In this paper I reflect upon the project of radical democracy as developed by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, and in particular on Mouffe's article “Post-Marxism, democracy and identity”. In the first part of the paper I consider some interesting parallels between the project of radical democracy and certain recent lines of thought within geography, and argue that the two areas of work could helpfully inform each other. In the second part of the paper I raise some general issues about radical democracy, including questions of identity, anti-essentialism and universalism.
DollimoreJ, 1991Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
3.
GilroyP, 1993The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Verso, London).
4.
MasseyD, 1994Space, Place and Gender (Polity Press, Cambridge).
5.
MasseyD, forthcoming, “Space/power, identity/difference: Tensions in the city”, inThe Urbanisation of Injustice Eds MerrifieldASwyngedouwE, (Lawrence and Wishart, London).
6.
MasseyDJessP, forthcoming, “Places and cultures in an uneven world”, inA Place in the World? Eds MasseyDJessP, (Oxford University Press, Oxford; in association with the Open University).
7.
MouffeC, 1993The Return of the Political (Verso, London).
8.
MouffeC, 1995, “Post-Marxism: Democracy and identity”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space13259–265.
9.
RobinsK, 1991, “Tradition and translation: National culture in its global context”, in Enterprise and Heritage: Cross Currents of National Culture Eds CornerJHarveyS, (Routledge, London) pp 21–44.
10.
SennettR, 1971The Uses of Disorder (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx).
11.
SibleyD, 1988, “Survey 13: Purification of space”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space6409–421.
12.
SibleyD, 1992, “Outsiders in society and space”, in Inventing Places: Studies in Cultural Geography Eds AndersonKGaleF, (Longman Cheshire, Melbourne) pp 107–122.
