Populism, Social Representation and the Limits of Squatter Resistance: A Korean Case

Abstract

Recent studies of resistance indicate a move to broaden the categories, concepts, and terms of resistance, to bring attention to its less recognized and more subtle forms. As Comaroff and Comaroff (1991) point out, recognized modes of resistance now extend across a wide spectrum: At one end is organized protest, explicit moments and movements of dissent that are easily recognizable as "political" by western lights. At the other are gestures of tacit refusal and iconoclasm, gestures that sullenly and silently contest the forms of an existing hegemony (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991:31).