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This article uncovers an internal tension within theories of agonistic democracy. On the one hand, as radical pluralists, agonistic democrats want to institute a 'symmetrical' political scene where different identities can struggle on an equally legitimate basis. On the other hand, they often normatively prioritize the struggles of oppressed groups against domination. In response, this article proposes to collapse any strict distinction between pluralism and social relations of domination. The result is a move from agonistic to insurgent democracy, where insurgent struggles against domination give the central impetus to any democracy. To do so, it turns to the writings of Étienne Balibar, who argues that most, if not all, symmetrical political conflict is built on asymmetrical forms of domination or oppression. This leads us to develop an account of democratic conflict that is incessantly asymmetrical. Finally, this article suggests an alternative way of rescuing the political principle of pluralism cherished by agonistic democrats. Balibar's writings on the 'ideology of the dominated' show that every insurgent struggle expresses itself ideologically, which harbours the risk of obscuring other forms of domination. Therefore, democracy is not only kept alive by insurgent movements, it requires that the latter democratize themselves by maintaining a permanent openness to alternative calls against domination or oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National and state/territory dialogues in Australia have increasingly turned towards implementing mechanisms that will oversee truth-telling processes to facilitate reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. While truth lies central to decolonising, it is vital to reflect on whose truth(s) are being represented, and in what ways it should be disseminated. In this article I discuss how the cultivation of a 'decolonising consciousness' may assist in confronting national and personal truths while also helping citizens of settler-colonial nations acquire the proficiency needed to put decolonial understandings into praxis. I argue that decolonising truths entails a responsive consciousness that is informed by frameworks such as border thinking, agonistic pluralism and kincentric orientations. Decolonising truth enables non-Indigenous settlers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples alike to live alongside the complexities of mutually informing, competing, and at times incommensurable worldviews; this is the point of departure in the ongoing path towards reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theory of democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism developed by Shadi Hamid in his book "The Problem of Democracy". Democratic pluralism will leverage pluralism to create a possibility for reconciliation between liberalism, secularism, religion, and democracy. It presents a framework of democratic pluralism based on four key elements: (1) a conception of democracy that includes performance and political action in the public sphere beyond electoral participation; (2) recognition of diversity and intercultural dialog, alongside the agonistic dimension of pluralism; (3) moderation of individual autonomy and identity politics; and (4) pluralistic accommodation of religion. The paper critiques Hamid's monolithic notions of liberalism, secularism, and democracy, suggesting that more nuanced approaches to these concepts are necessary. It contends that rather than abandoning liberalism and secularism, exploring compatible versions of liberalism and Islam within a pluralistic framework offers a more promising path for reforming religion and polity in the Muslim world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationships between stakeholders and businesses have the potential for conflict and cooperation. Such conflicts arise out of real differences in values and interests. This article explores the employment relationship as an emblematic case of business–stakeholder relations in which conflict is inevitable because employers and employees have interests that are at least partially conflicting, even while some degree of collaboration and shared interests underpins the existence of all employment relationships. We build on insights from the philosophy of agonism to develop the concept of agonistic business responsibility, which is a stakeholder management orientation that views conflict and contestation differently from the status quo, which we term antagonistic business irresponsibility. We discuss the broader implications of these ideas for stakeholder relations at the organizational level and the prospect of strengthened institutions at the societal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting political science's model of agonistic pluralism, literature in spatial planning reinterprets conflicts as constructive elements. The impact of stakeholders and their management of conflicting values remains uncertain. However, planning requires continual validation of its values. The article delves into the role of values in judgments on conflicting planning processes. An explorative German study reveals that courts prioritise procedural over substantive values, although they acknowledge the latter, such as environmental protection. We argue in favour of considering values in research on agonistic planning but acknowledge that the influence of courts is limited due to institutional constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties occupy a contradictory position in the criminological literature: at once active participants in the political contestation of crime but virtually absent from contemporary debates concerning the relationship between crime and democratic theory. In this paper, I present a 'rational reconstruction' of party and partisanship as distinctive modes of political association that are vital to liberal democratic systems that take seriously (1) the value of political pluralism and (2) the limits of public reason to yield definitive answers to the crime question. Currently, political