Beveridge, R. and Koch, P. (2017) The post-political trap: reflections on politics, agency and the city. Urban Studies, 54(1), pp. 31-43. (doi: 10.1177/0042098016671477)
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Abstract
This commentary reflects on the influence of the post-political critique on urban studies. In this literature (e.g. Swyngedouw, 2014), the default position of contemporary democracies is post-politics – the truly political is only rare, random and radical. The ‘post-political trap’ refers to the intuitively convincing, yet ultimately confining account it provides of contemporary urban governance. We identify three shortcomings. First, the binary understanding of the real political/politics as police negates the in-betweenness and contingency of actually existing urban politics. By so doing, secondly, political agency is reduced to the heroic and anti-heroic. Thus, the plurality of political agency in the urban sphere and multi-faceted forms of power lose their political quality. Third, the perceived omnipotence of the post-political order actually diminishes the possibilities of the urban as a political space of resistance and emancipation. On these grounds we argue not for a rejection of the notion of the post-political per se but for a more differentiated approach, one more alert to the contingencies of the political and of depoliticisation in the urban realm.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Beveridge, Dr Ross |
Authors: | Beveridge, R., and Koch, P. |
College/School: | College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies |
Journal Name: | Urban Studies |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
ISSN: | 0042-0980 |
ISSN (Online): | 1360-063X |
Published Online: | 25 October 2016 |
Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2016 SAGE Publications |
First Published: | First published in Urban Studies 54(1): 31-43 |
Publisher Policy: | Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher |
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