Popular Politics, Participation and the Elite Gaze in South Africa

This book challenges assumptions prevalent among development experts that participatory forums and mechanisms enhance democracy in a highly unequal setting. These assumptions ignore the pernicious ways in which social and economic status and political standing differentiate citizenship. The book develops a counter-narrative from below, starting from the manifold ways in which people engage with the state in a South African township and the structures of power they encounter. By doing so, it reveals that political participation, as imagined in the Global North, is a privilege not only of individuals but also of societies, and (re-)discovers a profound epistemological gap between elite assumptions and the perspectives of the governed.

Product details

• Authors: Julia Plessing
• Publisher: Nomos
• Content: Book
• Product form: Paperback / Softback
• Publication date: 01.09.2023
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science
• EAN: 9783756002337
• ISBN: 978-3-7560-0233-7
• Pages: 211
• Dimensions (packing): 15.4 x 1 x 22.8 cm
• Weight (packing): 319 g
• Series: Entwicklungstheorie und Entwicklungspolitik > 26
• Subjects: Ungleichheit, Demokratie, Macht, Partizipation, Elite, Privileg, Status, Politik, Power, Südafrika, Politics, Teilhabe, Participation, Democracy, NG-Rabatt, Epistemologie, Kluft, Strukturen, Bürgerbeteiligung, Citizen Participation, Epistemology, South Africa, Gap, Citizenship, Bürgerschaft, Inequality, Structures, Politikwissenschaft und politische Theorie, Privilege, counter-narrative, perspective change, Perspektivenwandel, partizipatorische Foren, participatory forums, Gegen-Erzählung