Reconceptualizing Resistance: Residuals of the State and Democratic Radical Pluralism

Abstract

Arguing that resistance to the state is too narrow a conceptualization of a political project that challenges neoliberalism, we posit that there are latent, residual apparatuses of the state which can be activated as part of a systematic progressive politics. We examine Massachusetts’“Dover amendment”, a legal framework which governs group home siting throughout the state. Dover offers a powerful tool with which to resist a neoliberal socio‐spatial agenda, though it has been underutilized toward enabling an alternative landscape. We analyze how and why Dover has often remained latent as a tool for socio‐spatial resistance, and consider a provocative case in Framingham, Massachusetts that suggests how residual state apparatuses may be leveraged in support of an explicitly resistive, progressive agenda.

Mobilizing drug consumption rooms: inter-place networks and harm reduction drug policy

“…Similarly, health geographers have been attuned to critical engagement with landscapes of health and wellbeing for some time (Brown, 2009;Curtis et al, 2010;Kearns, 1993;Keil andAli, 2008, Martin andPierce, 2013;Mayer and Meade, 1994;Parr, 2008;Williamson, 2004). Much of this work focuses on health outcomes, but recently there has been a call to look at the social and structural processes that make up the landscapes of health and well-being and that shape health outcomes.…”

Planning for empowerment: Upending the traditional approach to planning for affordable housing in the face of gentrification

“…Community development funding often went directly to community organizations in minority and low-income communities, which helped build a cohort of grass roots leaders (gittel & Vidal, 1998;Peterman, 2000;Twelvetrees, 1989). Martin and Pierce (2013) argue that these types of policies -as well as local policy around housing and land use -are residuals of anti-hegemonic political landscapes and offer continued conditions for resistance. In this paradigm, the state plays the role of creating the conditions for meaningful rights through the institutionalization of rights.…”

“…They have interacted in a way that has led to policies and practices that represent an anti-hegemonic state agenda (Martin & Pierce, 2013) and transgressive grassroots action (Cresswell, 1996). In other cities, political regimes or political machines directed the function and spending within local government and in the neighborhoods (Stone, 1989).…”

“This is how I want to live my life”: An Experiment in Prefigurative Feminist Organizing for a More Equitable and Inclusive City

“…The complexities of states, even heavily‐scored neoliberal ones, offer opportunities for intervention “to destabilize existing logics and advocate for alternatives” (Purcell :3). As some analysts have noted (Martin and Pierce ), resources for challenging neoliberalization and other undemocratic tendencies can be present within the multifaceted nature of the state itself. McGuirk and O'Neill (:1377) identify states as “resolutely hybrid and multilayered, resistant to a common, singular rationality, driven by diverse ideologies, and holding on to multiple political projects and motivations mobilized simultaneously”.…”

“…Those who advocate for political engagement with the state recognize the challenge of avoiding co‐optation (Bondi and Laurie 205:398; Purcell :171; Martin and Pierce :75; McGuirk and O'Neill :1387). Those who “refuse to see co‐optation as a necessary condition of consorting with power” (Gibson‐Graham :xxvi; see also Menon :160) are motivated to reflect further on how to maintain a critical and principled stance in circumstances which inevitably require compromise and are likely to include some pressure to collude, as well as unanticipated problems, unintended consequences and undesired outcomes.…”