What follows is the edited and footnoted transcript of a conversation between Doreen Massey, recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from University of Glasgow in July 2009, and the Human Geography Research Group in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, to mark this occasion. Themes explored include Doreen Massey's early work and influences ranging from geology to Marxism and feminism; recent political engagements in Venezuela; the politics of place beyond place; climate change and transnational solidarities; and 'being' political and an academic in the current conjuncture.
Resilience has been criticised in many fields for focussing on attempts to bounce back or maintain the status quo following a disturbance. Such conceptualisations can uphold the hegemony of discourses of stability and are potentially unhelpful to groups seeking to achieve radical change. Despite this, the concept is fast subsuming sustainability as the latest catchphrase for community organisations wishing to address social and environmental injustices. Grass-roots groups are mobilising activism to shape this interpretation through post-capitalist visions -creating alternatives to dominant capitalist narratives in the present. This paper will discuss the expression of such radical notions of resilience through exploring how activism intersects with experiences of disaster. Through the case study of Project Lyttelton, a community organisation at the epicentre of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake in Aotearoa, New Zealand, this research examines the potential for a radical notion of resilience to challenge hegemonic understandings of everyday capitalist life. By exploring this tension between resilience and post-capitalist activism, this paper contributes to an emerging area of critique through articulating a more nuanced understanding of the radical potential for what is often expressed as an inherently non-radical concept.
The challenges to public participation in planning are numerous. Inclusive and equitable processes are recognised as an ideal in much planning theory and practice, yet this ideal is increasingly difficult to realise in today's societies that comprise diverse and multiple publics. Within the wider sustainability debate, 'New Urbanism' has emerged as a pragmatic alternative to conventional low-density development. Concomitant with a range of prescribed physical outcomes, the New Urbanism movement advocates a process of 'citizen-based participatory planning and design'. Charrettes, with urban design workshops, are the favoured tools for achieving this goal. However, it is argued that the adherence to a single type of participatory tool can be inconsistent with accepted ideals of participation processes and has several implications. Of particular concern is the role of the charrette planner or facilitator, a figure who has the potential to manipulate the public because of his/her inevitable allegiance to the New Urban agenda. In addition, the examination of a charrette process in a small New Zealand town raises several broader questions about the ability of the approach to address issues of inclusiveness and the recognition of difference, two fundamental elements of good participatory processes.
Theories of urban democracy that are relevant, critical and take sufficient account of the pervasiveness of power continue to pose challenges. Two theoretical frameworks dominate in relation to planning and democracy -Habermasian-inspired communicative planning theory and Mouffe's agonistic pluralism. Both theoretical frames are typically held to be incommensurable because of fundamental ontological and epistemological differences and the debate between proponents of each tends to be polemic. Both theories have complementary strengths and weaknesses in terms of the insights they are capable of providing. Moreover, the realities of urban governance situations often display characteristics that can be explained in terms of both theoretical framings. This article negotiates a path beyond the polemic debate. It problematizes both theoretical frameworks and negotiates a way forward for planning theory that co-opts the principles of one into a theoretical framework that assumes the ontological position of the other. In so doing the article proposes a two-pronged approach that provides a critical, adaptive and reflexive approach to inquiring into spaces of urban democracy.
Radical democrats and geographers have argued that democracy requires a vibrant contestatory politics to challenge the contemporary "post-political" conjuncture. Despite suggestions of post-political processes in Aotearoa New Zealand, there are signs of a more vibrant politics. In 2010 an environmental campaign called "2Precious2Mine" captured the national geographic imaginary. Drawing on this example, we argue that although a space was opened for a vibrant contestatory politics, its effects were paradoxical. The campaign both reinforced the hegemonic narratives of neoliberal (post)colonial Aotearoa New Zealand, and simultaneously produced moments that challenged this apparent post-politicising trajectory. While we argue that such frameworks are useful, there is a risk that without cognisance of the situated nature of politics and closure, they both lose their political and academic explanatory purchase. Post-politics becomes at risk of constructing that which it seeks to describe, while radical democracy ends up falling short of its aims.
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