‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa

Prefigurative politics is a resurgent concept, seeking to explain a diverse array of social phenomena, from Occupy Wall Street to car-sharing cooperatives. The driving force behind these activities is said to be a combination of dashed hopes for a better post-Cold War world and the widespread negati...

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Main Authors: Swatuk, Larry A., Vale, Peter
Other Authors: Institute of Advanced Studies
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88849
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45920
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-888492020-09-26T21:56:00Z ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa Swatuk, Larry A. Vale, Peter Institute of Advanced Studies DRNTU::Science::General Prefigurative Politics Strategic Politics Prefigurative politics is a resurgent concept, seeking to explain a diverse array of social phenomena, from Occupy Wall Street to car-sharing cooperatives. The driving force behind these activities is said to be a combination of dashed hopes for a better post-Cold War world and the widespread negative social impacts of neoliberal globalization. Although located in the Global South, Southern Africa is not immune to these pressures and processes. Indeed, the region is rife with a number of activities and organisations demonstrating features of prefigurative politics. Taken together, however, it is unlikely that these activities constitute a ‘prefigurative moment’ in the region’s politics. So ubiquitous in theory and practice is the idea of the modern Western state as locus of ‘a better life for all’ that prefigurative impulses are quickly colonized by state-centered, mainstream actors, forces and factors. At present, significant student movements are underway in South Africa, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, suggesting possibilities for meaningful change not through disengagement from the state, but by directly confronting it in deliberate and coordinated ways. This demonstration of what A.O. Hirschman calls ‘voice’ is dissimilar to the general trends of ‘exit’ or ‘loyalty’ among individuals, groups and communities across the region. While all of these activities are indicative of a strong desire for a better life for all, transformational change in southern Africa requires strategic political thinking and action. Only the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests suggest movement, albeit nascent, in this direction. Published version 2018-09-11T01:20:58Z 2019-12-06T17:12:13Z 2018-09-11T01:20:58Z 2019-12-06T17:12:13Z 2016 Journal Article Swatuk, L. A., & Vale, P. (2016). ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 4(1), 332-346. doi:10.5964/jspp.v4i1.556 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88849 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45920 10.5964/jspp.v4i1.556 en Journal of Social and Political Psychology © 2016 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 15 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Science::General
Prefigurative Politics
Strategic Politics
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::General
Prefigurative Politics
Strategic Politics
Swatuk, Larry A.
Vale, Peter
‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
description Prefigurative politics is a resurgent concept, seeking to explain a diverse array of social phenomena, from Occupy Wall Street to car-sharing cooperatives. The driving force behind these activities is said to be a combination of dashed hopes for a better post-Cold War world and the widespread negative social impacts of neoliberal globalization. Although located in the Global South, Southern Africa is not immune to these pressures and processes. Indeed, the region is rife with a number of activities and organisations demonstrating features of prefigurative politics. Taken together, however, it is unlikely that these activities constitute a ‘prefigurative moment’ in the region’s politics. So ubiquitous in theory and practice is the idea of the modern Western state as locus of ‘a better life for all’ that prefigurative impulses are quickly colonized by state-centered, mainstream actors, forces and factors. At present, significant student movements are underway in South Africa, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, suggesting possibilities for meaningful change not through disengagement from the state, but by directly confronting it in deliberate and coordinated ways. This demonstration of what A.O. Hirschman calls ‘voice’ is dissimilar to the general trends of ‘exit’ or ‘loyalty’ among individuals, groups and communities across the region. While all of these activities are indicative of a strong desire for a better life for all, transformational change in southern Africa requires strategic political thinking and action. Only the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests suggest movement, albeit nascent, in this direction.
author2 Institute of Advanced Studies
author_facet Institute of Advanced Studies
Swatuk, Larry A.
Vale, Peter
format Article
author Swatuk, Larry A.
Vale, Peter
author_sort Swatuk, Larry A.
title ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
title_short ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
title_full ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
title_fullStr ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
title_full_unstemmed ‘A better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in Southern Africa
title_sort ‘a better life for all’ : prefigurative and strategic politics in southern africa
publishDate 2018
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88849
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45920
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