Abstract
In highly oppressive environments, collective resistance is very costly. Non-collective resistance constitutes a less risky alternative. Focusing on a particular oppressed setting, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I identify everyday forms of non-collective resistance: signaling, persevering, eschewing, and coping. Characterized by low visibility and targeting political goals indirectly, these activities have not yet been recognized as forms of resistance. However, they constitute important resistance efforts that deliberately obstruct oppressive regimes. These efforts show that individuals who are not visibly resisting their rulers cannot be assumed to be loyal or to suffer from a barrier of fear, as often suggested by theories in politics. They also offer an important addition to theories that identify violence as a common response to oppression, suggesting that peaceful non-collective activities constitute an everyday alternative.
Highlights
In highly oppressive environments, collective resistance is very costly
Based on ethnographic field research in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I identify peaceful, everyday forms of non-collective resistance: signaling, persevering, eschewing, and coping. These behaviors can be classified as resistance because they challenge political power by deliberately obstructing oppressive regimes
Its categories refer to known behaviors in the fields of psychology and international relations, they have not yet been recognized as particular forms of resistance
Summary
The underlying theory of this literature was originally developed to understand consumer behavior in market situations (Hirschman 1970): When encountering a product of poor quality, consumers have three options: asking for a better product—“voice”—opting out and embracing alternatives—“exit”—or tolerating the situation while waiting for improvement—“loyalty.” Numerous later applications of the theory have focused on the subject of political resistance (Hirschman 1993; Sverke and Hellgren 2001; Pfaff and Kim 2003; Dowding et al 2000; Colomer 2000; Lagerkvist 2015; Montanaro 2019) In this literature, “voice” is typically associated with protest, it includes other forms of opposition that are performed in public and that visibly target regimes.
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