parties are failing to perform these mediating roles satisfactorily and I conclude that a stronger normative commitment to an 'ethic of partisanship' can help to revitalize our representative democracies and foster a better politics of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of anger's role in politics needs to overcome the oversimplified views of anger as positive or negative. Instead, a more useful normative question is one that asks how we should distinguish between forms of anger that are appropriate or properly political, and those that are dangerous and impermissible, or antipolitical. By drawing on a conflict-theory framework that makes a normative distinction between agonistic and antagonistic conflicts, I argue that properly political anger should meet two criteria: fittingness and boundedness. Anger can sometimes be a fitting response to our unjust world. However, fittingness is not enough; it also matters how anger is channeled or acted upon in the public realm. Moreover, this paper contends that anger at structural injustice may relatively easily go wrong, as mistargeted or boundless anger. In light of these challenges, I argue that introducing a goal-frustration type of anger (as distinct from blaming anger) can prevent construing anger too narrowly, as always involving moral blame, and that one can learn (to some extent) to regulate one's anger. At the same time, I acknowledge that the uptake that anger receives plays an essential role in creating an environment that favors (or disfavors) that anger at structural injustice remains bounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this theoretical article, I argue that postcolonial and decolonial theories offer critical conceptualizations and important insights for democratic citizenship education. Starting with the concept of agonism, I explore how postcolonial and decolonial perspectives both build upon and challenge notions of radical democracy. I argue that both perspectives provide interesting starting points for critical thinking, an essential part of democratic citizenship education. The perspectives point toward a profound problematization and historicization of democracy as a concept, as a system of governance through questioning the nation-state, and as an ideal to valorize societies. Despite their similarities, the two perspectives suggest slightly different approaches to education. The postcolonial perspective presents a critical and constructive approach that aims to deconstruct Enlightenment ideas while using them as a foundation for promoting social justice. The decolonial perspective highlights the inherent connection between coloniality and democracy and emphasizes the need for politics and practices of refusal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of violent extremism has given rise to new policy debates in Norway. A key limitation of these debates, often grounded in naïve assumptions about the peacebuilding effect of education, is the downplay of emotions and dissent in democratic engagement. This article analyses how selected educators in Norway describe encountering and engaging with extremist students for educational interventional purposes. Previous research suggests that educational efforts to counter violent extremism can be exclusionary from the perspective of target audiences. In contrast, this study draws on agonistic pluralism to provide an alternative to understand educational approaches that may help students disengage from violent extremism. The findings show that the selected educators argue the importance of trust, support and tolerance when engaging with extremist students. For these professionals, education should not downplay radical or extreme emotions but rather place them at the centre of educational engagement. Furthermore, it is suggested that educators' empathic engagement may open the path for young people to disengage from violent extremism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern French school system was established in the late nineteenth century upon an acculturating, assimilationist, and secular ideology of making "French people French" and emphasizing unity over cultural diversity. Thus, most scholarship on the French education system aptly highlights the system's French Republican "mold" characteristics—hyper-centralization, Franco-conformity, and "Republican sanctuary"—even if adherence to the mold is not always achieved. However, French hors contrat or independent schools are afforded significant freedoms in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, admittance criteria, and the incorporation of religion. These independent schools represent a veritable rainbow of ethical and educational perspectives that break from the French Republican schooling mold. Drawing upon seven months of ethnographic research in a variety of French independent schools, I suggest that these schools' existence illustrate flexibility and plasticity within the otherwise monolithic French education system, collectively pointing to a surprising form of agonistic pluralism on the margins of French Republicanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory paper, we discuss local cultural political tensions in Austria's three largest cities (Vienna, Graz, and Linz). Against the backdrop of COVID-19, which hampered, yet also created new opportunities to host cultural events in public space, we analyze large-scale cultural events (Vienna and Graz), and a newly emerging cultural policy theme (Linz). Drawing on 30 qualitative interviews with cultural politicians, administrators, cultural producers, and artists (2020–2022), situational mapping, and the analysis of media coverage, we unpack (1) agential conflicts that manifest in unequal access to funding and decision-making; (2) symbolic conflicts that variously instrumentalize culture; (3) procedural conflicts that problematize lack of transparency and collaboration; and (4) spatial conflicts that materialize in diverging views about safety, cleanliness, and ownership of public space between state and self-organized cultural actors. Ultimately, we argue for a conflict-oriented