Structural violence and repertoires of resistance in South Africa

South Africa is listed as one of the most unequal societies in the world. Communities in this country face the aftermath of apartheid segregation, coupled with present neoliberal development strategies that impede socio-economic improvements and profound societal change. This has brought rise to high-risk areas where people experience societal neglect and, drawing on Johan Galtung’s work, we argue that this neglect constitutes structural violence, understood as something natural ‘as the air around us’ that upholds inequality and injustice. Within this context, people are no longer willing to accept the status quo. Through ethnographic accounts, we explore over an extended time period how residents living in the particular community of Ocean View, on the Cape Peninsula, have developed repertoires of resistance, and how resistance tactics might impact social change. The analysis reveals how variants of constructive and everyday resistance work together in parallel and overlap, and it also provides deep contextual understanding about how the dynamics between different types of resistance have the potential for generating short- and long-term outcomes. Our empirical findings suggest that short-term outcomes included heightened solidarity within the community; people contributed to the building of individual capacity, and put pressure on those in power to react to the issues of neglect. Outcomes related to long-term effects are more complex, although one important finding is that resistance contains imagination and hope for a desired future. Thereby, our article contributes to the empirical categories of resistance studies and the call for in-depth analysis of possible outcomes.