Carl Death

Counter-conducts: A foucauldian analytics of protest

The influence of Foucault on studies of social movements, dissent and protest is not as direct as might be imagined. He is generally regarded as focusing more on the analysis of power and government than forms of resistance. This is reflected in the governmentality literature, which tends to treat dissent and protest as an afterthought, or failure of government. However, Foucaults notion of ‘counter-conducts’ has much to offer the study of dispersed, heterogeneous and variegated forms of resistance in contemporary global politics. Using the protests that have accompanied summits including Seattle, Johannesburg, Prague, London and Copenhagen to illustrate an analytics of protest in operation, this article shows how a Foucauldian perspective can map the close interrelationship between regimes of government and practices of resistance. By adopting a practices and mentalities focus, rather than an actor-centric approach, and by seeking to destabilize the binaries of power and resistance, and government and freedom, that have structured much of political thought, an analytics of protest approach illuminates the mutually constitutive relationship between dominant power relationships and counter-conducts, and shows how protests both disrupt and reinforce the status quo, at the same time.

Summit theatre: Exemplary governmentality and environmental diplomacy in Johannesburg and Copenhagen

Global summits – such as the 2002 Johannesburg Summit and the 2009 Copenhagen COP15 – can be seen as theatrical techniques of environmental governmentality. Summits such as these, which do not produce new international agreements or strengthen environmental regimes, are commonly regarded as failures. However, they can also be viewed as moments of political theatre, performative enactments of legitimacy and authority, and sites for the communication of particular examples of responsible conduct. This political theatre is not a distraction from the real business of governing the global environment, but rather it is a primary technique of government at a distance. Summits function as ‘exemplary centres’ for a global audience, although their mobilisation of particular stages, scripts, casts and audiences remains open to subversion and conflict. The symbolic, theatrical and performative dimensions of summitry are rarely theorised, but their implications are profound, not only for responses to the ecological crisis, but for the nature and character of global politics and the potential for resistance and dissent.

The Green Economy in South Africa: Global Discourses and Local Politics

Global interest in the ‘green economy’ has heightened since 2008, and this article contributes to these discussions by elaborating on (a) four alternative, and sometimes competing, discourses of the green economy, and (b) the particular politics of the green economy in South Africa. Most research on the green economy tends to focus on European and North American countries, however in the context of a changing global economy and the ‘rise of the South’ the politics of the green economy in countries like South Africa is of increasing importance. South Africa faces many challenges in pursuing a transition to a more sustainable development path, yet has been cited as a global green economy leader. This article argues that this is related to the particular discourse of ‘green growth’ which is dominant in South Africa, and proposes two significant lines of critique of this discourse. The first cautions that commitment to the green economy may not be particularly deep-rooted, sustained or coherent; and the second highlights some of the more troubling political implications of the type of green growth advocated, even if it were to be pursued with more determination. With this in mind, it is important to consider whether transitions to a green economy might produce new power relations of inequality and injustice, just as the industrial revolution helped produce todays deeply unequal world.

‘Greening’ the 2010 FIFA World Cup: Environmental Sustainability and the Mega-Event in South Africa

Event greening of major spectacles such as the Olympics, World Cups and large international conferences are increasingly common. The 2010 South African World Cup sought to develop a ‘Green Goal 2010’ programme that would mitigate some of the environmental impacts of the event, as well as secure a positive social, economic and environmental legacy. While the content of the Green Goal programmes varied between host cities, some innovative and significant projects were implemented, ranging from waste management and recycling, to biodiversity protection and city beautification, to public transport upgrades and energy efficiency measures at the stadiums. In the broader context of the most carbon-intensive World Cup ever, however, such mitigation efforts were relatively piecemeal. The greatest opportunity the World Cup provided was for its visibility, branding and communication potential to catalyse greater environmental awareness and a stronger commitment to ecological modernization. Due to lack of coordination and national leadership, this opportunity was largely missed. The article concludes by recommending a number of core lessons, as well as some further opportunities, that can be taken from the South African 2010 experience.