approach to cultural policy to grasp the interrelations between power, agency, and space in cultural politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of "Muslim Democracy" has been analyzed by scholars for a number of years, at least since the mid-1990s. The standard view about Muslim Democracy is that (perhaps like its European counterpart Christian Democracy) it represents a nonideological, or postideological, pragmatic approach to electoral politics. The purpose of this article is to advance two primary arguments. The first is that the turn to Muslim Democracy as an ideology and practice should first be understood as a way of thinking about politics that breaks with the sovereigntist imaginary that dominated modern Islamic political thought. Second, Muslim Democrats do not forswear the use of democratic means to advance goals derived from religious commitment as part of their recognition of pluralism and constitutional democracy. Their attitude toward politics should thus be seen as a form of agonistic pluralism. This article thus proposes an interpretation of Muslim Democracy as post-sovereigntist agonistic political Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western democracies experience profound conflicts that induce concerns about polarization and social cohesion. Yet although conflicts are a core feature of democracies, the forms, functions, and dynamics of democratic conflicts have rarely been subject of political theory. This paper aims at furthering our understanding of democratic conflicts. It analyzes the theory of conflict in Mouffe's agonistic pluralism, confronts it with sociological conflict theory, and presents concrete points of departure for a more comprehensive theory of democratic conflicts. The paper, thus, contributes to two lines of research: (1) Regarding agonistic theories, the paper shows that agonistic pluralism fails to provide a convincing theory of conflict since it underestimates the mechanisms and effects of conflict dynamics (e.g. intergroup cohesion, intragroup conflict, domination, and escalation) and fails to account for the variety of conflict interactions. Proponents of agonistic pluralism should therefore invest more into clarifying their core concept. (2) For a general account of democratic conflicts, the paper proposes to pursue interdisciplinary research on the cognitive concepts shaping conflict interactions, the linked practices of conflict regulation, and the processual dynamics of conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author looks at processes of becoming a woman philosopher and scientist in eighteenth-century Europe, by focusing on educational experiences, discourses and practices revolving around the Italian mathematician, scientist and philosopher Maria Gaetana Agnesi. The author uses the Arendtian notion of agonism as a lens through which she reads Agnesi's manuscripts at the Ambrosiana Biblioteca in Milan, by pointing to the non-discursive affects that these documents emanate. By tracing women mathematicians' historical emergence as subjects of knowledge, as well as creators of philosophy and culture, the author proposes a reconsideration of the history of women's science education as an agonistic process that has left traces in various archives of gender and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades researchers have been exploring new hybrid methodologies to decolonise Indigenous mental health research. Grounded Theory with Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR), often using Indigenist methods, is the most common. Grounded Theory's claim to rigour is its transparent, organised process of sifting and theme finding, while CPAR respects Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous ways of knowing doing and being, involving Indigenous research participants in all stages of the research from data collection to analysis. On the surface it would seem to be the ideal methodological approach to navigate the cultural divide. However, this article will argue that Grounded Theory's inherent weakness is in the process of thematic analysis, which uses consensus during the analysis phase to find dominant themes. Drawing on the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann and the political theory of Chantal Mouffe, this article will argue for a group process of "agonistic pluralism" instead. Searching for shared truths has a tendency to smooth out differences. The article proposes an approach for configuring a research team and conducting team analysis that struggles with, and accounts for, dissonances, disagreements and differences. Furthermore, it argues these differences should be recorded as important findings along with agreed themes. The approach has been developed to explore community perspectives on the relationship between culture and health, and in turn, to develop culturally appropriate mental health therapies for First Nations young people within a Western paediatric hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies a tension between two opposing conceptualizations of power within contemporary political theory: the vitalist understanding of power as force, friction, and agonism, and the deconstructivist treatment of power as impressionability, imitation, and theatricality. It situates this divergence within Gilles Deleuze's employment of Nietzsche against the Hegelian dialectics, and proceeds to excavate a latent shadow of theatricality running through both Hegel's and Nietzsche's respective theorizations of power as bondage and as tragedy. This rearticulates the primary operation of power as one that is neither superseded by Reason as in Hegel, nor entirely exhausted by the excesses of materiality over and above identity as in Deleuze's uptake of the Nietzschean "will-to-power." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on agonism as a socio-political theory, highlighting its view of conflict as positive and necessary for democratic vitality. Topics include Chantal Mouffe's distinction between "the political" and "politics," and her advocacy for agonistic pluralism to manage contemporary political antagonism.

