the 
significance of space in the transformation of higher education. In this article, we argue 
that the concept of social space can provide the conceptual tools for reframing policy and 
designing new policy interventions in pursuit of higher education transformation goals. 
We start out by arguing against a notion of space merely as physical infrastructure or a 
void to be filled. Rather, in keeping with Lefebvre and others, we conceptualise a ‘socio-
political’ notion of space as socially produced and as co-producer of the social. Using 
this understanding of space, we conduct an analysis of four national cornerstone policy 
documents on higher education transformation in South Africa (1997 to 2017). Our 
analysis shows that, since the original post-apartheid White Paper on Higher Education of 
1997, it is only the most recent national policy document, the Draft National Plan for Post-
school Education and Training of 2017, which blurs the lines between the social ills affecting 
the student experience of higher education (and indeed society at large), which we call ‘the 
realities of the everyday’ on campus, and different functions of space. Our article suggests 
new conceptual tools for a research agenda that explores the (social) organisation of space 
in higher education which will allow policymakers to insert space-related concerns into 
the policy debates on decolonised higher education that have been (re-)ignited by the 
student movement.

Dionne van Reenen’s insightful article analyses the South African student protests 
from a language perspective. Her article traces detectable languaging strategies employed by 
the student movement and the conceptual structures informing these strategies. The article 
starts by reviewing some post-1994 changes and the related impact of democratisation 

1 In this issue. we use the term ‘the 2015/16 student movement’ to refer to the sum of social processes that 
have rallied students from 2015 under the banner of a variety of campus-based and national campaigns 
(typically marked by a Twitter hashtag) as political actors to demand change in higher education policy 
and practice (and, in some cases, beyond), thereby creating a sense of common cause and identity amongst 
the involved students (albeit at various levels of intensity), and bringing them into conflict with authorities 
within the higher education sector and beyond. This definition of ‘student movement’ draws on social 
movement theory (especially Della Porta & Diani, 2006, p. 21) and the theory of student activism and 
student movements (Altbach, 1991; Badat, 1999). However, we have not imposed this on authors and thus 
various authors in this issue may use terms like ‘student movement’ differently.

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Philippa Tumubweinee & Thierry M. Luescher: Space, Language and Identity Politics in Higher Education   vii

on higher education;  Van Reenen notes that the student protests show that these changes 
are not seen as satisfactory in the eyes of the young generation and that the ‘logics’ 
underpinning higher education and contemporary debates and approaches are seen as 
oppressive by student protesters. 

Using Visagie’s (2006) theoretical frame, Van Reenen’s analysis shows that grand 
narratives are rejected in student movement discourse in favour of attributes such as 
complexity, infinity, individuality, contingency, discontinuity, flux and unknowability. 
Students focused on the ‘lower attributes’ through which they were able to articulate 
individual life-history narratives. As a result, this led to disagreements in communication 
between students and university leaders. In addition, the author uses the theoretical 
frame of Stewart et al. (2012), which posits that movements utilise persuasive tactics of 
affirmation. In particular, she analyses the student movement in terms of identification, 
polarisation, framing, storytelling, and power. In doing so, the article problematises the 
student movement narratives, considering the dominating and silenced voices. 

In a highly unequal and divided society like South Africa, accessing higher education 
is one of the few and effective ways to ensure upward social mobility. This has positioned 
the university at the centre of transformation in South Africa and makes higher education 
a high-stakes endeavour, especially for poor, working class, and first-generation students. 
While Van Reenen acknowledges that valuing higher education for its social mobility 
potential is an understandable and legitimate position taken by students, her argument 
is that the way disagreements are communicated requires critical consideration because 
otherwise the student movement may not achieve its goals. To conclude the article, Van 
Reenen also affirms the conceptual propositions of Stewart et al. (2012) and  Visagie (2006) 
as useful to analyse the communicative elements of the student movement. 

The third research article in this issue, authored by Jacques Laubscher, returns to 
the spatial concerns and raises important topics for change in the physical landscape of 
universities in South Africa. It aims to addresses the spatial implications at the heart of the 
#FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall and #CurriculumMustFall campaigns. The article tracks 
the development of the Freedom Park on Salvokop in Pretoria, using the language of 
restitution, and seeks ways to define a new and integrated South African culture by drawing 
from the multiple identities and experiences of its people. In response to #RhodesMustFall, 
the article calls for a physical response by universities to create a responsive identity. It shows 
a way in which physical transformation of universities can encourage dialogue in order help 
to resolve future problems of higher institutions of learning. The suggestion of a kgotla for 
the spatial transformation of universities has particular currency because it brings concepts 
of indigenous knowledge systems to the university. 

