Essay On Self-Defeating Resistance

While this information and details about the various different types of resistance is helpful in understanding and exploring acts of resistance, in the same way that I will not be quantifying agency, I will not be quantifying resistance. In addition, I will not be distinguishing between the types of resistance quite in the same way Solózano and Bernal have outlined the various types. While resistance explores the relationship between oppressive structures and groups, I feel that there is a considerable amount of assumptions being made about the individual, and the level of resistance an individual can and chooses to enact in a given situation. While it is important to distinguish self-defeating resistance, as a perpetuation of oppression, it is hard to clearly distinguish between conformist and transformational resistance, since it assumes that an individual has agency. Specifically that the individual has both the capability and resources to be able to proactively engage in measurable social change. Agency is consistently impacted and limited by the social structure, and the structure can completely negate both an individual’s capacity to act and any outcomes of the action (Giddens, 1984). The …show more content…
The assumption that these participants are only vulnerable to these risks factors, and that these risk factors only have the potential to obstruct or hinder individuals is problematic. Masten (1994) offers a more developmental perspective of resilience, stating, “Resilience in an individual refers to successful adaptation despite risk and adversity” (p. 3). Masten argues that the use of adaptation offers the ability to explore and understand how individuals are able to recover from adversity and risk, such as physical threats, trauma, and “daily hassles” (1994; p.