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The Antinomies of the Postpolitical City: In Search of a Democratic Politics of Environmental Production

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  • ERIK SWYNGEDOUW

Abstract

In recent years, urban research has become increasingly concerned with the social, political and economic implications of the techno‐political and socio‐scientific consensus that the present unsustainable and unjust environmental conditions require a transformation of the way urban life is organized. In the article, I shall argue that the present consensual vision of the urban environment presenting a clear and present danger annuls the properly political moment and contributes to what a number of authors have defined as the emergence and consolidation of a postpolitical and postdemocratic condition. This will be the key theme developed in this contribution. First, I shall attempt to theorize and re‐centre the political as a pivotal moment in urban political‐ecological processes. Second, I shall argue that the particular staging of the environmental problem and its modes of management signals and helps to consolidate a postpolitical condition, one that evacuates the properly political from the plane of immanence that underpins any political intervention. The consolidation of an urban postpolitical condition runs, so I argue, parallel to the formation of a postdemocratic arrangement that has replaced debate, disagreement and dissensus with a series of technologies of governing that fuse around consensus, agreement, accountancy metrics and technocratic environmental management. In the third part, I maintain that this postpolitical consensual police order revolves decidedly around embracing a populist gesture. However, the disappearance of the political in a postpolitical arrangement leaves all manner of traces that allow for the resurfacing of the properly political. This will be the theme of the final section. I shall conclude that re‐centring the political is a necessary condition for tackling questions of urban environmental justice and for creating egalibertarian socio‐ecological urban assemblages. Résumé Récemment, la recherche urbaine a montré un intérêt croissant pour les implications sociales, politiques et économiques du consensus techno‐politique et socio‐scientifique selon lequel les conditions environnementales actuelles, non viables et injustes, exigent que soit transformé le mode d'organisation de la vie urbaine. Or, cette perspective consensuelle de l'environnement urbain soumis à un danger manifeste et réel annihile le moment véritablement politique et contribue à ce que de nombreux auteurs ont défini comme l'apparition et la consolidation d'une situation post‐politique et post‐démocratique. Traitant ce thème essentiel, l'article tente d'abord de conceptualiser et de recentrer le politique en tant que moment critique dans les processus politico‐écologiques urbains. Ensuite, il montrera que la mise en scène particulière du problème environnemental et de ses modes de gestion indique, et aide à consolider, un état post‐politique, dans lequel le véritablement politique est évacué du plan de l'immanence sous‐jacent à toute intervention politique. La consolidation d'une situation post‐politique urbaine se fait en parallèle à la formation d'un dispositif post‐démocratique qui a remplacé débat, désaccord et dissension par une panoplie de technologies gouvernementales gravitant autour de mesures de consensus, d'accord et de responsabilité, associées à une gestion technocratique de l'environnement. Une troisième partie soutient que cet ordre policé consensuel post‐politique se rapproche nettement du geste populiste. Toutefois, la disparition du politique d'un dispositif post‐politique laisse toutes sortes de traces permettant la réémergence du véritablement politique. Cet aspect est au cœur de la dernière partie. Pour conclure, le recentrage du politique est un préalable au traitement des questions de justice en matière d'environnement urbain et à la création d'assemblages urbains socio‐écologiques d'égaliberté.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Swyngedouw, 2009. "The Antinomies of the Postpolitical City: In Search of a Democratic Politics of Environmental Production," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 601-620, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:33:y:2009:i:3:p:601-620
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00859.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mustafa Dikeç, 2001. "Justice and the Spatial Imagination," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(10), pages 1785-1805, October.
    2. Margaret Canovan, 1999. "Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 47(1), pages 2-16, March.
    3. Karen Bickerstaff & Harriet Bulkeley & Joe Painter, 2009. "Justice, Nature and the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 591-600, September.
    4. Erik Swyngedouw, 2005. "Governance Innovation and the Citizen: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(11), pages 1991-2006, October.
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