Luke Sinwell
Biographic Data
| ID | 195453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Luke Sinwell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Luke |
| FAMILY NAME | Sinwell |
| SIGNATURE | SINWELL L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Johannesburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2126-6647 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Blaming the Believers? Counter-Narratives of the Marikana Massacre (2012) and the Cattle Killings (1856–1857)
The article suggests that forms of resistance may be so deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of collective actors that these are silent or unrecognizable at face value. Drawing upon selections of interviews in Marikana where 34 mineworkers were killed by the police on 16 August 2012 and my biographical project about Ayanda Mabulu, a controversial South African artist from the former Ciskei (who is deeply enmeshed in the oral traditions embodied …
Grounding together’ or digging movements into the ground? South African scholar-activism 30 years after democracy
The fiftieth anniversary of ROAPE coincidentally marks 30 years of what may be called ‘bourgeois democracy’ in South Africa. Walter Rodney’s debate with mainly white lecturers (including early contributors and founders of ROAPE) at Dar es Salaam in 1971 offers a pivot from which to explore the representation of popular movements in South Africa in the 2000s, which centred on the assumption that the working class had fallen victim to the adoption …
The Participation Paradox: Between Bottom-Up and Top-Down Development in South Africa
Debunking the conventional belief that grassroots democracy is always a panacea for the poor and disenfranchised. The last two decades have ushered in what has become known as a participatory revolution, with consultants, advisors, and non-profits called into communities, classrooms, and corporations alike to listen to ordinary people. With exclusively bureaucratic approaches no longer en vogue, authorities now opt for “open” forums for engagemen…
The People’s Parliament: Disaggregating Popular Participation and Protest in Thembelihle, South Africa
Thembelihle, an informal settlement to the south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa has experienced a wave of popular protest and grassroots democracy since the African National Congress (ANC) attempted to evict residents in 2002. Drawing from original in-depth interviews and observation, the article highlights the process through which the struggle waged by the Thembelihle Crisis Committee alongside the community has brought state concessions le…
From energy racism to people’s power: Unpacking the electricity crisis and resistance in Orange Farm, Johannesburg
Energy racism, a brainchild of racial capitalism, systemically excludes the black majority who are denied safe, reliable and clean household energy. It manifests in violent and, sometimes, deadly ways, which are often met with organised resistance from below. Drawing on a case study of Orange Farm, Johannesburg, this article explores the politics of popular resistance to the crisis of neoliberalism and cost recovery. It argues that the macro-sphe…
Electing to electrify: Unpacking the local crisis and state response in Sun Valley, Soweto
This article draws from a wider research project on ‘Energy Racism’ to explore the experiences and perspectives of ordinary residents in Sun Valley, Soweto (in Ward 22). From August 2020, due to a broken electricity transformer, residents of Sun Valley suffered in the dark. They employed many strategies to access energy and called a range of meetings with ANC councillors and Eskom officials, but their pleas fell on deaf ears until they threatened…
The #Fees Must Fall Movement: “Disruptive Power” and the Politics of Student-Worker Alliances at the University of the Free State (2015–2016)
The core activities associated with the #Fees Must Fall (FMF) movement in South Africa may be understood as forms of “disruptive power” (Piven [2006]. Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers). By illuminating the fluid nature of student–worker solidarity in the related #Outsourcing Must Fall (OMF) campaign at the University of the Free State (UFS), the article argues that the specific…
Turning Points on the Periphery? The Politics of South Africa's Platinum-Belt Strike Wave in Rustenburg, Northwest and Northam, Limpopo, 2012-2014
Mine workers have been positioned at the forefront of a new left alliance in South Africa. This article questions that assumption. It assesses the politics of workers on a mine called Swartklip, part of Anglo Platinum’s operation in Limpopo province, whose rank and file engaged in unprotected strike action in the Northam region (in 2012) before becoming part of the longest strike action in South African mining history (in 2014). Drawing from orig…
Labour Beyond Cosatu: Mapping the Rupture in South Africa’s Labour Landscape
Southern Resistance in Critical Perspective: The Politics of Protest in South Africa’s Contentious Democracy
The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
‘Amcu by day, workers’ committee by night’: Insurgent Trade Unionism at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) mine, 2012–2014
This article investigates the relationship between the workers’ committee, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at Amplats between 2012 and 2014. Drawing from in-depth interviews with worker leaders, it explores the contestation over representation and recognition in the platinum mines during a time when workers waged historic strikes putting forward radical demands for pay incre…
Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First Century South Africa
Sharpening the Weapons of the weak: A response to Carin Runciman
Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance has informed much scholarly work on peasant and, more broadly, subaltern resistance since it was first published more than 25 years ago
Ethical and Political Challenges of Participatory Action Research in the Academy: Reflections on Social Movements and Knowledge Production in South Africa
