This article reflects on how the use of digitised communication and
social media among young black South African women can be situated and
assessed within the current context. The authors focus especially on nuanced
explorations of “civic participation,” “empowerment” and “identity politics” in
acknowledging the liberatory potential of young women’s use of information
and communication technology (ICTs) and seeking to assess its effects in
realistic ways. We therefore speculate about how the uses of ICTs can both
open up new possibilities for activism and agency and reveal the difficult
formation of what Nancy Fraser has called “subaltern counterpublics” (1992:
109–142) among socially marginalised young women.Department of HE and Training approved lis