What Is Radical Politics Today?

What is Radical Politics Today?

‘This is a bold, brave and timely book. As we emerge, blinking into the light after three decades of neo-liberal darkness, Jonathan Pugh has put together a collection of essays that will provoke and provide clues to the question of what comes next; what indeed is radical politics today?’ Neal Lawson (Chair, Compass)

‘Jonathan Pugh gathers some of the most innovative and insightful voices from Britain and beyond to stage a series of debates on the central issues facing radical politics today. This collection is a model for the kinds of discussion we need to move forward.’ Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth

‘At a time when all ideologies are either exhausted or have become irrelevant, the need for a truly radical politics can hardly be exaggerated. Radical politics is about rethinking the common sense, the taken for granted assumptions, of the age. This timely and well-planned collection of essays by distinguished and concerned scholars throws much new light on where we should be looking for new ideas. It represents a major contribution to the ongoing debate on the problems of our times.’ Lord Bhikhu Parekh

‘In the present moment of rapid and fundamental political and economic change we need sustained critical discussion of the kinds of alternative politics available to us. In What is Radical Politics Today? leading political theorists initiate this timely discussion by addressing both possibilities and obstacles from a wide range of perspectives.’ James Tully (University of Victoria)

‘As the most immediate effects of a global economic and financial crisis seem to be ebbing from our consciousness, the authors in this collection reaffirm the urgent need for a different kind of politics. One after the other they draw a picture of a world ill at ease with itself: addicted to consumption yet unjust in its rewards; obsessed with the idea of the global at the expense of an engagement with the real; aware yet narcissistic. Helpless with fear, paternalism and debt. But the book is, above all, in the words of one contributor “a challenge to fatalism”. The chapters sketch out a radical politics for the 21st century based on the rediscovery of our human powers to invent and adapt – a rebuilding of the state’s management and redistributive capacities, a revaluing of autonomous behaviour and critical judgement, the prioritising of a “social planet” over a “social state” and even, a repudiation of near-sacrosanct institutions. No doubt some injunctions will rile, but though this book may fail to comfort, it will not fail to challenge or provoke.’ Catherine Fieschi (Director, Counterpoint, The Think Tank of the British Council) ‘With impeccable timing, this volume provides a stimulating range of perspectives on what radical politics can offer during this period of crisis and change. It deserves to be widely read and debated.’ Ruth Lister (Loughborough University)

‘There’s a world to win, but only if the Left is possessed of bright ideas, inspiring aspirations and brilliant strategies. This book – rich in insight – assembles some of our leading thinkers to consider what sort of Left can unlock the progressive potential contained in this moment of early 21st-century crisis. Has the main- stream Left conceded far too much to the liberals and conservatives this last 30 years? If so, what sort of Left can win hearts and minds in this moment of crisis? The answers to these important questions are the stuff of this excellent book.’ Noel Castree (Manchester University)

‘The current era presents a mixed picture for the possibility of radical politics. Old radical solutions are failing, the Left is on the retreat in many countries and regions, and urgent global problems, from financial market regulation to climate change threaten to disrupt and disorganise progressive coalitions. On the other side, the Western economic and political consensus of the last 30 years is in dis- array. In this context, the task of renewing the nature and form of radical politics is both pressing and demanding. This new book is a welcome step in the right direction.’ David Held (London School of Economics)

‘This is a wonderfully salutary and visionary collection of widely different opinions on how we can think about our world in these “interesting” times.’ Emily Young (Sculptor, and of Penguin Café Orchestra)

‘Like an exploding star, the radical Left in the UK has disintegrated and its frag- ments have flown off in all directions. People who once thought they were engaged in a common project can no longer agree about where they are going, let alone how they should get there. If you feel radical but confused read these essays. They may make you even more confused, but they may also help you decide where to go next.’ Bob Rowthorn (Cambridge University)

‘With the aim of understanding the forces and boundaries of a genuinely radical politics, this volume begins to interrogate the models, figures and reach of the structureless moment that currently commands political tropology and life.’ Avital Ronell (New York University)

‘If you are looking for a rich diversity of views and fierce arguments about radical politics today, then this is the book for you!’ Achin Vanaik (Delhi University)

‘Timely, engaging and bold. This book provides intellectual, moral and political challenge for any reader on a question which urgently needs lucid answers: what is it to be radical today?’ Tom Bentley (Policy Director for Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister) What is Radical Politics Today?

