Cultivating Autonomy

Abstract

■ This article explores the resistance of alterglobalization activists on the Larzac plateau in southern France to various forms of power. As part of a technique of resistance activists cultivate themselves as `autonomous' political subjects and organize a movement considered to be an `autonomous' counterpower. In addition to being a political goal, autonomy is problematically tangled up in many aspects of their lives and is of frequent concern in their efforts to resist. Autonomy also constitutes a theoretical problem in anthropological discussions of power and resistance. An autonomous space of resistance is often assumed by social movement theorists or denied by those who argue that power and resistance are inseparable. I argue in this article that autonomy, understood as something socially relative rather than absolute, is produced in the process of resisting via particular practices through which power and resistance come to oppose one another.

Emancipation of young agroecological peasants in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil: an identity in-the-making

“…In this article, I employ a notion of relational autonomy that foregrounds how peasants work with locally available social and material resources and assets instead of relying on fertilisers, pesticides and feed produced for the global market (van der Ploeg 2012). Put differently, I suggest that farmers construct relational autonomy through a peasant mode of production (Williams 2008;van der Ploeg 2012).…”

“…This role of social movements has also been described in other studies. For instance, the activist farmers of the global justice movement in France create autonomy in social movement relations by local knowledge production and exchange (Williams 2008). Williams indicates that the autonomy created in the global justice movement rubs off on the autonomy at farms and at the level of bodies.…”

“…Westlund (2008) calls this dialogical answerability, to hold oneself answerable to critical perspectives. Relational autonomy is a social and historical phenomenon subject to change (Williams 2008).…”