For Our Rights/We Will Rise Cultural Activism and Contesting the Collapsing City

Susan Pietrzyk

Journal of Developing Societies, 2011, vol. 27, issue 3-4, 393-420

Abstract: State-sanctioned corruption, repression, and violence shape Zimbabwe's past as well as present-day political-economic predicaments. Because of this situation, it is not uncommon for analysts to predict collapse for Zimbabwe. Such predictions have limited utility, and therefore, this article examines the micro-level activities of artistically inclined citizens that resist collapse and recast the terrain by maximizing the productivity of the city. The focus is on cultural activism – that is, arts-oriented engagements occurring beyond the boundaries of both state sponsorship and formally structured organizations. In Harare, the strength and influence surrounding artistic expressions rest in their abilities to inform and spark activism by focusing on lived realities as well as on the operations of the state conditioning those realities.

Keywords: activism; poetry; literature; state; civil society; Zimbabwe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X1102700407 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:27:y:2011:i:3-4:p:393-420

DOI: 10.1177/0169796X1102700407

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Developing Societies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().