Fighting with Tools: Prefiguration and Radical Politics in the Twenty-First Century

Sande, Mathijs van de

doi:10.1080/08935696.2015.1007791

Cited by 46 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Such resistance has not yet been acknowledged within the notion of connective action (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012), the dominant paradigm for analysing online activism. In this paper, we seek to extend understanding of online activism, using the lens of prefigurative politics (van de Sande, 2015). Through this lens we aim to explore how permissive spaces online, not yet in existence in the physical world, enable radical politics through Internet techno-culture, even if their activities are largely invisible to the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructive activism in the dark web: cryptomarkets and illicit drugs in the digital ‘demimonde’

Maddox

Barratt

Allen

et al. 2015

Information, Communication & Society

124

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructive activism in the dark web: cryptomarkets and illicit drugs in the digital ‘demimonde’

Maddox

Barratt

Allen

et al. 2015

Information, Communication & Society

124

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“…Prefiguration captures a particular understanding and approach to social change (Dinerstein ; Maeckelbergh ; Van de Sande ; Yates ). The concept was first used to describe the practices of the diverse social movements of the 1960s, and to capture the type of politics adopted by these movements.…”

Section: Prefiguration and Telosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productive Paradoxes: Exploring Prefigurative Practices with Derrida through a Spanish Food Sovereignty Collective

Gordon

2020

Antipode

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There has been a proliferation in the use of the concept of prefiguration to describe and understand many of the protest and social change movements of the past decade. However, there are key aspects of the concept that remain unexplored. In this paper I consider telos and justice, and unveil a temporal paradox arising from the thinking behind prefiguration. Rather than this temporal paradox of prefiguration being the undoing of the concept, it does in fact have the potential to be its strength. The purpose of this paper is to assert, by drawing on Derrida’s notion of the impossibility of justice, that the temporal paradox of prefiguration is not something to be resolved but instead is to be foregrounded and navigated. I use research from a food sovereignty collective in the north of Spain to offer an illustration of a prefigurative economic politics that embraces Derrida’s justice‐as‐an‐impossibility.

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“…There has been a noticeable upsurge of prefigurative action in this sense since the mid‐1990s. This has been manifest in the rise of the World Social Forum (Fominaya, ), Occupy Movement (Schneider, ; Van De Sande, ), various facets of the collection of uprisings and assertions known as “the Arab Spring” in North Africa and the Middle East (see Tadros, ). It is also evident in a wide variety of other forms of political assertion during recent years, including the squatters’ movements (Vasudevan, 2015b), environmental activism (Mason, ), community garden initiatives (Guerlin & Campbell, ), community‐based recovery groups (Beckwith et al., ), alternative economies (White & Williams, ) and internet‐based political struggle (Sancho, ).…”

Section: Prefigurative Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday prefiguration: Youth social action in north India

Dyson

Jeffrey

2018

Trans Inst British Geog

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There has been a recent resurgence of what is often termed “prefigurative politics”: activity in which people channel political effort into demonstrating in the present the types of social relations and practices sought at a future point in time. This paper engages with literature on prefigurative politics through reference to everyday forms of political and social action in the north Indian village of Bemni, Uttarakhand. We show that young people who migrated between urban centres and Bemni village played important roles as mentors, political activists and social helpers. They served as exemplars, seeking to alter the behaviour and attitudes of those around them at the everyday level. We make three key points on the geographies of this action. First, we diverge from most accounts of prefigurative politics in pointing to how such politics can be embedded in everyday life as well as unfolding within distinctive urban spaces, such as camps. Second, we highlight how migrants use their spatial knowledge and social skill to develop alliances, which, in turn, sustain prefigurative politics in the village, even as they move in and out of Bemni. Third, we demonstrate the significance among young people of a geographical narrative of “atmosphere” (mahaul) – and an associated notion that youth can change the mahaul through their practice. In making these points, we show that prefigurative politics can be a compelling conceptual touchstone, broad enough to address multiple geographical themes but focused enough on one idea – enacting goals in the process of struggle – to draw thinkers together and generate meaningful debate.

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Fighting with Tools: Prefiguration and Radical Politics in the Twenty-First Century

Cited by 46 publications

References 16 publications

Constructive activism in the dark web: cryptomarkets and illicit drugs in the digital ‘demimonde’

Constructive activism in the dark web: cryptomarkets and illicit drugs in the digital ‘demimonde’

Productive Paradoxes: Exploring Prefigurative Practices with Derrida through a Spanish Food Sovereignty Collective

Everyday prefiguration: Youth social action in north India

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