Is This What Democracy Looks Like? The Politics of Representation and the Representation of Politics (original) (raw)

2017, Performing Antagonism: Theatre, Performance & Radical Democracy, ed. by Tony Fisher and Eve Katsouraki

Taking its inspiration from the 21st-century protest chant, 'This is what democracy looks like!', this chapter explores the interrelation between theories of representation and modes of radical democracy. Drawing on Jacques Rancière, Chantal Mouffe, and others, Schmidt analyses recent political actions that refuse to adhere to what he calls 'the politics of the count', including demonstrations against tuition fee increases in the UK, the 2011 London riots, the actions of UK Uncut, and Occupy, all of which emerged within the same twelve months. Such actions produce a representational crisis in two interrelated meanings of the idea of representation: they challenge representational democracy, but also challenge our understandings of what counts as the political—that is to say, what politics looks like.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact