Contradictions of Democracy Vigilantism and Rights in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Nicholas Rush Smith is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York--City College.The book provides a striking example of how anthropological approaches are making inroads into the field of urban studies.
Timothy Gibbs, University College London, English Historical Review
In this compelling work, Nicholas Smith traces vigilantism in post-apartheid South Africa to the tension between due process and perceptions of injustice when those suspected of crime or witchcraft go free. Drawing on 20 months of remarkable ethnographic research in two townships near Durban and Johannesburg, he suggests that the politics of vigilantism reflect state formation rather than state failure.
Elisabeth Jean Wood, Yale University
Smith has produced an empathic and compelling book on vigilantism in contemporary South Africa. His deft narrative explores with nuance the choices young men make and the consequences they face as they turn to violence in search of the elusive fruits of liberation. Brave, original and timely, Smith's work deserves a wide readership among scholars of political violence, state formation and youth activism in South Africa and beyond.
Zachariah Mampilly, Vassar College
Smith's central argument is that vigilantism persists in South Africa not because the criminal justice system isweak but because the citizenry rejects the principles that animate it. A provocative argument on the moral dimensions of state formation, this book ought to attract wide interest among political scientists, socio-legal scholars, political anthropologists, and many others besides.
Jonny Steinberg, University of Oxford