From Out of Apathy to the post-political: the spatial politics of austerity, the geographies of politicisation and the trajectories of the Scottish left(s)

Featherstone, D. (2021) From Out of Apathy to the post-political: the spatial politics of austerity, the geographies of politicisation and the trajectories of the Scottish left(s). Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 39(3), pp. 469-490. (doi: 10.1177/2399654419885706)

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative approach to some of the temporalising logics and imaginaries which have dominated debates around the post-political and post-democracy. It does this through engaging with the writings of figures associated with the ‘First New Left’ notably Stuart Hall and E.P. Thompson between 1956 and 1962. I argue that their essays in texts such as Out of Apathy bear some striking similarities with the claims of literatures relating to post-politics and post-democracy. Their work I argue repays substantive engagement; however, because through its attentiveness to emergent practices and geographies of antagonism, it offers a more generative and politically strategic resolution to some of the common discontents of consensus and marketisation of politics that has characterised work on post-politics. The paper develops these arguments through a discussion of how the uneven geographies of politicisation and trajectories of the Scottish left(s) in different parts of the post-war period have shaped and impacted on the spatial politics of austerity in significant ways.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Featherstone, Professor David
• Authors: Featherstone, D.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 2399-6544
• ISSN (Online): 2399-6552
• Published Online: 11 December 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 The Author
• First Published: First published in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 39(3): 469-490
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher