Prefiguring the State

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Citations (Scopus)
138 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Merging means and ends, prefigurative politics perform life as it is wished-for, 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, national and global formations. Plural state thinking makes room for divergent kinds of states but does not necessarily foreground progressive ones. Thus, to explore in more detail a transformative left conception of the state, discussion turns to 1980s British municipal radicalism. Taking up this adventurous episode in governing as a “thinking tool”, an imaginary of the state as horizontal, everyday, activist and stewardly emerges.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)335-356
JournalAntipode: a radical journal of geography
Volume49
Issue number2
Early online date31 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Feb 2017

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Prefiguring the State'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this