Ronan Paddison on public space and the post-political

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ronan Paddison’s work on urban public space and the post-political moved beyond the polarization that marks much of the ongoing debate around post-politics. This article briefly delineates three key propositions in Paddison’s engagement with the post-political: a critical dialogical reading of the thesis; a call for nuanced empirical engagement; and an ability to draw from deep personal engagement with local urban politics. Paddison’s propositions shape a generative engagement that has prefigured work that added geographical and political nuance to the post-political debate. They also provide critical pathways to illuminate how (urban) post-politicization and (re-)politicization intersect and shape one another.