The construction of resistance : a case study among "Il-majaneen" students in the occupied West Bank

Abstract

This thesis is the result of eight months of fieldwork in 2003-2004, among a group of young Palestinian students at Birzeit University. My main subject is resistance, broadly defined: as a cultural model, as an expression of subcultural identity, and as an aspect of daily interaction, with the purpose of gaining or evading power. I explore how informants’ particular lifestyle choices contribute to express and maintain a distinct subcultural identity, and simultaneously constitute a form of resistance to dominant patriarchal structures within Palestinian society. Exploring the subject of resistance further, I argue that resistance - epitomized as “struggle” - can be seen as a hegemonic cultural model that serves to homogenize the Palestinian population. In daily life, the imperative of “struggle” represents a source of symbolic power that people can contend for in order to access various resources. Yet behind this seemingly uniform emphasis on “struggle”, I suggest that there is a continuous symbolic battle between different actors regarding the particular meanings of resistance in specific contexts. On this level, resistance acts as a differentiating process, pitting different groups against each other, in an essentially moral discourse. I discuss how these multivocal, multi-sited aspects of resistance manifest themselves in informants’ daily lives, as they search for arenas and expressions of resistance that can incorporate their understandings of “who they are” in relation to others.