Ambiances of the new in contemporary politics: resisting the post-political

Part of topic : Ambiance, atmosphere, climate: theory, politics and criticismInternational audienceHow can we rethink social transformation in the conditions of post-political neoliberal governmentality? James C. Scott has traced political breakthroughs back to the ‘hidden transcripts’ which are nourished in partly autonomous zones of everyday conflict and struggle. Richard Day captures a mode of social reconstruction which is detached from revolutionary events and is attached to the creation of alternatives in present tense. Today, such ‘ambiances of the new’ are crafted by social movements which pursue a ‘horizontalist’ activism seeking to foster plurality and openness. They cultivate thus particular ethics, affects, habits, mentalities, modes of organisation and spaces, which enable more democratic forms of collective action and help to put together large collective fronts in the interests of the many