ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter alludes to the work of James C. Scott who wrote about the multiple ways in which poor rural people resist forms of exploitation, oppression or unwelcome changes to their lives. Scott used the terms 'weapons of the weak' (Scott 1985) and 'everyday forms of resistance' (Scott 1989) to describe covert action to lodge protest, bring retribution and try to undermine those with power. Such action includes: 'foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, feigned ignorance, desertion, pilfering, smuggling, poaching, arson, slander, sabotage, surreptitious assault and murder, anonymous threats' (Scott 1989: 5). As well as reacting against the power of individuals and groups, such behaviour may also take place in reaction to policies and processes of social and economic development intended to benefit the poor. Scott states: 'The problem with both the liberal-democratic and the radical view of development is . . . that neither is sufficiently radical. What they miss is the nearly continuous, informal, undeclared, disguised forms of autonomous resistance by lower classes' (1989: 4).