Edited by

Jonathan Pugh

Senior Academic Fellow in Territorial Governance Newcastle University, UK © Editorial matter, selection and introduction © Jonathan Pugh 2009 Individual chapters © contributors 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-25114-4

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identiﬁed as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-23626-4 ISBN 978-0-230-25114-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230251144 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Contents

List of Figures viii Acknowledgements ix Notes on Contributors xi

What is Radical Politics Today? 1 Jonathan Pugh

Part I: Grand Visions 15

1 Getting to the Roots of Radical Politics Today 17 Zygmunt Bauman

2 What Happened to Radical Humanism? 27 Frank Furedi

3 Victim of Success: Green Politics Today 36 Paul Kingsnorth

4 Radicalism Against the Masses 45 James Heartfield

5 Moving Targets and Political Judgements 52 Terrell Carver

6 The Forces Shaping Radical Politics Today 59 Clare Short

7 Resistance after the Spatial Turn 69 Edward W. Soja

Part II: New Forms of Radical Politics 75

8 Questioning Global Political Activism 77 David Chandler

v vi Contents

9 Rethinking Political Organisation 85 Hilary Wainwright

10 Iraq, Trauma and Dissent in Visual Culture 92 Dora Apel

11 Radicalism, Writ Large and Small 103 Michael J. Watts

12 Continuing the Struggle in Hard Times 112 Jason Toynbee

13 A Politics of Commitment 120 James Martin

14 Beyond Gesture, Beyond Pragmatism 127 Jeremy Gilbert and Jo Littler

15 Invention and Hard Work 136 Doreen Massey

Part III: Diversity and Difference 143

16 Progressivism Reinvigorated 145 Gregor McLennan

17 In Defence of Multicultural Citizenship 153 Tariq Modood

18 New Left and Old Far Right: Tolerating the Intolerable 162 Nick Cohen

19 Clashing the Civilisations 170 Amir Saeed and David Bates

20 Radicalism is Nostalgia 179 Alastair Bonnett

21 Universal Conditions: Modern Childhood 188 Ken Worpole

22 A New Politics of Innovation 196 Sheila Jasanoff Contents vii

23 Universities are Radical 204 Nigel Thrift

24 Radical Politics After the Crisis 213 Will Hutton

Part IV: The Role of the State 221

25 Anarchism 223 Saul Newman

26 The Importance of Engaging the State 230 Chantal Mouffe

27 Common-sense Beyond the Neo-liberal State 238 David Featherstone

28 Democracy, the State and Capitalism Today 247 Alejandro Colás and Jason Edwards

29 Tackling the Supplicant State 256 David Boyle

30 The Potential for a Progressive State? 263 Saskia Sassen

Index 272 List of Figures

2.1 Humanist and vulnerability paradigms 33 10.1 Invasion, 2008, Photomontage, 77.2 by 137.2 cm, by Martha Rosler. Reproduced with permission from Martha Rosler (Photo: Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery) 94 10.2 Veteran Vehicle Project, Denver, August 2008, by Krzysztof Wodiczko. Reproduced with permission from Krzysztof Wodiczko (Photo: Krzysztof Wodiczko) 96 10.3 Iraq Veterans Against the War: Operation First Casualty, New York City, 27 May 2007, by Lovella Calica. Reproduced with permission from Lovella Calica (Photo: Lovella Calica) 100

viii Acknowledgements

We are at a watershed moment in the history of radical politics. Given that radicals have not produced a clear alternative to the present crisis in neo-liberalism, the question arises: what is radical politics today? What is the nature of contemporary radical politics? Is it effective; if so, how? The idea for a survey into the character and spirit of radical politics in our times first came to me while in a debate with Tony Benn, Hilary Wain- wright, David Chandler and Bernard Crick, in London, August 2007. We were discussing the many different ways in which Left-wing radical politics takes place in the twenty-first century. As the global economic crisis was to unfold only a few months later, and a clear alternative to the sta- tus quo was not forthcoming from the radical Left and progressives, the need for this survey became even more apparent. Many people have made this book possible. My sincere gratitude firstly goes to the contributors. All leaders in their fields, they represent a formidable range of often conflicting perspectives on the spirit of contemporary radical politics. Thanks to all of you for putting up with my regular emails, as I tried to coordinate the project. I hope you like the final product.1 Thanks to Alison Howson, commissioning editor from Palgrave Macmillan, for her vision and continuous attention to detail; for read- ing each chapter, often a number of times. Gemma d’Arcy Hughes from Palgrave Macmillan is also to be thanked for taking the project to completion, making the whole process run smoothly, and I am also grateful to Jo North for her outstanding editorial work on the book as a whole. Alex Suermondt, from ‘questioncreative.co.uk’, has produced a great cover, illustrating how this book is aimed at both public and student audiences. Thanks to Alastair Bonnett, Andy Gillespie, Steve Juggins and Helen Jarvis for inviting me into the creative atmosphere of the School of Geog- raphy, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University. To Chantal Mouffe, Doreen Massey, Grant and Erin Henderson, David Chandler, Ben Allen, Nick Megoran, Deborah Thien, Steve Aggett, Yvonne Pugh, Alex Hall, Simon and Georgie McCann for their friendship and support throughout the two years it took to produce this book. Thanks also to the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the Barry Amiel and Melburn Trust, Newcastle University and

