Miniatures Episode 18: Waiting as Research - Everyday Life in South Africa’s Platinum Belt with Dr Joseph Mujere

What can the act of waiting tell us about the everyday lives and emotions of those living in informal settlements around the world? Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani is joined by Dr Joseph Mujere for a fascinating discussion of Dr Mujere’s work on everyday interactions in South Africa’s Platinum Belt. Listen to hear all about Dr Mujere’s experiences undertaking oral history and ethnographic research in South Africa’s platinum mining communities, the challenges of studying often ephemeral informal settlement sites, and the power of waiting as both subject and experience in South Africa’s mining regions. More information about Dr Jospeh Mujere can be found here: https://www.york.ac.uk/history/people/mujere/#profile-content Miniatures is the podcast of the ERC-funded ‘Dictatorship as Experience’ project at the University of St Andrews. We show how the big picture in history is best seen through the assemblage of individual and local stories, what the German historian Alf Lüdtke called ‘miniatures’. At Miniatures, we forego a studio model and instead adopt a ‘guerrilla’ approach to podcasting, grabbing interviews on handheld recorders with busy researchers whenever and wherever we can find them: in their offices, at conferences, or at a distance via video chat. Please do excuse any sound-based issues that may occur as a result of this method. To learn more about the wider project, visit: https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/everyday-dictatorship/