Críticas a los mecanismos de auto composición.

Field research was undertaken with spaza shop owners in two phases; the first phase began in April 2012 with in-depth interviews being conducted with seven Somali and one Bangladeshi spaza owner. Here I refer to and draw from my own understanding and experience in conducting in-depth interviews. It is a questioning process that places the interviewee in a position of absolute comfort and trust. The researcher attempts to understand the bigger context and record rich and detailed information, s/he does not only try to understand participant responses but also engages at a deeper level, it involves a high degree of concentration and constant probing into issues such as, in the case of foreign spaza owners in this research, reasons for leaving birth place, journeys into strange lands, business challenges and other personal experiences. It is a sincere attempt to understand the history of an individual through a series of detailed questioning. However, it is important to note that other researchers have also found that informants, in an insecure migrant or refugee setting, are often reluctant to divulge information about their livelihoods and will adopt various ways of avoiding the research process. Hartnack (2009), writing about the various challenges of doing ethnographic research, highlights the tendency of ‘supposedly vulnerable informants’ (farm workers in Zimbabwe) to ‘use weapons of the weak, such as withholding the truth or feigning ignorance, either to protect themselves from the researcher, or to manipulate him/her in some way’. The author adds that the risk of falling to prey to this is heightened when the researcher has not made the effort to establish a sincere, reciprocal and trusting relationship with the informant.

40 Interviews took place in situ in respective spaza shops during normal business hours i.e. between 08:00am and 17:00pm. A survey type questionnaire was developed and utilised as both a primary data collection tool and a guiding tool for less formal conversations that arose during the interview process. The research tool was designed in such a manner that allowed for the recording of both quantitative data, such as participants demographic information, but also allowed for the documenting of more qualitative type data, such as narratives about how spaza businesses were established. Some key questions asked during the interview process: 1) Where are the shops in the research site and who are the shop owners?

2) What do foreigners have to say about their journeys into South Africa?

3) What were the first business opportunities for both foreign and South Africans?

4) Why establish business in Delft and how did individuals come to own or become a partner in the business in the area?

5) What are the core businesses practices?

6) What are the key social relations that sustain the business practices?

7) What are the main roles in the business? What is the relationship between owner/partner and employee? (Note the kind of social networks involved)

8) What are the criteria for employing staff and for entering into a business partnership? (Understanding how spaza business partnerships work is key)

9) What are the features of a successful spaza business and its operations in Delft South? The average interview time was 150 minutes as the process needed to cater for interruptions such as product deliveries and customer purchases. The aim was to document 12 in-depth case studies (a maximum of six South African and six foreign interviews). A typical interview began with the recording of the shops location, name and short description of its activities using a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. With the respondents permission, the co- ordinates (or waypoint) of the spaza shop and interview site was captured and a photograph of the business was linked to this locality. This allowed for a street level perspective of the business. The GPS device was also used to document additional information of relevance to the research and all waypoints were assigned to their respective interviews.

41 Documenting ownership change through Mini-Survey

Upon commencing field research, it became clear that there were not as many South African spaza shops in operation as initially thought. South Africans in the area still had shop signs on their homes yet the businesses seemed to be permanently closed. After quickly surveying a few streets by car and confirming the status of some of these businesses with neighbours or people, a decision was taken to conduct a mini-survey in the area, with the aim to better understand the general ownership of spazas in case study sample, as well as the market share held by South African business owners. Through this method, the research sought to identify additional South African participants in the case study sample, as only two business owners were secured for interviewing at that stage. In-depth interviews with South African owners continued but there was no longer a need to interview new Somali or other foreign operators, as the quota of six foreign case studies had already been filled. In total I conducted 8 full in- depth interviews with foreigners and only 5 with South African spaza owners. The ownership survey and second phase in-depth interviews were conducted simultaneously. Using the same SLF map this process involved driving around to each of the spaza shops originally waypointed and documented (in 2010 and 2011) on the map and briefly enquiring about the current status of the business. This information was not only asked of shop keepers but was also elicited from and confirmed by neighbours, people passing by, delivery van drivers and from customers who frequented the shops. The aim of the ownership survey was to understand firstly, whether the spaza business was still open, secondly, to confirm the nationality of the current business owner, and thirdly, if ownership change occurred, to note when this had happened. In addition to collecting this data, all spaza shops that were permanently closed were also documented along with the plotting of new waypoints for all new visible spaza shops in the case study area. Additional notes were made on the physical map to compliment GPS data on spaza shop ownership and change. An updated map illustrating the major changes and current ownership of spaza businesses is presented and discussed in the findings section.

Mapping process using Global Positioning System device

A Global Positioning System was used to document the location of all spaza shops examined in the research. The co-ordinates (or waypoint) were only captured once the participant had agreed to the process, that is, after being made fully aware of the project, its aims and why the shop location was being recorded. A Garmin Oregon 550 GPS devise was used in this process. In addition, the Oregon 550 is navigational system involving satellites and computers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on earth and present a

42 photo link to the survey point producing a waypoint number, which in turn is attached to respective spaza businesses that have been interviewed. The main reason for documenting the localities of various spaza shops was to illustrate the changes in spaza ownership that occurred in Delft South. Waypoints from the GPS device were downloaded and used to produce an updated map on spaza shop distribution. In addition, individual waypoint numbers proved to be useful during the data capture process as it allows the researcher to recall and associate specific interview experiences and important data that otherwise may have been lost in the research process.

Note taking, Field Diary and Dictaphone use

Recording participants voices ‘verbatim’ also played a key role the research process as it allowed for confirmation, triangulation and cross checking to occur outside of the fieldwork context . Oral histories of foreign and South African spaza owners were documented through an in-depth interview process that took between two and three hours to complete. During this process both qualitative and quantitative data was collected in two different ways, firstly, through detailed note taking in a fieldwork diary, secondly, using a dictaphone to capture participants stories (where allowed).

Data Processing and Analysis

Upon the completion of the in-depth interview and survey mapping process, both quantitative and qualitative data was then captured, categorised and coded. Excel spread sheets were the main format in which various kinds of demographic and other quantitative data was captured and prepared for the data analysis phase. Most qualitative data, such as narratives on business were history or how foreigner journeys, was first captured and coded in Microsoft Word, and then inserted into an Excel spread sheet for data analysis. All data from the fieldwork diary, from observations and from dictaphone recordings were also captured in Excel. A comprehensive Excel data base was created and included additional field notes captured in Microsoft word. In an attempt to honour participant anonymity and confidentiality the findings presented in various sections of this thesis have been allocated specific data codes. During the data capturing process each in-depth interview was allocated with a code and is therefore directly linked to a survey waypoint, interview data and business image, this was also captured and linked to participant responses in the Excel data base. The code consists of basic demographic information in the following order: participant age, gender, nationality, business age in years and relation to business. For example, when referring to a spaza

43 business where the co-owner / partner is a 22 year old Somali male who has been running the business for 2 years, the code appears as follows 22mSom02P.

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