Gill, Nick, Johnstone, Phil and Williams, Andrew (2012) Towards a geography of tolerance: post-politics and political forms of toleration. Political Geography, 31 (8). pp. 509-518. ISSN 0962-6298

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Abstract

This paper argues for a closer inspection of how tolerance and politics interact. Within geography and beyond there is rising concern about post-political situations, whereby potential disagreements are foreclosed and situated beyond the remit of political debate. This is conceptualised as a process of de-politicisation that operates ‘much more effectively’than alternative ways in which politics can be and has been disavowed (Žižek, 1999: 198). While Žižek associates liberal tolerance with the post-political condition, however, theories of tolerance are at odds over whether it represents an everyday enactment of the political. Although some authors have indeed associated tolerance with a depoliticising tendency (Brown, 2006), others insist that certain types of tolerance are capable of nurturing simultaneous recognition and disagreement, which directly contradicts the conditions of post-politics (Forst, 2003). We therefore ask, contra Žižek, whether certain forms of tolerance can be an antidote to the post-political practice of foreclosing politics, and offer a set of considerations pertinent to the geographical analysis of this issue.
©2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Business, Management and Economics > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit
Subjects:	H Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Philip Johnstone
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2013 11:49
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2017 05:33
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/46613

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