From the vantage point of South Africa, this article highlights a number of ethical challenges that could potentially arise in the relationship between social movement researchers and activists in the pursuit of social justice and transformation. In contrast to conventional approaches to social science more generally, we argue that a neat separation between theory and action is useful neither for producing knowledge within the academy nor for adv…
Is ‘another world’ really possible? Re-examining counter-hegemonic forces in post-apartheid South Africa
A wide body of scholarly literature on social movements on an international level emphatically, but uncritically, declares that ‘another world is possible’. This paper investigates this trend and its implications for political and academic practice in post-apartheid South Africa, where community-based movements have emerged primarily in order to access basic services. In particular, it highlights the pivotal role that the state and poor people's …
Transformative left-wing parties’ and grassroots organizations: Unpacking the politics of “top-down” and “bottom-up” development
Obtaining ‘Peace’, Searching for Justice: Evaluating Civil Society and Local Government Responses to Xenophobia in Alexandra
While local government and civil society responses to the May 2008 xenophobic violence in Alexandra were relatively effective at achieving their goal of peace and stability in the township, the article argues that larger structural issues remained almost untouched. The Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), hinted at a completely different approach to dealing with the crisis than the oth…
Rethinking South Africa's Transition: From Transformative to Mainstream Approaches to Participatory Development
By the mid-1980s black township activists from across South Africa had risen up in an unprecedented manner to delegitimize and challenge the apartheid state. By the end of 1985, a new era in politics emerged in Alexandra, a small and densely populated township North East of Johannesburg, under the ideology of 'people's power'. Perhaps more than any other place in the country, the Alexandra Civic Organisation's (ACO's) ideology of 'people's power'…
The Wynberg Concerned Residents’ Disempowering Court Victory
Conceptualizing Direct Action as a Form of Participation in Development: A South African Case
The scholarly focus on participation in development is highly biased towards analyses of 'invited' (Cornwall, 2004) participatory spaces, those that have been induced by governments or international agencies. However, there is a growing body of literature that investigates 'invented' participatory spaces—more autonomous spaces which have been created at the grassroots level. The available scholarship on 'invented' participatory spaces, however, h…
Undermining S'Swetla residents through participation: Towards the abandonment of institutionalised participatory processes
The available scholarship on participation and local democracy in the South African context has focused primarily on the limitations of local government councilors, ward committees and development forums to enable effective participation by communities. This article investigates the role of participatory institutions in the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), a R 1.3 billion national flagship project intended to improve the lives the previously excl…
Participatory spaces and the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC): Reshaping Government Plans
This article challenges the prevailing orthodoxy in the South African literature on participation in development, which suggests that it is government structures alone that determine citizen participation in development. It focuses on the empirical example of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti‐Privatisation Forum (APF), to show the ways in which agents shape and recreate development practices on the Alexan…
Is ‘another world’ really possible? Re-examining counter-hegemonic forces in post-apartheid South Africa
A wide body of scholarly literature on social movements on an international level emphatically, but uncritically, declares that ‘another world is possible’. This paper investigates this trend and its implications for political and academic practice in post-apartheid South Africa, where community-based movements have emerged primarily in order to access basic services. In particular, it highlights the pivotal role that the state and poor people's …
Ethical and Political Challenges of Participatory Action Research in the Academy: Reflections on Social Movements and Knowledge Production in South Africa
From the vantage point of South Africa, this article highlights a number of ethical challenges that could potentially arise in the relationship between social movement researchers and activists in the pursuit of social justice and transformation. In contrast to conventional approaches to social science more generally, we argue that a neat separation between theory and action is useful neither for producing knowledge within the academy nor for adv…
Transformative left-wing parties’ and grassroots organizations: Unpacking the politics of “top-down” and “bottom-up” development
Conceptualizing Direct Action as a Form of Participation in Development: A South African Case
The scholarly focus on participation in development is highly biased towards analyses of 'invited' (Cornwall, 2004) participatory spaces, those that have been induced by governments or international agencies. However, there is a growing body of literature that investigates 'invented' participatory spaces—more autonomous spaces which have been created at the grassroots level. The available scholarship on 'invented' participatory spaces, however, h…
Rethinking South Africa's Transition: From Transformative to Mainstream Approaches to Participatory Development
By the mid-1980s black township activists from across South Africa had risen up in an unprecedented manner to delegitimize and challenge the apartheid state. By the end of 1985, a new era in politics emerged in Alexandra, a small and densely populated township North East of Johannesburg, under the ideology of 'people's power'. Perhaps more than any other place in the country, the Alexandra Civic Organisation's (ACO's) ideology of 'people's power'…
