Journal Article

IDS Bulletin 47.1

‘You Have to Raise a Fist!’: Seeing and Speaking to the State in South Africa

Published on 11 January 2016

Since joining the Open Governance Partnership in 2011, South Africa has been committed to addressing the ‘grand challenge’ of open governance through improving public services, creating safer communities and increasing accountability.

This article contrasts this supranational commitment to open governance with accounts of citizens’ everyday engagement with the state at a micro-level. Based on a year of multi-sited ethnography, the article highlights the value of bringing people – in this case, HIV-positive citizens living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town – into focus through a series of visual participatory processes in which they share their experience of public service provision and engagement with the state.

The article reflects, first, on how citizens ‘see’ the state in relation to service delivery and, second, on how they ‘speak’ to the state as members of civil society. It offers an understanding of how citizens themselves perceive ‘open governance’ in their everyday lives.

Related Content

IDS Bulletin 47.1

Authors

Elizabeth Mills

Publication details

journal
IDS Bulletin, volume 47, issue 1
doi
http://dx.doi.org/10.19088/1968-2016.107
language
English

Share

About this publication

Region
South Africa

Related content

Opinion

Woman or Indigenous? How the UN human rights treaties simplify discrimination

Sofie Nielsen, MA Gender & Development, Class of 2024-25

16 April 2025

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.