Class, resistance, and the psychologization of development in South Africa

Abstract

This paper focuses on the psychologization of development in South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world, through a critical analysis of a discussion on a national radio programme about the meaning of Mandela Day. We demonstrate how speakers draw on common sense notions of race, class, and party politics that (re)produce subject positions from within a rights-based interpretive repertoire that emphasizes structural reform and class resistance, and an agency interpretive repertoire that emphasizes individualism, responsibility, and volunteerism. We further demonstrate how the agency subject position serves to stifle and resist the rights subject position by drawing on common sense “psychological truths” about what it means to be a good citizen.