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ABSTRACT
Studies on the private security industry have mainly focused on the growth of private security firms and the regulation thereof. Research focusing on the working experiences of security guards has been notably absent. However, in a recent article, Sefalafala and Webster (2013) have addressed this issue by surveying and interviewing security guards in Gauteng, a South African province. Although their study is very thorough on a number of levels, there are some important limitations. In this article, I add to this literature by highlighting the importance of place and agency in such discussions. This article addresses these limitations, by focusing on job-related issues and challenges security guards working at a particular place (North-West University's Potchefstroom campus) experience on a daily basis and what agency (coping strategies) security guards use to overcome these issues and challenges. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with a manager and 20 security guards working at Potchefstroom campus were conducted. Verbal abuse by white students, the effect of irregular shifts on security guards and their families, and boredom were some of the main issues and challenges found to be associated with their job. Security guards show different levels of agency in coping with these job-related issues and challenges.
Additional information
DAVID DU TOIT is a lecturer at the Sociology Department at the University of Johannesburg. He is a PhD candidate at the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at the University of Stellenbosch. His PhD dissertation focuses on the changing nature of paid domestic work with a specific focus on the growth of outsourced housecleaning service companies in South Africa.
