Everyday Forms of Resistance

Abstract

The Hidden Realm of Political ConflictDescriptions and analyses of open political action dominate accounts of political conflict.This is the case whether those accounts are presented by historians, political scientists, journalists, statesmen, or leaders of popular movements.Some of the most telling analyses of conflict are in fact designed precisely to explain under what circumstances groups in conflict resort to one or another kind of open political action.Thus, why some groups under certain conditions are likely to employ violent forms of political action -e.g.riots, rebellion, revolutionary movements -rather than less violent formse.g.petitions, rallies, peaceful marches, protest voting, strikes, boycotts -has occupied center stage.As aresult of careful historical comparisons social scientists have begun to grasp how certain social structures, state systems, cultural values, and historical practices help shape political action.The undeniable advances made along these lines, however, are fatalIy compromised by a damagingly narrow and poverty-stricken view of political action.There is a vast realm of political action, described below, that is almost habitually overlooked.It is ignored for at least two reasons.First, it is not openly declared in the usually understood sense of "politics."Second, neither is it group action in the usually understood sense of collective action.The argument to be developed here is that much of the politics of subordinate groups falls into the category of "everyday forms of resistance," that these activities should most definitely be considered political, that they do constitute a form of collective action, and that any account which ignores them is often ignoring the most vital means by which lower classes manifest their political interests.The balance of this essay is devoted to sustaining and elaborating this claim.