Solomon Dlamini’s article ‘#FeesMustFall: Lessons from a Post-colonial Global South’ 
discusses the core issue raised by the #FeesMustFall campaign: the meaning and models of 
fee-free higher education. Dlamini’s article describes the context within which demands 
by South African students for ‘free, decolonial, quality higher education’ arose towards 
the end of 2015. He recalls the freeze on student fee increases (in 2016) and President 
Zuma’s announcement of free higher education for the poor and the so-called missing 



viii   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 7(1) 2019, v-xi  |  2307-6267  |  DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3688

middle students in 2017. Dlamini’s starting point is that South Africa, being a late-comer to 
liberation, has the opportunity to learn from other post-colonial countries with respect to 
the funding of higher education. Yet, Dlamini finds that the trend in the global South has 
been to actually move away from fee-free higher education towards various kinds of cost-
sharing models, such as the one operative in South Africa until recently. In his discussion, 
Dlamini then argues, however, that the South African context demands a funding regime 
that provides the potential for social mobility on a large scale, given the highly unequal and 
divided nature of South Africa’s post-apartheid society. 

Mlamuli Hlatshwayo and George Kehdinga take a social justice perspective in an 
attempt to theorise the #MustFall student movements of 2015/16. They start by arguing 
that a significant amount of literature on the student movement in South African higher 
education is characterised by two limitations: literature on the student movement is often 
found in non-academic and non-peer-reviewed outlets and it is typically lacking in 
theoretical grounding. Hlatshwayo and Kehdinga’s article seeks to contribute to remedying 
these gaps. They briefly contextualise the emergence of the #MustFall campaigns 
historically within the higher education landscape and then outline Fraser’s social justice 
framework as a lens through which to consider the economic framing, the cultural framing 
and the political framing of the #MustFall movement. 

What form of culture arises from the #FeesMustFall protests? In his article, George 
Mavunga analyses a selection of newspaper articles published between October 2015 and 
March 2016 in the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times, City Press, Sunday Independent, The Star, 
Daily Sun, The Citizen, New Age and Sowetan. His analysis is inspired by a critical realist 
framework. He specifically looks at the interplay between higher education (political and 
governance) structures and various forms of agency employed by key stakeholders – that is 
students, university management and government – in relation to the voicing of demands, 
protesting, and responding to protests. Mavunga argues that overall a culture of tension and 
distrust amongst the key stakeholders arose from the protests which could be attributed to 
the way these stakeholders perceived, and went on to exercise, their agency in an attempt to 
resolve the conflict arising from the protests. 

To avert a recurrence of the negative consequences of student protests such as the 
destruction of property, violence on the side of protesters as well as security personnel, and 
thus the development of adversarial and toxic relationships amongst different stakeholders, 
Mavunga recommends collaborative approaches to conflict resolution in South African 
higher education. These approaches need to be framed differently from those in which 
some stakeholders seek to achieve outright victory over other stakeholders, which he 
argues was a recurring mode of engagement during the #FeesMustFall protests. Thus, what 
is needed is to return to a culture of seeking compromise; one which acknowledges that 
a sufficient consensus may not satisfy all stakeholders’ demands fully, but provides enough 
common ground to move forward together.

A collaborative approach to addressing student needs is also central to the article 
by Travis C. Smith and Emily E. Virtue. Their concern is to profile the experiences 
of postgraduate students of colour in American universities, and they argue for more 

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Philippa Tumubweinee & Thierry M. Luescher: Space, Language and Identity Politics in Higher Education   ix

intentional collaborations between academic and student affairs staff when it comes to 
support for postgraduate students of colour. Their survey of the literature shows that, 
so far, little has been explored empirically on the topic, but the available evidence is 
strong and compelling: postgraduate students feel ‘lonely’, ‘isolated’, operating in a ‘chilly’ 
climate – and this sense is multiplied for students of colour. According to Smith and Virtue, 
the barriers that are experienced by students of colour in graduate schools operate like 
‘systems of oppression’; the authors’ purpose is to consider how they can be dismantled in 
collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs. 

According to Smith and Virtue, some universities are incentivising collaborations 
between student affairs and academic affairs. By means of such collaborations, they are 
able to provide better experiences and more support for postgraduate students of colour. 
Such collaborations are vital to improve the student experience and academic success of 
postgraduate students, particularly postgraduate students of colour.  A starting point in 
initiating collaborations is that both sides – student affairs and academics – understand and 
acknowledge the limits of their respective expertise and reach out to each other. 

Stephen Steyn’s article ‘Presenting History: The Manipulation of Chronological 
Structures in the Development and Maintenance of Transformative Curricula’ analyses 
different conceptions of timelines in the teaching of architectural theory and history. The 
article is in parts inspired by one of the decolonisation-related splinter campaigns of the 
2015/16 student movement: #ScienceMustFall. Steyn reflects on the teaching of history 
and theory in architecture in the context of present challenges posed to the discipline’s 
knowledge base. He explores an inclusive and representative way of identifying and 
selecting knowledge in order to profile and engage with it in a critical way. This is done 
to counter the canonical approach that has guided knowledge production and associated 
‘power’ in architectural education. In the process, Steyn takes a critical stance that aims to 
question established ways of teaching history and theory in architecture and on its framing, 
in order to establish a more reflexive and representative approach to teaching. 

