Legal consciousness and dissent: The formal and informal regulation of foreign shopkeepers in South Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.1678Keywords:
Legal consciousness, legal hegemony, migration, informalityAbstract
Many foreign shopkeepers have opened small businesses in South Africa’s township neighbourhoods since the advent of democracy in 1994. Over the years they have encountered animosity from competing South African traders, many of whom have incited xenophobic attacks, and mobilised to curb their businesses. This paper draws on field research on Somali shopkeepers in Cape Town to understand the legal consciousness of parties involved in regulatory efforts to curtail foreign small businesses. It finds that local level regulation reflects a narrative of “parallel to the law”, while national level events mirror Halliday and Bronwyn Morgan’s (2013) narrative of “dissenting collectivism”. However, in this case, parties were targeting progressive laws protecting vulnerable groups rather than laws favouring the elite, and dissent frequently involved cooperation with rather than opposition to the state. Counter-hegemonic action can therefore manifest differently in contexts of rising populism and weakening adherence to human rights principles and values.
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