Community Radio, Power, and Social Change: Navigating Participation and Transformation in Khwezi Community Radio, South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the transformative potential of community radio (CR) in facilitating social change. Using a case study of Khwezi Community Radio (KR) in South Africa (SA), the study draws on vignette-based analysis informed by content analysis of KR programming, supported by excerpts from interviews and focus groups with community members and radio staff from the broader doctoral study. It advances a nuanced analysis of power that goes beyond its hierarchical and oppressive dimensions, exploring it as relational, negotiated, and potentially transformative. The study interrogates how communities engage with power through KR, particularly in relation to leadership structures, as exemplified in the KR mayoral show, where decision-making power remains contested. Findings highlight how communities cultivate collective agency through the Masibumbane Listeners Club (MLC), reinforcing a shared sense of community and participatory engagement. However, the study problematises static conceptualisations of participatory spaces by demonstrating how power asymmetries persist and are continuously negotiated within CR-facilitated interactions embedded in broader socio-political and economic structures. The study argues that understanding the extent to which CRs contribute to social change requires a critical power lens, revealing the constraints of transformative power when community leaders act as gatekeepers, thereby impeding ser-vice delivery and obstructing participatory governance. Furthermore, the study challenges the assumption that power asymmetries exist solely in external structures, highlighting subtler forms of power embedded within collaborative spaces such as the MLC.