Mobile knowings: Balancing spatial inequities in South African higher education

Abstract

While South African student movements like #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall focused on removing visible symbols of colonial power, the physical campus spaces remained essentially unchanged, quietly perpetuating patterns of privilege and exclusion. This observation made me question how students differently valued and experienced these spaces, especially during COVID-19 lockdown when campus access was restricted. In this article, I demonstrate how a visual metaphor deepens our understanding of students' complex knowing's of higher education spatiality. Drawing inspiration from Alexander Calder's graceful mobiles, I show how this metaphor's dynamic properties—movement, balance, and response to external forces—illuminate the balancing act of students' spatial knowing's. Just as Calder's mobiles respond to subtle air currents, revealing unexpected connections, this metaphorical framework exposes the delicate interplay between students' spatial knowing's and their relations inside and outside campus life. Through an arts-based approach with student co-produced photographs and an imaginative mapping exercise, the mobile metaphor served as both an analytical tool and a representational device. Students' reflections captured through interviews, focus groups, and a campus-wide exhibition were analysed through this lens. The visual metaphor is physically manifested in the thesis through pull-out transparent sheets featuring students' voice notes as leaves on branches, allowing readers to visualise student life's multiple, interconnected dimensions. These revelations about how students' spatial knowing shifts and responds to forces demonstrate how university spaces shape experiences in uneven ways, offering crucial insights for reimagining South African higher education spaces that better support diverse student journeys.