Abstract:Merging means and ends, prefigurative politics perform life as it is wishedfor, both to experience better practice and to advance change. This paper contributes to prefigurative thinking in three ways. It explores what it might mean to prefigure the state as a concept; takes its inspiration from a historical episode rather than imagined time ahead; and addresses what, if anything, prefigurative conceptions can do when practiced. Central to my discussion is the plural state-taking shape as micro, city, regional… Show more
“…On the contrary, they have begun to develop practices and theoretical perspectives that consider what can be done to the local state—or rather, what can be done to the municipality more broadly—to position it is as entry point for the development of a truly prefigurative and transformative social movement. Whilst we must be careful not to make hasty equations between different historical experiences, this resonates closely with Davina Cooper's (:351) interpretation of parts of the British Municipal Socialism in the 1980s providing:a productive ground from which to think about what statehood (or political governance formations) could entail; how we might imagine states taking shape in plural overlapping networks that foreground public responsibility, social justice, embeddedness, participation, stewardship, activism and creativity.…”
Section: Municipalism Beyond the Local Trapmentioning
The Fearless Cities summit, coordinated by Barcelona en Comú in June 2017, marked the first global gathering of the nascent “new municipalist” movement. Responding to the “imperative that geographers engage critically and creatively with the way localism is being articulated”, this paper argues that the new municipalist initiatives are developing urban political strategies that successfully avoid the Local Trap. Rather than essentialising cities as inherently progressive or democratic, the municipal is instead becoming framed as a “strategic front” for developing a transformative politics of scale. Given this critical awareness, this nascent movement demonstrates how local loyalties can be mobilised as part of a progressive scalar strategy without falling into the trap of a “particular localism”. What remains to be seen is whether these initiatives are able to develop a variegated scalar strategy of transformation that retains the democratic essence that underpins them.
“…On the contrary, they have begun to develop practices and theoretical perspectives that consider what can be done to the local state—or rather, what can be done to the municipality more broadly—to position it is as entry point for the development of a truly prefigurative and transformative social movement. Whilst we must be careful not to make hasty equations between different historical experiences, this resonates closely with Davina Cooper's (:351) interpretation of parts of the British Municipal Socialism in the 1980s providing:a productive ground from which to think about what statehood (or political governance formations) could entail; how we might imagine states taking shape in plural overlapping networks that foreground public responsibility, social justice, embeddedness, participation, stewardship, activism and creativity.…”
Section: Municipalism Beyond the Local Trapmentioning
The Fearless Cities summit, coordinated by Barcelona en Comú in June 2017, marked the first global gathering of the nascent “new municipalist” movement. Responding to the “imperative that geographers engage critically and creatively with the way localism is being articulated”, this paper argues that the new municipalist initiatives are developing urban political strategies that successfully avoid the Local Trap. Rather than essentialising cities as inherently progressive or democratic, the municipal is instead becoming framed as a “strategic front” for developing a transformative politics of scale. Given this critical awareness, this nascent movement demonstrates how local loyalties can be mobilised as part of a progressive scalar strategy without falling into the trap of a “particular localism”. What remains to be seen is whether these initiatives are able to develop a variegated scalar strategy of transformation that retains the democratic essence that underpins them.
“…The “ends‐effacing” practice “brings into focus the temporal concerns of prefigurative politics” and highlights the dangers of overly determined and fixed political goals. Cooper (:336), in her paper entitled “Prefiguring the state”, asks the question: “from where do we find our ‘ends’?” She argues that it is the “prefigurative writers who talk about putting future goals, aims and values into practice get closer to the question”. Cooper directly engages the notion of a future in order to imagine, experiment and prefigure more democratic and just configurations of the state.…”
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.
“…64 Like any possible future effort at promoting Anglo-German socio-legal community, the Collective can be framed as a "prefigurative" endeavor, in the sense that its participants seek to "perform present-day life in the terms that are wished-for," both in order "to experience a better" present, and "to advance" future change". 65 Returning to the normative agenda outlined above, we can see that for the IEL Collective collaboratively to protect and promote the "wellbeing" of international economic law as a "practical idea" requires unified-yet-diverse thinking. It is only by bringing diverse conceptual frames, empirical examples, and normative agendas into the same space that we can really respect, understand, and use them in practical, critical, and imaginative ways.…”
Section: Making Anglo-german Socio-legal Research Community?mentioning
This Article looks for signs of Anglo-German life in the literature and practice under-pinning the current move to use “designerly ways” in socio-legal research; and asks whether design has a role to play in nurturing a sense of Anglo-German socio-legal community. It argues that a “sociological imagination” is essential if we are to fully understand possible synergies between design and socio-legal research, and the risks and rewards of activating them; and that while we cannot know what socio-legal research will or ought to look like in the coming months and years we must pay more attention to designing those moments that we are lucky enough to share in person.
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