The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticization, Spectres of Radical Politics

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.

• Interrogates the theoretical literature on the post-political - its value and limits, its internal tensions and the possibility of creative syntheses with other approaches
• Critically engages with multiple dimensions of contemporary depoliticisation, including multiculturalism, philanthropy, ecology, participatory development, public-private partnerships and the regulation of biotechnology
• Assesses the emancipatory potential of anti-austerity protests, the Occupy movement and other political struggles in the context of continuing processes of post-politicisation

• 'Post-Politicisation and the Return of the Political' - read the blog post by Erik Swyngedouw and Japhy Wilson on the Edinburgh University Press blog
• Read and download the introduction for free (pdf)

Ingolfur Blühdorn, Reader in Politics/Political Sociology, University of Bath

Jodi Dean, Donald R. Harter '39 Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Bülent Diken, Reader in Sociology, Lancaster University

Hans-Martin Jaeger, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Carleton University in Ottawa

Maria Kaika, Professor of Human Geography, University of Manchester, and Editor, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Sangeeta Kamat, Associate Professor in the College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Lazaros Karaliotas, PhD candidate in Human Geography, University of Manchester

Wendy Larner, Professor of Human Geography and Sociology, University of Bristol

Alex Loftus, Senior Lecturer in Geography, King's College London

Andy Merrifield, writer, social theorist and urban geographer

Stijn Oosterlynck, Assistant Professor in Urban Sociology, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Mike Raco, Professor of Urban Governance and Development in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London

Larry Reynolds, Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow, Freie Universitat Berlin

Erik Swyngedouw, Professor of Geography, Manchester University

Bronislaw Szerszynski, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lancaster University

Nicolas Van Puymbroeck, a PhD candidate in Sociology, University of Antwerp

Japhy Wilson, Lecturer in International Political Economy, University of Manchester