Claudia Martinez-Mullen

Claudia Martinez-Mullen is a sociologist currently working on her PhD in leisure time and sport. She is a Spanish lecturer at UKZN and her main topics of research are popular culture, social class differentiation and material and symbolic consumption. She had been working as lecturer and researcher for approximately 10 years at the University of Buenos Aires.

In her chapter, Global Cultural Consumption and Aesthetic Choices of Clothing within Durban, Claudia investigates the clothing tastes and language preferences of young Zulus. She finds significant polarisation in relation to wearing jeans and their views of English. Those who wear jeans tend to view English positively, whereas those who do not, tend to see English as an oppressive, colonial medium. The former live in formal urban areas, have better paid jobs, more formal education, and are younger than the latter. Moreover, women were less likely than men to wear jeans, and women from poorer backgrounds and with lower levels of formal education were least likely to wear them. She situates the polarisation of young Zulus along these lines in the context of the post-apartheid/globalisation eras.

Reference:
Martinez-Mullen, Claudia. 'Global Cultural Consumption and Aesthetic Choices of Clothing within Durban', in Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan (Eds.), Undressing Durban (Durban: Madiba Press, 2007), pp. 338-342.