| Publication type: | Article in scientific journal |
| Type of review: | Peer review (publication) |
| Title: | The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city |
| Authors: | Beveridge, Ross Koch, Philippe |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0042098016671477 |
| Published in: | Urban Studies |
| Volume(Issue): | 54 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Page(s): | 31 |
| Pages to: | 43 |
| Issue Date: | 2017 |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | Sage |
| ISSN: | 0042-0980 1360-063X |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Post-political city; Urban politics |
| Subject (DDC): | 320: Politics |
| 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. |
| URI: | https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/117847/1/117847.pdf https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/16826 |
| Fulltext version: | Published version |
| License (according to publishing contract): | Licence according to publishing contract |
| Departement: | Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering |
| Organisational Unit: | Institute of Urban Landscape (IUL) |
| Appears in collections: | Publikationen Architektur, Gestaltung und Bauingenieurwesen |
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Beveridge, R., & Koch, P. (2017). The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city. Urban Studies, 54(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016671477
Beveridge, R. and Koch, P. (2017) ‘The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city’, Urban Studies, 54(1), pp. 31–43. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016671477.
R. Beveridge and P. Koch, “The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city,” Urban Studies, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 31–43, 2017, doi: 10.1177/0042098016671477.
BEVERIDGE, Ross und Philippe KOCH, 2017. The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city. Urban Studies [online]. 2017. Bd. 54, Nr. 1, S. 31–43. DOI 10.1177/0042098016671477. Verfügbar unter: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/117847/1/117847.pdf
Beveridge, Ross, and Philippe Koch. 2017. “The Post-Political Trap? Reflections on Politics, Agency and the City.” Urban Studies 54 (1): 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016671477.
Beveridge, Ross, and Philippe Koch. “The Post-Political Trap? Reflections on Politics, Agency and the City.” Urban Studies, vol. 54, no. 1, 2017, pp. 31–43, https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016671477.
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