Counter-conducts in South Africa: Power, Government and Dissent at the World Summit

This article introduces Michel Foucaults concept of ‘counter-conducts’—‘struggles against the processes implemented for conducting others’—in order to rethink the relationship between power and dissent. It proposes an ‘analytics of protest’ to address forms of resistance, through which this article focuses on the mentalities, practices, and subjectivities produced at protests in South Africa at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. These protests were some of the largest public expressions of dissent since the end of apartheid, yet the article illuminates the ways in which power and resistance are mutually reliant and co-constitutive. These summit counter-conducts both contested and reinforced existing power relations, and were disciplined by discourses of civility/violence, partnership/disruption, and local/foreign from state authorities and the media. They were also disciplined by internal discourses of liberal dissent and radical protest from within the movements themselves. The article concludes that, from a Foucauldian perspective on counter-conducts, forms of dissent that are strategic, reversible, and flexible are preferable to those that are sedimented and entrenched. Este artículo presenta el concepto de las ‘contra-conductas’ de Michel Foucault—‘luchas contra los procesos implementados para conducir a otros’—para replantear la relación entre el poder y la disidencia. Propone un ‘análisis de protesta’ para enfrentarse a las formas de resistencia, a través del cual, este artículo se enfoca en las mentalidades, prácticas y subjetividades producidas en las protestas de Sudáfrica, en la Cumbre Mundial de Johannesburgo 2002, sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible. Estas protestas fueron unas de las mayores expresiones públicas de disidencia desde el fin del apartheid, no obstante, el artículo ilumina las maneras como el poder y la resistencia dependen mutuamente entre sí y son co-constitutivas. Esta cumbre contra-conduce las relaciones de poder existentes tanto controvertidas como reforzadas, y fueron disciplinadas por las autoridades estatales y los medios, a través de debates sobre civilidad/violencia, sociedad/disturbio y local/extranjero. De igual manera, fueron disciplinados por debates internos de disidencia liberal y protesta radical desde el interior de los mismos movimientos. El artículo concluye que desde una perspectiva Foucaultiana sobre las contra-conductas, las formas de disidencia que son estratégicas, reversibles y flexibles, son preferibles a aquellas que están sedimentadas y arraigadas. 为了重新思考权力和异议二者间的关系，本文引入了米歇尔•福柯的概念“反抗行为”，即“对控制他人而实施的进程加以抵制和斗争”。本文提出了“抗议分析法”，用来分析反抗的形式。通过该分析法，本文重点研究了在2002年南非约翰内斯堡可持续发展世界峰会上抗议行为所表现出的心态、实践活动和主体意识。这些抗议行为是自种族隔离政策结束以来异议最公开表达的一部分。然而本文阐明的是权力和抗议是如何相互依存和相互建构的。此次峰会上的抗议行为既质疑又加强了现存的权力关系，且被政府当局和媒体的文明与暴力、合作与破坏、本土与外邦等话语所支配。它们也被来自抗议运动本身的自由派异议和激进派抗议的内部话语所规训。本文的结论是：从福柯式反抗行为的视角看，战略性、双向和灵活的异议形式比那些传统的、固步自封的方式更为可取。

Four discourses of the green economy in the global South

This article identifies four contrasting global discourses of the green economy in contemporary usage: green resilience, green growth, green transformation and green revolution. These four discourses are manifested in recent green economy national strategies across the global South, including in Ethiopia, India, South Korea and Brazil. Disaggregating these discourses is politically important, and shows their different implications for broader political economies of the green state in the global South.

Building States and Civil Societies in Africa: Liberal Interventions and Global Governmentality