Obtaining ‘Peace’, Searching for Justice: Evaluating Civil Society and Local Government Responses to Xenophobia in Alexandra
While local government and civil society responses to the May 2008 xenophobic violence in Alexandra were relatively effective at achieving their goal of peace and stability in the township, the article argues that larger structural issues remained almost untouched. The Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), hinted at a completely different approach to dealing with the crisis than the oth…
From energy racism to people’s power: Unpacking the electricity crisis and resistance in Orange Farm, Johannesburg
Energy racism, a brainchild of racial capitalism, systemically excludes the black majority who are denied safe, reliable and clean household energy. It manifests in violent and, sometimes, deadly ways, which are often met with organised resistance from below. Drawing on a case study of Orange Farm, Johannesburg, this article explores the politics of popular resistance to the crisis of neoliberalism and cost recovery. It argues that the macro-sphe…
Electing to electrify: Unpacking the local crisis and state response in Sun Valley, Soweto
This article draws from a wider research project on ‘Energy Racism’ to explore the experiences and perspectives of ordinary residents in Sun Valley, Soweto (in Ward 22). From August 2020, due to a broken electricity transformer, residents of Sun Valley suffered in the dark. They employed many strategies to access energy and called a range of meetings with ANC councillors and Eskom officials, but their pleas fell on deaf ears until they threatened…
Sharpening the Weapons of the weak: A response to Carin Runciman
Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance has informed much scholarly work on peasant and, more broadly, subaltern resistance since it was first published more than 25 years ago
Participatory spaces and the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC): Reshaping Government Plans
This article challenges the prevailing orthodoxy in the South African literature on participation in development, which suggests that it is government structures alone that determine citizen participation in development. It focuses on the empirical example of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti‐Privatisation Forum (APF), to show the ways in which agents shape and recreate development practices on the Alexan…
Undermining S'Swetla residents through participation: Towards the abandonment of institutionalised participatory processes
The available scholarship on participation and local democracy in the South African context has focused primarily on the limitations of local government councilors, ward committees and development forums to enable effective participation by communities. This article investigates the role of participatory institutions in the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), a R 1.3 billion national flagship project intended to improve the lives the previously excl…
Participatory spaces and the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC): Reshaping Government Plans
This article challenges the prevailing orthodoxy in the South African literature on participation in development, which suggests that it is government structures alone that determine citizen participation in development. It focuses on the empirical example of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti‐Privatisation Forum (APF), to show the ways in which agents shape and recreate development practices on the Alexan…
The Wynberg Concerned Residents’ Disempowering Court Victory
Conceptualizing Direct Action as a Form of Participation in Development: A South African Case
The scholarly focus on participation in development is highly biased towards analyses of 'invited' (Cornwall, 2004) participatory spaces, those that have been induced by governments or international agencies. However, there is a growing body of literature that investigates 'invented' participatory spaces—more autonomous spaces which have been created at the grassroots level. The available scholarship on 'invented' participatory spaces, however, h…
Is ‘another world’ really possible? Re-examining counter-hegemonic forces in post-apartheid South Africa
A wide body of scholarly literature on social movements on an international level emphatically, but uncritically, declares that ‘another world is possible’. This paper investigates this trend and its implications for political and academic practice in post-apartheid South Africa, where community-based movements have emerged primarily in order to access basic services. In particular, it highlights the pivotal role that the state and poor people's …
Transformative left-wing parties’ and grassroots organizations: Unpacking the politics of “top-down” and “bottom-up” development
Obtaining ‘Peace’, Searching for Justice: Evaluating Civil Society and Local Government Responses to Xenophobia in Alexandra
While local government and civil society responses to the May 2008 xenophobic violence in Alexandra were relatively effective at achieving their goal of peace and stability in the township, the article argues that larger structural issues remained almost untouched. The Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), hinted at a completely different approach to dealing with the crisis than the oth…
Rethinking South Africa's Transition: From Transformative to Mainstream Approaches to Participatory Development
By the mid-1980s black township activists from across South Africa had risen up in an unprecedented manner to delegitimize and challenge the apartheid state. By the end of 1985, a new era in politics emerged in Alexandra, a small and densely populated township North East of Johannesburg, under the ideology of 'people's power'. Perhaps more than any other place in the country, the Alexandra Civic Organisation's (ACO's) ideology of 'people's power'…
Sharpening the Weapons of the weak: A response to Carin Runciman
Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance has informed much scholarly work on peasant and, more broadly, subaltern resistance since it was first published more than 25 years ago
