Same plans, different strategies: the multiple faces of resistance

Abstract

This article reports an ethnographic study of resistance in an informal education context: an NGO Day Centre and Hostel for socially excluded adults in Bilbao, Spain. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the field of resistance theory by focusing on a non-school setting. Our analysis uncovered four resistance strategies (The Tell-tale, The Responsible One, The Rebel, The Silent One) amongst clients of the NGO programme. Each allowed clients, in different ways, to confront the structure of the NGO, introduce agency and gain some limited forms of power in terms of influencing their lives at the NGO. This paper explores what excluded adults’ resistance looks like; how it is played out in the NGO setting and how it is experienced by clients themselves.