The final article in this issue titled ‘Grasping the Regimes of Language, Space and 
Identity in the Visual of Post-Apartheid Higher Education in South Africa’ by Giselle 
Baillie, Mary Duker and Zamansele Nsele discusses what they have learnt – individually 
and collectively – from a research project that investigates the contribution of visual 
arts to social cohesion, specifically in relation to space, language and identity politics 
in higher education. Their research project was conceptualised just prior to the pivotal 
#RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests and grounded in the South 
African National Development Plan’s (NDP) assumption that the arts have the power 
to re-imagine social relationships by facilitating opportunities for social cohesion. Given 
that the implementation of the project coincided with 2015/16 student mobilisation, it 
necessitated critical reassessments of the NDP’s social cohesion assumptions and its Western 
narrative of ‘the power of the arts’. In the process, the question of whether the arts have 
the power to re-imagine social relationships by facilitating opportunities for social cohesion 
became increasingly questionable; indeed, as one of the authors argues, the role of the arts in 
public spaces remains contentious, while the development of a more appropriate language 



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to address South Africa’s history of racism remains elusive. Baillie, Duker and Nsele query 
whether the idea of social cohesion has become a taken-for-granted, common-place 
and unquestioned norm, because we have not imagined any other way of dealing with a 
past (and present) as divisive as South Africa’s. Questioning the idea of ‘social cohesion’ is 
uncomfortable; yet, there is a great need to do so. The article ends with the suggestion that 
we need to “increase our collective appetite for discomfort”, and it proposes that “arts-
based methodologies” might assist us in doing so. 

Book Review and Editorial Matters 
In addition to the research and reflective articles discussed above, this issue of the JSAA 
also includes a review by Monica McLean of  Talita Calitz’s recent book, Enhancing the 
Freedom to Flourish (Routledge, 2019). At insights gained from the narratives of a diverse 
group of South African undergraduate students, Calitz explores the complex reasons why 
some students flourish at university while others are socially and academically marginalised. 
In doing so, she makes a welcome contribution to a growing literature on ways of 
enhancing the student experience (e.g. Ashwin & Case, 2018), narrative studies of students’ 
pathways into, through and beyond higher education (e.g. Case, Marshall, McKenna & 
Mogashana, 2017), and life-history studies of particular students (such as those of former 
student leaders, cf. Luescher, Webbstock & Bhengu [forthcoming]). A unique contribution of 
Calitz’s book is that she employs a capability approach (along with drawing on the work 
of others like Paolo Freire) and aims to “design capability praxis for higher education 
environments where students are vulnerable to unequal participation” (Calitz, 2019, p. 147). 
In the words of the book reviewer, Monica McLean: 

In my view, the outstanding achievement of her book is to replace the usual deficit 
view of students whose economic and social circumstances make it difficult for them to 
benefit from university education with a theory of participation which emphasises agency 
and inclusion. This achievement results from Calitz’s combining a human development 
approach with insight from the life stories of eight students in a South African university 
who faced economic and academic barriers to equal participation.

Finally, on behalf of the Editorial Executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, we 
would like to express thanks to the reviewers of  Volume  6. Their time and expertise in 
evaluating and helping to select and improve the submissions is hereby acknowledged and 
greatly appreciated. Conversely, as guest editors of this issue, we would also like to express 
our own gratitude to those that have assisted us in preparing this special issue, including the 
authors, peer reviewers and publishing team, and especially the JSAA Editorial Executive 
for their trust and support throughout.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the University of Cape Town and the Human Sciences Research 
Council for providing the space and time to conceptualise and produce this JSAA issue. 

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Philippa Tumubweinee & Thierry M. Luescher: Space, Language and Identity Politics in Higher Education   xi

We would also like to acknowledge the funding support received by Dr  Tumubweinee 
from the UCT Research Block Grant, and by Prof. Luescher from The Andrew W. Mellon 
Foundation (Grant no. G-1802-05403), to produce the issue.

References
Altbach, P.G. (1991). Student Political Activism. In: International Higher Education: An Encyclopedia. 

New York: Garland. 

Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. Second 
edition. London: Verso.

Ashwin, P. & Case, J.M. (Eds.). (2018). Higher Education Pathways: South African Undergraduate Education 
and the Public Good. Cape Town: African Minds.

Badat, S. (1999). Black Student Politics, Higher Education & Apartheid: From SASO to SANSCO, 
1968-1990. Pretoria: HSRC. 

Calitz, Talita M.L. (2019). Enhancing the Freedom to Flourish. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/ 
10.4324/9781315207070

Case, J.M., Marshall, D., McKenna, S. & Mogashana, D. (2017). Going to University: The Influence of 
Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans. Cape Town: African Minds.

Della Porta, D. & Diani, M. (2006). Social Movements: An Introduction. Second edition. Oxford: 
Blackwell.

Luescher, T.M., Webbstock, D. & Bhengu, N. (forthcoming). Reflections of South African Student 
Leaders, 1994-2017. Cape Town: African Minds. 

How to cite:
Tumubweinee, P. & Luescher, T.M. (2019). Space, Language and Identity Politics in Higher Education. 

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 7(1), v-xi. DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3688

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