ix x Acknowledgements

The Great Debate for their financial support of some of the many public debates which also helped shape this book. Finally to Zoe, Mum and Dad, for their help in this and every project I undertake. Since the completion of this book, I have launched an ongoing survey of radical politics today. This is via a free, online, multi-media magazine, entitled Radical Politics Today. It can be found on ‘The Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space’ international network website (see http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org). If you are interested, please feel free to email me ([email protected]).

Note 1. In the interest of stimulating debate about the radical Left, I have sought to open up the question What is radical politics today? The views expressed in this volume of contrasting opinions are therefore not necessarily my own. Notes on Contributors

Dora Apel is Associate Professor and W. Hawkins Ferry Chair of Mod- ern and Contemporary Art History at Wayne State University. She is the author of Memory Effects: the Holocaust and the Art of Secondary Witnessing; Imagery of Lynching: Black Men, White Women, and the Mob; and Lynching Photographs (with Shawn Michelle Smith). David Bates is a PhD student at the University of Sunderland, writing a thesis on Multiculturalism and Asylum Policy. Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds. His forthcoming publication is Living on Borrowed Time: Conver- sations with Citlali Rovirosa Madrazo (Polity Press). Alastair Bonnett is Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle Univer- sity. He is the author of a number of books on anti-racism, whiteness and ideas of the West. His next book, Left in the Past: Radicalism and Nostalgia, will be published by Continuum. David Boyle is a Fellow of the New Economics Foundation and the author of a number of books about history and the future, including The Tyranny of Numbers and Authenticity. He is the founder of London Time Bank and has stood for Parliament as a Liberal Democrat. Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol, UK. He has published extensively on Marx, Engels and Marxism, and sex, gender and sexuality, and his latest books include The Postmodern Marx (1998) and Men in Political Theory (2004). He is also co-general editor of Rowman & Littlefield’s book series Globalisation. David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the Univer- sity of Westminster and founding editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. His recent books include: Hollow Hegemony: Rethink- ing Global Politics, Power and Resistance (Pluto, 2009); Empire in Denial: the Politics of State-building (Pluto, 2006) and Constructing Global Civil Society: Morality and Power in International Relations (Palgrave, 2004). http://www.davidchandler.org. Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. He presently writes mainly for The Observer, London Evening Standard and Daily Mail; and previously for the New Statesman. Since May 2008 he has been the television critic for Standpoint magazine. Cohen has written

