Decolonising and re-theorising the meaning of democracy: A South African perspective

Abstract

Historically and today, social movements have often been at the forefront of envisioning the content of democracy. Although democracy itself is a contested concept, in general, definitions and measures of democracy are often drawn from the canon and experiences of the global North. Contributing to the growing decolonisation movement in the social sciences, this article examines understandings of democracy in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. It considers how ordinary people conceptualise democracy through an examination of its understanding in isiZulu, one of South Africa’s most dominant vernacular languages, and through analysing how democracy is understood and practised at the grassroots, by citizens mobilised in community protests. It is argued that popular understandings and expectations of democracy are rooted in traditions of popular organisation that emerged in the struggle against apartheid, and in the experiences of many citizens of the post-1994 state. Crucially, the article draws attention to the tensions between grassroots understandings and visions of democracy and that which has been articulated by the governing African National Congress (ANC). By rooting the analysis of democracy within local histories, practices and contexts, the article provides lessons for democratic theorists by illuminating how citizens and popular organisations articulate the current crisis of democracy and its possible alternatives, promoting a re-imagination of normative democratic thought based on ideas of democracy from below.

From ‘sick nation’ to ‘superpower’: Anti-corruption knowledge and discourse and the construction of Indonesian national identity (1997–2019)

“…There are, no doubt, other alternatives. From a decolonial perspective the point is not to develop a new 'universal' definition but rather to encourage a pluriversality of views (Brooks et al, 2020) that by their very circulation create other possible knowledges and ways of knowing. What a decolonizing perspective on dominant international anti-corruption knowledge offers then, is a way of contesting the universalism inherent in this knowledge, by showing how and why all knowledge is situated and the product of particular times and places.…”

Decolonizing and re-theorizing radical democratic education: Toward a politics and practice of refusal

“…A good starting point is clarifying that the concept and task of decolonization is open to wide interpretation. For example, as Brooks et al (2020) note, on one end of the spectrum, there are those who advocate the production of indigenous knowledge systems that are distinct from the colonizer's influence; others advocate an approach that identifies the "coloniality of knowledge" (Quijano, 2000(Quijano, , 2007 and de-centers normative understandings of modernity and Eurocentrism as reflected in values such as civilization, development, and democracy (Dunford, 2017).…”

“…Gordon, 2010)-an issue that for a long time has been considered a contradiction in terms among democratic theorists (Mann, 2005). Yet, growing discussions about this relationship in recent years (e.g., see Brooks et al, 2020;Güven, 2015;Singh, 2018) have raised provocative questions that approach democracy "cautiously, curiously, even skeptically, asking whether the constituent features and conceits of European modernity have ever permitted us to understand or practice it" (Brown, 2010a: n.p). In particular, Güven (2015) has gone as far as suggesting that "The discourse of democracy is the continuation of a (neo)colonial world order" (xi) in which colonization is employed as a strategy by democracies (and other regimes, of course) for geopolitical and economic purposes-namely, land and resources appropriation, dispossession and enslavement.…”

Conceptualising employee voice in the majority world: Using multiple intellectual traditions inspired by the work of Mick Marchington

“…Their ability to voice through trade unions has only been achieved following a prolonged period of struggle. Indeed, research into the related concept of democracy in isiZulu has found that it has been understood as an ‘ongoing struggle for a better life’ (Brooks et al., 2020, p. 24).…”