Performativity and Antagonism as Keystones for a Political Geography of Change

This chapter develops a theoretical framework for a political geography of change that takes into account the power relations and resulting hegemonies and acts of marginalization, which constitute the very spaces of politics. It contributes the ongoing discussions in political geography about the relation between politics/the political, space, and social change by showing how are spaces of politics brought into being through regulatory, citational practices and performances. The chapter explores how are hegemonic spaces of politics reproduced, constructed and contested by counter-hegemonic political practices and what kinds of spaces of politics result from politics of antagonism and what might an agonistic space of politics look like. The author argues that for realizing the potential of Butlers work for political geography, it is crucial to draw her writings in which she engages more directly with questions of social transformation, norms, politics, and democracy. The concept of performativity focuses attention on the everyday political practices that constitute the political spaces of antagonism