Whose city? What politics? Contentious and non-contentious spaces on Colorado's Front Range. (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mitchell, Don; Attoh, Kafui; Staeheli, Lynn
• Is Part Of: Urban studies. Volume 52:Number 14(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 2633
• Page End: 2648
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: consensus -- dissensus -- homeless organising -- post-politics -- urban redevelopment; Cities and towns -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; 307.1216
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098014550460
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0042-0980

Abstract

Drawing on research from Colorado's Front Range (the Denver/Boulder metropolitan area), this paper examines the validity of the 'post-political' hypothesis for explaining contentiousness and non-contentiousness in urban space. Examining major urban redevelopment efforts in Denver and a controversy over homeless people sleeping in public space in Boulder, we suggest that the literature on post-politics too narrowly circumscribes the realm of political action and in so doing loses analytical force and risks misunderstanding the nature of political engagement in the city. By contrast, a less circumscribed, more supple definition of politics allows for a better understanding of how the question of 'Whose City?'– who the city is for – is always up for grabs. The appearance of post-political consensus, when it occurs, is itself a political achievement, the making of a hegemony, not an explanation.