Ethical and Political Challenges of Participatory Action Research in the Academy: Reflections on Social Movements and Knowledge Production in South Africa
From the vantage point of South Africa, this article highlights a number of ethical challenges that could potentially arise in the relationship between social movement researchers and activists in the pursuit of social justice and transformation. In contrast to conventional approaches to social science more generally, we argue that a neat separation between theory and action is useful neither for producing knowledge within the academy nor for adv…
Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First Century South Africa
‘Amcu by day, workers’ committee by night’: Insurgent Trade Unionism at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) mine, 2012–2014
This article investigates the relationship between the workers’ committee, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at Amplats between 2012 and 2014. Drawing from in-depth interviews with worker leaders, it explores the contestation over representation and recognition in the platinum mines during a time when workers waged historic strikes putting forward radical demands for pay incre…
The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
Southern Resistance in Critical Perspective: The Politics of Protest in South Africa’s Contentious Democracy
Labour Beyond Cosatu: Mapping the Rupture in South Africa’s Labour Landscape
The #Fees Must Fall Movement: “Disruptive Power” and the Politics of Student-Worker Alliances at the University of the Free State (2015–2016)
The core activities associated with the #Fees Must Fall (FMF) movement in South Africa may be understood as forms of “disruptive power” (Piven [2006]. Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers). By illuminating the fluid nature of student–worker solidarity in the related #Outsourcing Must Fall (OMF) campaign at the University of the Free State (UFS), the article argues that the specific…
Turning Points on the Periphery? The Politics of South Africa's Platinum-Belt Strike Wave in Rustenburg, Northwest and Northam, Limpopo, 2012-2014
Mine workers have been positioned at the forefront of a new left alliance in South Africa. This article questions that assumption. It assesses the politics of workers on a mine called Swartklip, part of Anglo Platinum’s operation in Limpopo province, whose rank and file engaged in unprotected strike action in the Northam region (in 2012) before becoming part of the longest strike action in South African mining history (in 2014). Drawing from orig…
Electing to electrify: Unpacking the local crisis and state response in Sun Valley, Soweto
This article draws from a wider research project on ‘Energy Racism’ to explore the experiences and perspectives of ordinary residents in Sun Valley, Soweto (in Ward 22). From August 2020, due to a broken electricity transformer, residents of Sun Valley suffered in the dark. They employed many strategies to access energy and called a range of meetings with ANC councillors and Eskom officials, but their pleas fell on deaf ears until they threatened…
The Participation Paradox: Between Bottom-Up and Top-Down Development in South Africa
Debunking the conventional belief that grassroots democracy is always a panacea for the poor and disenfranchised. The last two decades have ushered in what has become known as a participatory revolution, with consultants, advisors, and non-profits called into communities, classrooms, and corporations alike to listen to ordinary people. With exclusively bureaucratic approaches no longer en vogue, authorities now opt for “open” forums for engagemen…
The People’s Parliament: Disaggregating Popular Participation and Protest in Thembelihle, South Africa
Thembelihle, an informal settlement to the south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa has experienced a wave of popular protest and grassroots democracy since the African National Congress (ANC) attempted to evict residents in 2002. Drawing from original in-depth interviews and observation, the article highlights the process through which the struggle waged by the Thembelihle Crisis Committee alongside the community has brought state concessions le…
From energy racism to people’s power: Unpacking the electricity crisis and resistance in Orange Farm, Johannesburg
Energy racism, a brainchild of racial capitalism, systemically excludes the black majority who are denied safe, reliable and clean household energy. It manifests in violent and, sometimes, deadly ways, which are often met with organised resistance from below. Drawing on a case study of Orange Farm, Johannesburg, this article explores the politics of popular resistance to the crisis of neoliberalism and cost recovery. It argues that the macro-sphe…
Grounding together’ or digging movements into the ground? South African scholar-activism 30 years after democracy
The fiftieth anniversary of ROAPE coincidentally marks 30 years of what may be called ‘bourgeois democracy’ in South Africa. Walter Rodney’s debate with mainly white lecturers (including early contributors and founders of ROAPE) at Dar es Salaam in 1971 offers a pivot from which to explore the representation of popular movements in South Africa in the 2000s, which centred on the assumption that the working class had fallen victim to the adoption …
Blaming the Believers? Counter-Narratives of the Marikana Massacre (2012) and the Cattle Killings (1856–1857)
The article suggests that forms of resistance may be so deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of collective actors that these are silent or unrecognizable at face value. Drawing upon selections of interviews in Marikana where 34 mineworkers were killed by the police on 16 August 2012 and my biographical project about Ayanda Mabulu, a controversial South African artist from the former Ciskei (who is deeply enmeshed in the oral traditions embodied …
Political science (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (17 works) · Politics (15 works) · South African History and Culture (15 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Public Administration (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Citizen journalism (8 works) · Democracy (8 works)