From the colonial mission civilisatrice right through to the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, the promotion of multiparty democracy and the ‘good governance’ agenda of the 1990s and attempts to foster resilience amongst African states and civil societies in the 2000s*whether against terrorism, climate change, or pandemic diseases*Western actors have tried to promote and foster liberal values in Africa. This special issue, and the conference panels and workshop from which it has emerged, is an attempt to advance the study of these liberal interventions in two particular ways. First, it seeks to grasp some of the ‘messy actualities’ (Bachmann, this issue) and contradictions of such stateand civil society-building programmes in a variety of particular contexts. Each of the articles in this special issue is based on substantial empirical research and illustrates, within the confines of a short journal article, some of the tensions and the manifestations of local resistance to what Williams and Young have referred to as the ‘liberal project’ (this issue and 2007). Secondly, contributors to the conference panels and workshop were asked to reflect explicitly on the utility of our existing theoretical frameworks and conceptual toolkits for comprehending these liberal interventions in Africa. The following articles each combine rich empirical detail with theoretical reflection and development, either drawing upon the substantial literatures on liberalism and civil society more generally, or more specifically invoking Michel Foucault’s (2007) work on governmentality. Four out of the six articles here engage specifically with the Foucauldian concept of governmentality. The two other articles raise issues of direct relevance to the applicability of governmentality in the African context, namely the contradictions within the so-called ‘liberal project’ in Ghana and Sierra Leone (Williams and Young, this issue), and the existence of more locally rooted civil societies, grounded in autochthonous discourses, in places like Liberia, Côte D’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (Bøås, this issue). As such, this special issue speaks directly to recent debates over the validity and applicability of the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to African politics,

Resisting (nuclear) Power? Environmental Regulation in South Africa

This article considers the resistance potential of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and their effects upon existing power relationships. It focuses upon the blocking of Eskoms proposed new test nuclear reactor by the environmental NGO Earthlife Africa, at Koeberg, South Africa, the site of Africas only existing nuclear power plant. This was achieved through their engagement with, and contestation of, the South African EIA process. It occurred within a context of a globally uncertain future for the nuclear industry, and broader questions over the possible role of nuclear power in sustainable development. Whilst initially appearing as an example of environmental resistance against a big development project, by approaching the case through the lens of Michel Foucaults concept of governmentality the article suggests that Earthlife Africas challenge reinforced existing power relationships and legitimised an essentially pro-development EIA process. This is particularly evident when considering the relationship between EIAs and established scientific authorities, and the problematic role of public participation. However, by regarding the EIA as an example of ‘bearing witness’ some sense of its resistance potential can be reclaimed. The article concludes by suggesting that a broader debate on nuclear power in South Africa is desirable, and that environmental NGOs should seriously consider the degree to which they accept and participate in the EIA process.

Doing Biopolitics Differently? Radical Potential in the Post-2015 MDG and SDG Debates

Abstract The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been critiqued as an ambitious project which sought to produce entrepreneurial neo-liberal subjects. From this perspective, the opportunities and dangers of the post-2015 debates acquire a more urgent importance than the cynical dismissal of the MDGs as ‘minimum development goals’. This article identifies two potentially radical shifts in development discourse offered by the proposals for global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): first, that they might be genuinely global and hence destabilise long-standing divisions between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ societies; and second, that they might challenge existing growth paths of resource-intensive development. Two scenarios are offered through which these potential shifts are manifesting: first, a status-quo and growth-orientated outcome to the post-2015 agenda, and second, a more radical revisioning of development as a transformative project of global sustainability. However, even such an apparently attractive prospect as the latter has potential dangers, whether or not it is possible, which this article highlights. Whatever the outcome of the negotiations over the post-2015 SDGs, therefore, the process can tell us something about the opportunities and limits of processes of reform. The stakes could not be higher: whether a renewed and reshaped development project can drive future developmental governmentalities in radically new directions.

Environmental Movements, Climate Change, and Consumption in South Africa

The environmental movement in South Africa is plural and diverse, but lacks a strong centre or unified framing. How can we explain and understand this, and what consequences does it have for ecological politics in South Africa? There are many environmental grievances, extensive resources available to potential social movements, and a broadly favourable political opportunity structure. On the other hand, prominent environmental organisations have faced a number of limits, obstacles and challenges that have prevented the formation of a strong, unified and popular ‘green’ movement. Movements on land, housing, and service delivery, however, have thrived in comparison, and, while they tend not to self-identify as environmental movements, they should be regarded as important elements of broader progressive environmental struggles in South Africa. Consumption may also become a powerful framing issue for environmental justice movements, and its relevance to contemporary South Africa is illustrated through a controversial township youth phenomenon known as ‘pexing’. While it is important to ensure that South African environmentalism does not become inward-looking and nationalistic, a strong environmental movement is essential for driving a political transformation on to a more environmentally sustainable development path.