Situated responses to the post‐political city: An introduction

It seems with the ever more complex instituting of aggressive neoliberal renewal policies comes an intensified effort to use the language of consensus and civic unity. The post‐political debate frames this discussion, and it is from this perspective that we propose a fuller consideration of urban renewal policy, and how these forces are embedded within the narrowing of what has been called the “properly political”. In bringing together accounts of the dynamic political life of communities and groups of interest who are confronting urban renewal policy in Glasgow, we make a case for recognising an intensification of political articulation, position‐taking and action. This recognition comes in response to the argument that we are currently experiencing a post‐political consensus and that democracy has been annulled in the process. We see evidence of a Polanyian “double movement” in which the construction of consensual publics is such a marked characteristic across different accounts, and how this appears to have opened up new critical spaces of debate and action within the various communities of interest. We therefore openly question the post‐political as a condition, or a process, which seemingly unfolds unimpeded. We fear that “post‐political” runs the risk of becoming a citational practice, that through repetition of the term, a narrowing of political articulation and action within the debate starts to occur. Our case studies aim to highlight the blind spots of the post‐political debate by focusing on the actually existing spaces of political articulation and position‐taking apparent in Glasgow.