From his research among Malaysian peasants, James C. Scott develops the concept of "everyday forms of resistance" which express the prosaic and constant struggle between members of the subordinate classes and those who seek to extract labor, food, taxes, rents, and interest from them. Such forms of resistance express themselves in foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage, and so forth. Hence, the absence of more visible forms of political opposition, as rebellions or strikes, does not reflect an ideological "hegemony" and a passive acceptation of the established order by those subjected to domination. Instead, it reflects circumstances - that are rather the rule - in which an open and organized action would be too dangerous.
everyday resistance; domination; hegemony