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Nov
16
FILM SCREENING | Our Resistance, Our History
Thursday, November 16th, 20233:30 to 5:00 PM South Africa Standard Time
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION:
Join Luke Sinwell for a film screening of Our Resistance, Our History, based on his book, The Participation Paradox: Between Bottom-Up and Top-Down Development in South Africa.
Our Resistance, Our History, by Tsepo Makoro, vividly captures twenty years of struggle in one of the most
defiant informal settlements in Johannesburg, South Africa – Thembelihle, highlighting the promises and
pitfalls of grassroots democracy.
Moderator: Asanda Benya, University of Cape Town.
Discussant: Martin Jansen, Director of Workers’ World Media Productions.
Respondent: Luke Sinwell, University of Johannesburg.
The Film is about 30 minutes.
Join the zoom meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84250050503?pwd=dHk4NEE1K2d4Z2xHN0kydmJWR1E2Zz09
Luke Sinwell is associate professor at the University of Johannesburg, co-author of The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa, and co-editor of Urban Revolt: State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South.
about the book
The last two decades have ushered in what has become known as a participatory revolution, with consultants, advisors, and non-profits called into communities, classrooms, and corporations alike to listen to ordinary people. With exclusively bureaucratic approaches no longer en vogue, authorities now opt for “open” forums for engagement.In The Participation Paradox Luke Sinwell argues that amplifying the voices of the poor and dispossessed is often a quick fix incapable of delivering concrete and lasting change. The ideology of public consultation and grassroots democracy can be a smokescreen for a cost-effective means by which to implement top-down decisions. As participation has become mainstreamed by governments around the world, so have its radical roots become tamed by neoliberal forces that reinforce existing relationships of power. Drawing from oral testimonies and ethnographic research, Sinwell presents a case study of one of the poorest and most defiant Black informal settlements in Johannesburg, South Africa - Thembelihle, which consists of more than twenty thousand residents - highlighting the promises and pitfalls of participatory approaches to development.
Providing a critical lens for understanding grassroots democracy, The Participation Paradox foregrounds alternatives capable of reclaiming participation’s emancipatory potential.
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