Using hand maps to understand how intersecting inequalities affect possibilities for community safety in Cape Town

Abstract Knowledge about what builds and what blocks pathways to accountability in South African townships could be strengthened by better understanding the role of intersectionality in these settings. This article describes our use of a novel hand mapping method to explore identity and inequality among a collective of community members from the township of Delft in Cape Town. We share new insights about the effect of intersecting inequalities on the capacity of activists and concerned young citizens to take part in building accountability for safer spaces in South Africa. Although we gained a deeper understanding about some of the ways that intersecting inequalities play out in the lives of Delft residents, we also learnt lessons about the limits to facilitated accountability struggles. Some of these struggles relate directly to the inequalities that this study has highlighted, and some reflect the highly fluid socioeconomic and political environment in which our work was situated. This article is divided into eight main sections. We begin by introducing the theory of intersectionality and provide a rationale for using participatory visual methods as tools for intersectionality research. We then summarize the study context and describe the hand mapping method that was used. The following four sections present our results through discussions of identity and personal experiences of inequality, unpacking intersecting inequalities, the possibilities and constraints of advancing accountability, and balancing accountability with the conditions of collective action. The paper ends with a summary of the insights and conclusions we have reached through facilitating this action research process.