‘Uncomfortable Collaborations’: Contesting Constructions of the ‘Poor’ in South Africa

Shannon Walsh, Patrick Bond (), Ashwin Desai and Shannon Walsh

Review of African Political Economy, 2008, vol. 35, issue 116, 255-279

Abstract: This article deconstructs the problematic way the ‘Poor’ are represented by the intellectual ‘Left’ as a fixed, virtuous subject. Even while this fixed identity is actively mobilised by people themselves to gain symbolic and real power, I argue that the philosopher's fixation on the singular subjectivity of the oppressed confines the ‘Poor’ to their very subjugation. Instead, I propose a more nuanced understanding of how agency and oppression occur within the ‘uncomfortable collaborations' that are forged between various actors. My argument is grounded in experiences with the shack dwellers movement in Durban (Abahlali baseMjondolo, ABM), and young AIDS activists in Khayelitsha and Atlantis, South Africa.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1080/03056240802195809

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