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For more than a decade, widespread protests have erupted within South Africa’s impoverished black townships and informal settlements. The mobilizations resembled what Sidney Tarrow refers to as a ‘cycle of contention’ or ‘protest cycle,’ as they represented a diffusion of heightened conflict across society. In contrast to Tarrow’s protest cycle, however, resistance failed to converge around ‘objective coalitions’ and a generalized challenge, and it persisted rather than reaching exhaustion. Drawing on a case study of protest and organizing in Bekkersdal, this article argues that the fragmentation and localization of resistance reinforced this peculiar combination. Bekkersdal activists responded to democratization by seeking administrative fixes to local government. Political parties also pulled activists in different directions, yet without facilitating bridges to activism in other areas. While providing a highly visible example for activists in other areas to replicate, the Bekkersdal resistance thus failed to produce broader concessions that might have discouraged protests elsewhere. The case study shows how local containment of political incorporation processes may enable the persistence of protest cycles.

Keywords

Cycle of contention demobilization democratization local government political incorporation protest cycle political parties service delivery social movements unions

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The persistent protest cycle: A case study of contained political incorporation

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