An Arendtian geopolitics: Action, power and the deferral of work

Abstract

This article conceptualises a mode of geopolitical ‘action’ based on the writings of Hannah Arendt. It does so to issue challenges to a hegemonic ‘artificial’ geopolitics characterised by the logics of ‘work’, and the material relations mistrusted by Arendt, which has marginalised ‘action’ as a basis for politics. While recognising that action and work are entwined, we draw attention to action-based geopolitical alternatives and the possibilities for new geopolitical publics to emerge which may defend speech, deeds and the places of human lives against the depredations of a geopolitics steeped in the material.