Resistance

Resistance is a simple term for a force in opposition. As a theme or concept deployed in human geography, resistance is inseparable from social or cultural analyses of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, or globalization. Resistance takes shape as the “anti-” preceding each of the latter words. It began to be used as a part of activist radical geography, particularly as a means of identifying with anticolonial resistance movements. The dangers of romancing resistance while rather blindly backing the peasants, workers, and disenfranchised groups came to the fore fairly quickly for many scholars, who then began to see resistance in more nuanced lighting.

The failures of many movements of resistance against colonialism to produce progressive results, even when they seized power, led some scholars to turn to interpretations of resistance found in the works of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci's conundrum involved explaining why the Italian working class and peasants had not emerged at the fore-front of a socialist revolution but had instead solidly backed Benito Mussolini's fascism. Why did people[Page 410] not resist their oppressors? Why did they instead back them vociferously? In developing his answer, Gramsci articulated a vision that went beyond seeing the acquiescence of subaltern (here meaning subjugated) classes as mere false consciousness but rather saw it as part of a broader web that manufactured their consent. Gramsci suggested ways in which resistance to that manufacturing process might be fostered through an escape from subaltern culture to be led by a vanguard of organic (meaning derived from the proletariat) intellectuals.

Subaltern studies theorists have criticized the Gramscian approach because it does not do enough to articulate the capacity, or incapacity, of subordinated groups to resist. Political anthropologist James Scott developed an influential critique of Gramscian theory that turned scholars, including geographers, toward a different appreciation of the ways in which resistance can be expressed from that which the still heavily Marxist Gramscian line was seen to allow. Scott championed the capacity of the subaltern groups to devise new methods of resisting their oppression that were virtually invisible as such until one looked a second or third time. In Scott's hands, stealing from the boss, showing up late for work, dragging one's feet about easy tasks, and so forth became the Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance of his book's subtitle. Feminists and those angling for a deeper reading of Gramsci's own ideas have taken Scott to task on a number of counts. Another perhaps more geographically oriented anthropologist, Donald Moore, contributed a chapter to the edited volume, Geographies of Resistance, in which he grounded the contestations over identity central to resistance in the ever contested politics of place.