Time and the spatial post-politics of climate change: Insights from Australia

Williams, Stewart; Booth, Kate

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2013.07.001

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This connection has been made most forcefully by those examining the nature of the post‐political as a condition in which capitalism is naturalised as ‘the unquestioned horizon of our political possibilities’ (Swyngdeouw and Wilson , 302), with neoliberalism positioned as a pervasive symptom of such a naturalisation. This frame of analysis has been utilised to address a broad range of issues, from planning and urban policy to sustainability and climate change (Allmendinger and Haughton ; MacLeod ; Swyngedouw ; Williams and Booth ). While post‐politics is associated with a radical foreclosure of political possibility (Žižek ), it has been argued to represent only one form of depoliticisation (Gill et al .…”

Section: Neoliberalism and Depoliticisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privatising asylum: neoliberalisation, depoliticisation and the governance of forced migration

Darling

2016

Trans Inst British Geog

104

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This paper critically examines the political geography of asylum accommodation in the UK, arguing that in the regulation of housing and support services we witness the depoliticisation of asylum. In 2010, the UK Home Office announced that it would be passing contracts to provide accommodation and reception services for asylum seekers to a series of private providers, meaning the end of local authority control over asylum housing. This paper explores the impact of this shift and argues that the result is the production of an asylum market, in which neoliberal norms of market competition, economic efficiency and dispersed responsibility are central. In drawing on interviews with local authorities, politicians and asylum support services in four cities, the paper argues that the privatisation of accommodation has seen the emergence of new assemblages of authority, policy and governance. When combined with a market-oriented transfer of responsibilities, depoliticisation acts to constrain the possibilities of political debate and to predetermine the contours of those policy discussions that do take place. In making this case, the paper challenges the closures of work on post-politics, and argues for an exploration of the situated modalities of practice through which forms of depoliticisation interact with, and are constituted by, processes of neoliberalisation. In this context, the framing of asylum seekers as a 'burden' emerges as a discursive and symbolic achievement of the neoliberal politics of asylum accommodation. Framing asylum seekers as a burden represents both a move to position asylum as a specific and managerial issue, and at the same time reiterates an economic account of asylum as a question of resource allocation, cost and productivity.Key words UK; asylum; neoliberalisation; depoliticisation; post-politics; interviews Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL Email: jonathan.darling@manchester.ac.uk Revised manuscript received 6 January 2016 one of the reasons we have that model is that the providers we use are experienced in operating in the asylum-seeking market.

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Section: Neoliberalism and Depoliticisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privatising asylum: neoliberalisation, depoliticisation and the governance of forced migration

Darling

2016

Trans Inst British Geog

104

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“…However, inconstancy and uncertainty have characterised national governance efforts. Fractious climate politics have witnessed environment and economy pitted against each other, with positions on climate policy divided along major party lines (Curran, 2009;Williams & Booth, 2013;M c Guirk et al, 2014b). Despite federal and state government reluctance to recognise local government as legitimate partners in climate governance or to align climate policy with city development issues (Jones, 2012;Storey et al, 2012), the federal policy vacuum has been filled by a profusion of state and local government policy responses and climate initiatives.…”

Section: Local Governments and Urban Carbon Government Initiatives: Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Carbon Governance Experiments: The Role of Australian Local Governments

McGuirk

Dowling

Brennan

et al. 2015

Geographical Research

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Cities, and particularly urban local governments, are now widely recognised for their part in the complex, multilevel landscape of climate governance and carbon reduction. Nonetheless local government projects and initiatives are often framed as of limited value, outside the formal governance framework, and unable to contribute systematically. In contrast, this paper locates these initiatives as already part of the way in which governing climate and carbon is conducted and as governance experiments. We provide a descriptive analysis of these initiatives across Australia's capital cities, highlighting the domains, mechanisms, and partners through which they operate. We illustrate the enactment of experimentation through a detailed examination of the Sydney-based initiative termed Treading Lightly, drawing out in particular the workings of institutional experimentation and experimentation in governance practices. We conclude with brief reflections on the governance implications of such experimentation and their importance as a site in the emergent politics of urban carbon governance. AbstractCities, and particularly urban local governments, are now widely recognised for their part in the complex, multilevel landscape of climate governance and carbon reduction. Nonetheless local government projects and initiatives are often framed as of limited value, outside the formal governance framework and unable to contribute systematically. In contrast, this paper locates these initiatives as already part of the way in which governing climate and carbon is conducted and as governance experiments. We provide a descriptive analysis of these initiatives across Australia's capital cities, highlighting the domains, mechanisms and partners through which they operate. We illustrate the enactment of experimentation through a detailed examination of the Sydney-based initiative termed Treading Lightly, drawing out in particular the workings of institutional experimentation and experimentation in governance practices. We conclude with brief reflections on the governance implications of such experimentation and their importance as a site in the emergent politics of urban carbon governance.2

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“…The influential position of mining and energy interests in the political economy and in the climate policy community have presented formidable obstacles to significant energy transition. The national climate governance regime reflects both a reluctance to dislodge the country's fossil-fuel dependence (Bulkeley, 2001;Harrison, 2012) and a fractious climate politics in which, despite government discourses of ecological modernisation viii , environment and economy continue to be pitted against each other (Curran, 2009;Williams and Booth, 2013). Moreover in the arena of federal politics, positions on climate policy have been divided along party lines.…”

Section: Energy Efficiency and The City In Australia's Shifting Climamentioning

confidence: 99%

Repositioning urban governments? Energy efficiency and Australia’s changing climate and energy governance regimes

2014

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Urban local governments are important players in climate governance, and their roles are evolving. This review traces the changing nexus of Australia's climate policy, energy policy and energy efficiency imperatives and its repositioning of urban local governments. We characterise the ways urban local governments' capacities and capabilities are being mobilised in light of a changing multi-level political opportunity structure around energy efficiency. The shifts we observe not only extend local governments' role in implementing climate change responses but also engage them as partners in conceiving and operationalising new measures, suggesting new ground is being opened in the urban politics of climate governance. A review of the Australian context provides important insights for the new politics of energy in the city as, internationally, energy efficiency is reframed as a climate change issue and the city is repositioned as an important strategic space in energy politics and the governance of energy systems.

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Time and the spatial post-politics of climate change: Insights from Australia

Cited by 23 publications

References 24 publications

Privatising asylum: neoliberalisation, depoliticisation and the governance of forced migration

Privatising asylum: neoliberalisation, depoliticisation and the governance of forced migration

Urban Carbon Governance Experiments: The Role of Australian Local Governments

Repositioning urban governments? Energy efficiency and Australia’s changing climate and energy governance regimes

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