Character and social organisation of community protests in South Africa

This paper examines the character and social organisation of community protests in South Africa. South Africa’s protests have been critiqued for their supposedly sporadic and unorganised nature befitting of the descriptor, ‘popcorn protests’. Based on the findings of this study, the researcher argues that although these protests are short-lived the movements behind them are not. A closer examination of the processes that activists follow before and after the protest event reveals the social organisation of these protests. The paper explains how and why the deep organising structures harbor participatory potential, albeit with their ineffectiveness so far. The researcher triangulated data from in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and literature.