Introduction
James Scott focuses on the measures that people put in place in order to avoid dominance. He based his study on peasants within Malaysia. He further made a study in Vietnam after a war out break and wrote on various ways in which individuals tend to avoid power. He majorly argued that the low class people in the society normally prefer a patron- client kind of relationship whereby the rich tend to protect the poor (Scott, 1987). Thus when this fails to happen the inferior individuals tend to rebel. Scott has since then expanded his study to the lowly in society within the other parts of the world. He believes that the subordinates within an organization tend to rebel in similar manner as peasants in the society.
Scott uses the word public transcript to define the open public communication between the authoritarians and the oppressed. He further uses the word hidden transcript to refer to the criticism of misuse of power and the power holders who are insensitive in their undertakings. There are various aspects of domination; these include; political, cultural, religious and economic among others. These areas have certain aspects that are silent within the society and that coincides with their public elements. In this article, various ways of rebellion have been discussed. It further describes the causes of rebellion and criticisms of over dominance on the lowly in the society.
According to Scott, the peasants’ rebellion may only be understood through looking into their individual values which comes along with their subsistence needs. He argues that the peasant’s revolt is usually unpredictable and may not have a greater impact (Scott, 1987).
Some of the daily unforeseen ways of rebellion may include; evasion, pilfering, slander, foot dragging and sabotage among others.
When the low class in the society or the subordinates perceive any form of oppression from their superiors they tend to resist this in various ways, this may be manifested through evasion. They may turn violent and resort to evicting of the superiors from their place of business, for instance daring to bring down established premises. However this is not common since most organization is always under security and supervision. The peasants may also rebel through false compliance. For instance; the subordinate staff having observed that they are being oppressed by their superiors may perform their tasks poorly with the intention of being recognized within their working environment (Abbott, 1992; Robyn, 2005).
The oppressed may also resort to theft of their oppressors’ facilities on the perception of being misused, however this may not be carried out with a lot of ease. They maybe also use slander as a means of resistance from any form of oppression. This may be done through spreading of ill rumors about their superiors. This is very common among the less fortunate subordinates. Further, the peasants may resort to feet dragging within their workplace; this is a form of strike where they tend to slow down organization’s activities.
Closely related to the Scott’s belief on the hidden and public transcripts which described as forms of behavior fitting a particular group of people, irrespective of being the rulers or the oppressed. Resistance to exploitation may also be in form of gossips that is talking ill about the oppressor (Bruner, 1986). It may also be expressed through the use of linguistic tricks; that is to say, either the oppressors or the oppressed may form languages best known to them and use on the ignorant opponents. Other methods of rebellion may also include the use of metaphors and ritual gestures. These may be employed by individuals on perception of oppression by their rulers on opponents. These measures are usually effective within the areas where by violence is preferred in solving problems.
Why the events can be understood as everyday resistance
There is a controversy in the effort to understand the relationship between power and avoidance. These events help in understanding the scope of resistance in an organization or society at large. Employees for instance often resist authority in their daily operation. They always feel exploited by their superiors and are always longing if not fighting for change either directly or indirectly. Further, the followers or employees are perceived to be struggling for independence within the organization and do not like being bound bureaucratic events. Thus their resistance actions can be understood to be geared towards their struggle to achieve of autonomy (Scott, 1985).
Political conflict
The study of open politics tries to explain political wrangles within a given community or state. Some of the studies on conflict are made in a way to explain how different groups in politics interact with each other. Further it tells why given political parties may resort to violence while trying to solve their different political opinions (Abbott, 1992). For instance; by employing riots, and revolts instead of peaceful measures like rallies and protest voting. Due to these differences, the social scientists always try to understand how given social frame works, ethnical values and state systems among others may be associated towards moderating political actions. These activities are however frustrated by the thin and poverty opinion on political activities.
The different classes of people in a society tend to argue differently on the political actions. For instance; there is an immense dominion of political action which is defined as “below” and is normally forgotten in the society. This is because it is normally not defined as pure politics and the group in question is not always recognized as a political group. These are always based on the argument that the most of such inferior groups fall within the class of “daily resistance”. Their activities do not always form part of group action. Thus in any form of action towards overlooking these groups amount to ignoring the most reliable ways in which the peasants tend to express themselves politically. Therefore, there is always a need to solve this kind of conflict in daily politics.
Unity of purpose
Daily resistance may also be defined by multitude behind the activities. The mass is always an image of the various forms of fraud. While for each fraud there tend to be a means of daily resistance formed against the appropriation. These activities are united by invariable and unanimous forms of rebellious claims put in place by the oppressed (Abbott, 1992). The study of daily resistance helps in manifesting the legion and also outlining factors which support the resistance. It may further define the possible end results, the limits of the resistance and the disguises that it bears. These are chosen for the purpose of representative difference and for the analytical understanding.
