From the vantage point of South Africa, this article highlights a number of ethical challenges that could potentially arise in the relationship between social movement researchers and activists in the pursuit of social justice and transformation. In contrast to conventional approaches to social science more generally, we argue that a neat separation between theory and action is useful neither for producing knowledge within the academy nor for advancing the causes of social movements. The article reflects on two different research experiences in order to explain the limitations and quandaries that confront academics who seek to negotiate scholar -activist identities. In doing so, it extends the work of Croteau, who has explored the tensions between activism and scholarship. Drawing on participatory action research (PAR) approaches, including Touraine's method of sociological intervention, we suggest that a refined approach to PAR may assist in countering the inequalities that have been created in the academy between the researcher and researched, thereby alleviating some of the ethical and political concerns that inevitably confront scholar-activists.

A wide body of scholarly literature on social movements on an international level emphatically, but uncritically, declares that ‘another world is possible’. This paper investigates this trend and its implications for political and academic practice in post-apartheid South Africa, where community-based movements have emerged primarily in order to access basic services. In particular, it highlights the pivotal role that the state and poor people's immediate basic needs play in limiting social movements' contribution towards a transformative development agenda. Paying close attention to poor people's struggles and needs, the paper argues that there is a sharp disjuncture between the ideologies manufactured by academics, and the worldviews that the working class and poor possess. It concludes by providing insight into the possibilities for post-apartheid political struggles – praxis – to lead to the formation of class consciousness and to a formidable challenge to neoliberalism.

This article investigates the relationship between the workers’ committee, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at Amplats between 2012 and 2014. Drawing from in-depth interviews with worker leaders, it explores the contestation over representation and recognition in the platinum mines during a time when workers waged historic strikes putting forward radical demands for pay increases. There has been a rocky transition (one that is incomplete) from the values and culture of the workers’ committee at Amplats to that of the union – AMCU. Gouldner's critique of Michels’ classic ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’ provides a useful starting point from which to understand this transition as well as the contemporary mineworkers’ movement in South Africa more generally. Gouldner suggested that Michels ignored democratic impulses thereby putting forth a model which was monolithic and static rather than socially constructed and contextually specific. The article advances the concept of Insurgent Trade Unionism in order to argue that when the rank and file takes on an insurgent character, the trade union's bureaucratic or official power (at the national, regional and branch level) becomes marginal, but only relatively so in this case, as the events reveal.

No abstract

The main critique raised against participatory approaches to development is that they do not adequately address issues of politics and power. This paper contributes to the theory and practice of participation by introducing a framework drawn from Freirean philosophy and applying Giddens's theory of 'structuration' to that philosophy. Specifically, it focuses on the relocation of people from the banks of the Jukskei River as part of the Alexandra Renewal Project. It draws on the author's interviews with key local-level stakeholders, including government leaders, managers of the Alexandra Renewal Project, and those directly involved with facilitating the participation of intended beneficiaries in Alexandra. The study uses Giddens's theory to conclude that although participatory processes may be intended to (in Freire's words) domesticate, the domesticating or exclusionary nature of the intervention provides the basis upon which people liberate themselves.