Scott’s Everyday Resistance • Partly opposing to Gramsci, James Scott (1985: 320) argues that subordinate people’s struggles within hegemony can be found in the people's ideas rather than their actions. • Scott thinks that people's struggle can be found in their "everyday resistance" such as stealing, complaining, foot-dragging (delay or slow movement), or setting fire. • Scott (1985: 335-340) also says that what the subordinate classes want is not a revolution or the overturn of hegemonic ideology. • They are simply very angry and want to solve their struggles in hegemony. • People's struggles are based on material interest (e.g. food, land) more than ideology (e.g. socialism). • People's demands often come from small objectives, but the action might be big and revolutionary.
Modernization and Human Rights • Modernization provided the subordinated people with the opportunity to break hegemony (Vandergeest 1993).
3
• The idea of individual human rights provided people to oppose dominant ideology. • With the claim of universal rights, everyday resistance has come to contest not only at local level but also at global level.