Publication

Poverty, inequality and marginalization underlie much of the collective violence manifested in community protests and xenophobic attacks, providing the basis for a forceful insurgent citizenship directed against the authorities on one hand, and against foreign nationals on the other. The long-term reduction of violence depends on a structural transformation of citizenship which progressively reduces poverty, inequality and marginalization. The Bokfontein case provides a promising indication of the kind of resources and policies which are required to begin this task. On the one hand, the provision of public employment and its collective organization generates stable incomes for households as well as social participation and identity, and restoration of dignity; on the other, the process of explicit community building provided a forum for addressing collective trauma and fashioning new narratives about the community and its future.