5 research outputs found
Re-appropriating the political through enacting a pedagogical politics of place
This paper critically analyses the post-political thesis, highlighting its universalising and agencygrabbing
tendencies. Drawing on my own family life, anarchist theory and long-standing traditions of
‘properly’ political placemaking by past and present grassroots actors, the paper unsettles two
interrelated claims on which the post-political thesis sits. First, that the political (le politique) is in
retreat. Second, that ‘proper’ politics constitutes a confrontational set of relations. Informed by
empirical observations I present an existing form of rigorous political encounter enacted in anarchistinfluenced
social centres. The politics on offer here has a supportive pedagogical quality to it and,
crucially, there are semblances of this pedagogical politics found in multiple sites. Focusing on the
‘micro-physics of power’ at work in social centres, I show how such organisational practices counter
the predetermined finalities of the post-political condition by enacting what I call ‘equality-as-tactic’.
Community here is not an empty vessel that can be easily filled with ‘empty signifiers’. On the
contrary, post-political practices tend to crack under the scrutiny of a pedagogical politics aimed at
equalising participation in the decisionmaking process