xi xii Notes on Contibutors four books, including What’s Left? (HarperPerennial, 2007), and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Alejandro Colás teaches international relations at the School of Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, University of London. He is author of Empire (Polity, 2007) and International Civil Society: Social Movements and World Politics (Polity, 2002), and is on the editorial board of the journal Historical Materialism. Jason Edwards is Lecturer in Politics in the School of Politics and Sociol- ogy, Birkbeck College, London. His research focuses on both the history of political thought and issues in contemporary political and social theory, including problems with current ideas about radical democracy. He is author of The Radical Attitude and Modern Political Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). David Featherstone is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Glasgow. His research interests include transnational political activism, geographies of resistance, subaltern political ecologies and the relations between space and politics. He is the author of Resistance, Space and Political Identities: the Making of Counter-Global Networks (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury. In recent years his work was devoted to an exploration of the workings of the culture of fear. He is now engaged in a study of the relations between changing ideas of authority and the meaning of subjectivity. Jeremy Gilbert is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of East London. He has written widely on music, politics and cultural theory, and is author of Anticapitalism and Culture (Berg, 2008). He is one of the editors of New Formations. James Heartfield has written widely on environmental movements and architecture in The Times Higher Education Supplement, Spiked Online, Blueprint, the Telegraph, The Times, the Architects’ Journal, Art Review, Review of Radical Political Economy and Cultural Trends. In May 2006, with Julia Svetlichnaja he interviewed the Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko. The interviews were only published after Litvinenko’s death. Will Hutton is former editor-in-chief of The Observer and currently Chief Executive of The Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society). In 1992, he won the What The Papers Say award for Political Journalist of the Year. He has authored many books including The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner or Face It as an Enemy (2006) Notes on Contibutors xiii and The State We’re In: Why Britain is in Crisis and How to Overcome It (1995). Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She previously founded and chaired the Department of Science and Tech- nology Studies at Cornell University and has held visiting positions at MIT, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford and Kyoto universities and the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. She has written widely on the role of science and technology in modern democratic societies. Paul Kingsnorth is the author of One No, Many Yeses, and Real England. He was deputy editor of The Ecologist from 1999 to 2001 and writes widely on environmental politics and related issues. His website is http://www.paulkingsnorth.net. Jo Littler is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Middlesex University. She is author of Radical Consumption: Shopping for Change in Contemporary Culture (Open University Press, 2009) and co-editor, with Roshi Naidoo, of The Politics of Heritage: the Legacies of ‘Race’ (Routledge, 2005). She is currently writing a book about celebrity. James Martin teaches political theory at Goldsmiths, University of London and is co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Media and Democracy. He has published research on Italian political thought and contemporary radical political theory. He is currently writing a book on politics and rhetoric. Doreen Massey is Professor of Geography at the Open University and joint founder of Soundings: a journal of politics and culture. Her most recent books are For Space (Polity, 2005) and World City (Polity, 2007). Gregor McLennan is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol. He has written widely on Marxism, pluralism, ideology, sociology and politics. He is currently engaged on a book-length treatment of ‘post- secularism’ in social and political theory. Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizen- ship at the University of Bristol. He is a regular contributor to the media and to policy debates in Britain. His most recent books are Multicultural- ism: a Civic Idea (Polity, 2007) and, as co-editor, Secularism, Religion and Multicultural Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Chantal Mouffe is Professor of Political Theory at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. She co-authored Hege- mony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Democratic Politics (Verso, 1985) xiv Notes on Contibutors with Ernesto Laclau, and sole authored other books, including The Democratic Paradox (Verso, 2000) and On the Political (Routledge, 2005). She has taught at Harvard, Princeton and the Collège International de Philosophie (Paris). Saul Newman is a Reader in Political Theory at Goldsmiths University of London. He is the author of a number of books on radical political theory, including: From Bakunin to Lacan (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), Power and Politics in Poststructuralist Thought (Routledge, 2005), Unstable Universalities (Manchester University Press, 2007), Politics Most Unusual (Palgrave, 2008) and The Politics of Postanarchism (forthcoming Edinburgh University Press, 2009). Jonathan Pugh is Senior Academic Fellow, Newcastle University. He is founding director of ‘The Spaces of Democracy and the Democ- racy of Space’ network. He has written some forty articles on radical politics, and in 2009 founded Radical Politics Today magazine (http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org). Amir Saeed is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland. His interests are in ‘race’ and racism. Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, is the author of The Global City (2nd edn, Princeton, 2001), Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton, 2008) and A Sociology of Globalisation (Norton, 2007), among others. Her website is http://www.columbia.edu/∼sjs2/. Clare Short (Member of Parliament) is a member of the British Labour Party. She is currently the Independent Member of Parliament for Birm- ingham Ladywood, having been elected as a Labour Party MP in 1983, and was Secretary of State for International Development in the UK Labour government from 3 May 1997 until her resignation on 12 May 2003. Edward W. Soja is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning at the Uni- versity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has written a series of books promoting an assertive spatial perspective, including Postmodern Geogra- phies (1989), Thirdspace (1996) and Postmetropolis (2000). He is currently completing a book to be published by the University of Minnesota Press on Seeking Spatial Justice. Jason Toynbee is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the Open Univer- sity. His most recent books include Bob Marley: Herald of a Postcolonial World? and The Media and Social Theory (with David Hesmondhalgh). A member of the Socialist Party, Jason has campaigned, among other things, against privatisation of public services and the invasion of Gaza. Notes on Contibutors xv

Nigel Thrift is Vice Chancellor, Warwick University. Co-author, author or co-editor of over 35 books, he is credited with coining the phrase ‘soft modernity’ and coming up with ‘non-representational theory’. Nigel has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal, and is a Fellow of the British Academy. Hilary Wainwright is co-editor of Red Pepper, Research Director of the New Politics Programme of the Transnational Institute, and Senior Research Associate at the International Centre for Participation Stud- ies. Her most recent books are Public Service Reform But Not As We Know It! (UNISON and Compass, 2009) and the paperback update of Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy (Seagull, 2009). Her books also include Arguments For a New Left: Answering the Free Market Right (Blackwell, 1994). Michael J. Watts is Class of 63 Professor of Geography, and Chair of Development Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as the Director of the Institute of International Studies from 1994–2004. The author of eight books and over 100 articles, he was awarded the Victoria Medal by the Royal Geographical Society in 2004. Ken Worpole is the author of a number of books on architecture, land- scape and public policy. He is Senior Professor at The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University. Ken has lived in Hackney, east Lon- don, for the past forty years and is married to the photographer, Larraine Worpole (http://www.worpole.net).