Browsing by Author "Mandyoli, Lindokuhle"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    State and civil society: #FeesMustFall movement as a counter- hegemonic force? A case of the University of the Western Cape experience
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Mandyoli, Lindokuhle; Anciano, Fiona
    The #FeesMustFall (#FMF) movement is an important moment in South Africa as it provides insight into the evolution of the relations between state and civil society. An inquiry into the 2015/2016 student protests at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) shows the contradictions that persist in South African society twenty years after apartheid. The study examines the reaction of the state to the dissent embodied by #FMF demands. Drawing on Gramsci and Althusser the study develops a framework against which #FMF is assessed, in order to test whether the movement was counter-hegemonic, if so, to what extent. The assessment is done using a qualitative approach to the research; i.e. auto-ethnography, which relies on the experiences of the author, as a tool of data collection. The selection of this technique is informed by the proximity of the author to the protests, and scarcity of prior research done on the UWC #FMF case. Also, the study uses primary data such as media statements, media articles, YouTube videos, speeches, interviews and personal communications as a means to triangulate the auto-ethnographic data. The data gives insight into the origins of the movement at UWC, the motivations of, and the tactics employed by the leaders. The movement at UWC shuts down the campus, blocks national roads, marches to the airport and even disrupts exams in attempts to see its mission through; a mission of Fee Free Education. Finally, drawing on the framework from Gramsci and Althusser this study notes the persistence of contradictions such as access to higher education in democratic South Africa. It shows the battle for hegemony between the state and civil society and identifies the dominance of the state, and how it deals with those who challenge it. To this end, #FMF does embody some counter-hegemonic quality. However, the study also reveals how #FMF carries out its actions in the boundaries of hegemonic institutions such as the constitution and the university. Hence, the extent of #FMF’s counter-hegemony went as far as affecting the operations of the university and not the structure thereof. As such, #FMF, like other radical civil society agents of its kind, is an example of issue based and temporary counter-hegemony. Although significant, it is not necessarily that which would see the complete overthrow of the university, or the state for that matter.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The state, hegemony and ideology: reflections on the 1976 student uprisings and the 2015 #feesmustfall movement
    (Universty of the Western Cape, 2024) Mandyoli, Lindokuhle; Anciano, Fiona
    Advancing a Gramscian critique of the democratic constitutional state in South Africa, this study argues that the hegemonic continuities from apartheid to democratic South Africa still linger 30 years after democracy. The central thesis of this dissertation is that these two states operate primarily on the same logic of capitalist hegemony, and thus reproduce similar tensions between state and civil society. Using a comparative research design, where the case studies are the 1976 Student Uprisings and the 2015 #FeesMustFall movement, the study examines one moment of student protest in each of these regimes, to show the conditions that produce similar moments of dissent, and how both these regimes rely on consent and coercion, in varying degrees, to maintain their hegemony. The theoretical framework through which these cases and hegemonic continuities are assessed is a combination of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, Foucault’s theory of power and Althusser’s theory of Ideological and Repressive State Apparatus. This framework allows the study to operationalize this comparative research design through subjecting the South African state to an analysis of its use of state institutions to maintain hegemony. To implement this particular research design the study has conducted life histories, semi structured interviews, visited archives, collected data through documentary and video analysis and used autoethnographic accounts and recollections of the author, who was closely involved in the #FeesMustFall movement.