An exploration of the post-politics of global capitalism in theory and practice

Our age is celebrated as the triumph of liberal democracy. Old ideological battles have been decisively resolved in favour of freedom and the market. We are told that we have moved 'beyond left and right'; that we are 'all in this together'. Any remaining differences are to be addressed through expert knowledge, consensual deliberation and participatory governance. Yet the 'end of history' has also been marked by widespread disillusion with mainstream politics and a rise in nationalist and religious fundamentalisms. And now an explosion of popular protests is challenging technocratic regulation and the power of markets in the name of democracy itself.

This collection makes sense of this situation by critically engaging with the influential theory of 'the post-political' developed by Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Rancière, Slavoj Zizek and others. Through a multi-dimensional and fiercely contested assessment of contemporary depoliticisation, The Post-Political and Its Discontents urges us to confront the closure of our political horizons and re-imagine the possibility of emancipatory change.

Japhy Wilson is Lecturer in International Political Economy at the University of Manchester. His research explores the intertwining of space, power and ideology in the politics of international development. He has published in academic journals in the the fields of political economy, human geography, and development studies. He is the author of Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid (Verso, 2014).

Erik Swyngedouw is Professor of Geography at Manchester University. His research interests include critical theory, political-ecology, urban governance, democracy and political power, and the politics of globalisation. His was previously professor of geography at Oxford University (until 2006) and held the Vincent Wright Visiting Professorship in Political Science at Science Po, Paris, 2014. He is author of a forthcoming book on Water, Social Power and Modernity in Spain, 1898--2010 (MIT Press 2014).

List of Contributors

Introduction: Seeds of Dystopia: Post-Politics and the Return of the Political
Japhy Wilson and Erik Swyngedouw

Part I: Spaces of Depoliticisation

1. The Post-Politics of Sustainability Planning: Privatisation and the Demise of Democratic Government
Mike Raco

2. The Post-Political and the End of Nature: The Case of Agricultural Biotechnology
Larry Reynolds and Bronislaw Szerszynski

3. The New Development Architecture and the Post-Political in the Global South
Sangeeta Kamat

4. Opening Up the Post-Political Condition: Multiculturalism and the Matrix of Depoliticisation
Nicolas Van Puymbroeck and Stijn Oosterlynck

5. The Jouissance of Philanthrocapitalism: Enjoyment as a Post-Political Factor
Japhy Wilson

6. Religious Antinomies of Post-Politics
Bülent Diken

7. Post-Ecologist Governmentality: Post-Democracy, Post-Politics and the Politics of Unsustainability
Ingolfur Blühdorn

Part II: Spectres of Radical Politics

8. Insurgent Architects, Radical Cities and the Promise of the Political
Erik Swyngedouw

9. The Limits of Post-Politics: Rethinking Radical Social Enterprise
Wendy Larner

10. Neither Cosmopolitanism nor Multipolarity: The Political Beyond Global Governmentality
Hans-Martin Jaeger

11. Against a Speculative Leftism
Alex Loftus

12. The Spatialisation of Democratic Politics: Insights from Indignant Squares
Maria Kaika and Lazaros Karaliotas

13. After Post-Politics: Occupation and the Return of Communism
Jodi Dean

14. The Enigma of Revolt: Militant Politics in a 'Post-Political' Age
Andy Merrifield

Conclusion: There Is No Alternative
Erik Swyngedouw and Japhy Wilson

Index