Is resistance always counter-hegemonic?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Current reflections on practices of opposition are informed by the resistance/hegemony paradigm. The shortcomings of the resistance/hegemony paradigm are, as many critics have pointed, both a result of the wide extension and romanticization of resistance, and the mis-construal of hegemony as a top/down process of manipulating consciousness. The present article proposes to address some of the limitations of the resistance/hegemony paradigm by pondering when practices of resistance may be considered part of a counter-hegemonic struggle. To answer this question, it presents a typology of the different forms of resistance according to their relationship with counter-hegemony. This typology is based on the degree to which certain practices are incorporated or tolerated by the hegemonic model; how they articulate between challenges at the symbolic level and challenges to the production and distribution of material resources; and whether there is a process of articulation at play among different practices that may create a collective subject capable of putting forward claims to achieve political power.