Pouching
This is mostly used to refer to theft of an opponent’s properties in the course of an unfriendly kind of game. The items of pouching may differ with time. This however has become a major offence and the poachers may not go unpunished in the involvement in the action. Initially this action was meant to be a local subsistence habit among the peasants and was thus regarded as a customary right. Pouching thus indicates a minor alteration in individual behavior than being altered into property law. This has been employed in most colonial states which for instance have regarded forests as state properties.
Thus they have put across various laws to ensure that this change is observed. It was however unlikely that the common citizens would succumb to these changes. This for instance may have been brought about by the fear of these peasants losing their property to the state. Therefore, these may sum up to a great rivalry between the state and its peasants and thus a need to balance the diverse opinions. The predicament of implementation of regulations may not only be based on geographical factors, they are also dependant on complicity and the nature of unity of the poachers.
Peasants tax resistance
This is normally a major factor by the peasants in trying to resist appropriation. For example; The Malaysian effective resistance against Islamic tithing, can be seen as a good means of analyzing a degree of deception and complicity among others. This kind of resistance may be seen to yield an advantage to the lowly in the society. However its success highly depends on a united group of individuals with common goals. It further relies on a conspicuous atmosphere of opinion and common knowledge on the existing means of evasion and the economic significance. The rebellion alone may however be inadequate since the peasants may have several reasons of avoiding the tax. The effectiveness of the tithe resistance highly depends on the nature of power. Thus there is no doubt that the power holders could deem to get more funds from the peasants in the absence of rebellion.
Avoiding Written Records
This view states that the belief on the fight for class and belongingness has been deformed in nation- centric course. The factors which try to fight for attention are the ones in which most governments struggle to grant maximum consideration.
For instance, a minor resistance may demand for an attention due to its effect on class relations even though unheralded actions like escape, impair, theft which are likely to create greater impact may be hardly identified (Bruner, 1986). The minor revolt and the hopeless slave mutiny may create a figurative significance for its violent behavior and its radical aspirations. However, the majority of minor classes traditionally, these exceptional incidents were of lesser importance.
The daily nature of conflict hardly makes captions however; minor actions of dominance on lesser people and evasion may lead to a biased and economic difficulty reef. Thus whenever an effort is put in place to undertake the image, a government eventually intervenes over such reef. Attention is normally directed geared towards the shipwreck while the actions towards the same may be assumed.
Conclusion
It may be assumed that the factors advocating to the daily resistance to dominance may attract lesser attention. Based on this, these resistances tend to characterize insignificant survival devices which are neither self driven nor political. From the intentions of daily resistance, it can further be proved that the rebels do not normally plan for their actions and that their aim is never based on any revolutionary goals. Thus their consequential actions for instance theft and pouching are a clear indication that they tend to evade direct confrontations.
From Scott’s opinion on transcripts, both the superiors and subordinates within a society are always caught in the same web of socialization. Thus he sees the psychological perception of hegemony as hidden and internalized. Scott argues that majority of the inferior groups and the political bodies may not be found on the rulers or the ruled neither can it be found fully on hegemonic conformity. There is a clear relationship between the avoidance and the opinions on hidden power. Thus the same way the rulers may employ hidden powers to protect given agenda, the oppressed may similarly use rebellion. This tends to hide their actions from the rulers making them rather invisible.
Reference
Abbott, Andrew. 1992. “From Causes to Effects: Notes on Narrative Positivism.” Sociological Methods and Research 20: 428-55.
Bruner, Jerome. 1986. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Bumiller, Kristen. 1988. The Civil Rights Society: The social Construction of Victims. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Glenn, Mackin. 2005. “Communication, Power, And Critique: Toward A Critical Theory Of Everyday Resistance,” in (ed.) 35 (Studies in Law, Politics and Society, Volume 35), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.191-218
Patricia, Ewick. 2003. “Narrating Social Structure: Stories of resistance to Legal Authority.” American Journal of sociology, Volume 108, No 6: 1328-72. University of Chicago.
Robyn, Thomas. 2005. “Theorizing the Micro-politics of Resistance: New Public Management and Managerial Identities in the UK Public Services.” Organization Studies, Volume 26, no. 5 683-706.
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Scott, James C. 1987. “Resistance without protest and without Organization: Peasant Opposition to the Islamic Zakota and the Christian Tithe.” Comparative studies in Society and History, Volume 29, No. 3. New Haven: Yale University Press.