The paper critically reviews communicative and agonistic planning theories from the viewpoint of a systemic turn in deliberative democracy theory. While the approach reveals complementarities between the theories, it also argues that each theory is vulnerable to criticism because of an 'institutional gap'. The theories are found to complement each other in addressing planning conflicts at different dimensions. Communicative planning theory deals with conflicts between different stakeholders' interests in planning processes. Agonistic planning theory, in turn, concentrates on conflicts from a more ontological dimension, related to the (implicit) conflict between hegemonic and marginalized discourses and related identity-forming processes of inclusion and exclusion in planning policies and governance. The institutional gap of communicative planning theory is argued to reside in its focus on situational deliberation that largely ignores the institutional dimension of rules and norms of democratic conduct. Agonistic pluralism, in turn, does engage with the dimension of democratic institutions, but in an overly critical manner, making it difficult for agonistic planning theory to address the dynamic interplay between institutional reconfiguration and policy stabilization in planning. This is argued to be the institutional gap of agonistic planning theory. The paper calls for further work in the field of planning theory to incorporate a systemic approach to deliberative democracy and thereby tap into the dialectics of institutional and situational dimensions of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First, if their populism I as a set of ideas and normative commitments i is so different from what everyone else calls "populism", why call it "populism" at all? It is common to ask whether populism is good or bad for democracy. The problem with the discussed defenses of populism is either that they fail to clarify that populism is valued only as a strategy and not as an end, or that they fail to explain what exactly populism is a strategy I for i . Thus, if one publicly promotes populism and thereby its understanding of democracy, one should also evaluate the effects of promoting populism with populist standards. I argue that theoretical defenses of populism that regard it as a corrective to democracy run afoul of the publicity condition, because they use nonpopulist standards to assess the effects of populism and because their theories are publicly self-frustrating. [Extracted from the article]

In this article we introduce a pragmatist interpretation of agonistic pluralism and develop this into an analytical framework that is applied to the analysis of urban conflicts. In the article, we take stock of contemporary critical and radical urban scholarship, our aim being twofold. First, we substantiate Chantal Mouffe's notion of agonistic pluralism with tools from French pragmatic sociology. We suggest that, in a democracy, plurality emerges both as a plurality of conflict manifested in the variety of possible ways to identify injustices, and formulate and justify claims in public struggles, and a plurality of commonality, manifested in different logics by which a 'we' can be formed and action coordinated so as to solve issues without resorting to physical violence. Secondly, by applying the developed conceptualization of plurality to an ongoing urban conflict concerning an airport, we showcase the value of the approach for identifying and analyzing different forms and phases of actually existing political conflicts, and for recognizing their meaning for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the role of art in the memory activism surrounding deindustrialization in the Ruhr region of Germany by focusing on an institution promoting contemporary art: Urbane Künste Ruhr (UKR). It will ask how UKR is bringing together the past, present and future of the Ruhr region through its various activities. In particular, it will focus on UKR's 2021 exhibition as an example of how the transformation of the Ruhr is imagined through artistic intervention. Art, in many of the activities of UKR, has made important interventions in debates about how to organize the future of the city in light of its past. UKR, the article argues, has been actively engaged in contributing to the democratization of public debates about how people in the region want to live their lives in light of a problematic industrial past and a more sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains how judicial populist constitutional jurisprudence undermines policy contestation. Topics discussed are agonistic Republicanism versus authoritarian populism, agonistic Republican administration as a contestatory site, judicial populism in regulatory jurisprudence, legal doctrines of anti-deference, nondelegation and major questions, and the influence of sociopolitical, conservative legal movement in the popularization of the rhetoric of constitutional teleology.

From 2006 onwards it has been growing the production of academic and creative text works regarding the violence triggered by both Mexican and American governments, specially over the Felipe Calderon’s rule (2006-2012) and George Bush’s one (2001-2009). Depicted as if trying to end the insecurity, such a bilateral strategy ended up serving, in reality, for paving the way for the extractivism. This work aims to show how several academic, journalistic and literary works have rightly interpreted the latter. To do so the author analyzes Maria Rivera,’s Los Muertos, Dolores Dorantes’s Querida fabrica, Javier Raya’s Disentimientos de la nación and Sara Uribe’s Antígona González. The analysis is made taking into account two theoretical approaches. On the one hand, the works by Giorgio Agamben, Rita Segato, Oswaldo Zavala and Luis Astorga. They all explain the violence, in essence, as a result of a capitalist strategy. The other theoretical proposals are those elaborated by Cristina Rivera Garza, Ana Cento Bull and Hans Lauge Hansen, as well as by Daniel Inclán. Boosted by their work with archives, these theorists look for diverse vias to exit the dreadful results caused by violence. This text is intended to focus the actual causes of such a phenomenon in Mexico, and to utilize an array of proposals to imagine ways for exiting the violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to present non-Schmittian ways of defining “the political” in Polish discourse on the theory of politics. The article consists of three parts. The first one briefly describes Carl Schmitt’s understanding of “the political”. The second one discusses various ways in which non-Schmittian approaches to the concept are identified based on four features (definitions that do not refer to conflict; definitions based on agonistic visions of social rivalry; the ones that focus on individuals instead of large social groups, and those which by referring to postmodernism, define new boundaries of the political as such). The third section provides a summary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polish political theorists’ research revolves around the question of the political. There have been many analyses of this issue in Polish political science journals, for which the starting point was antagonistic and subsequently agonistic approaches to the political. Against this background, inquiries going in the direction of consensual approaches constituted a minority; additionally, it is difficult to synthesise them directly from the output of Polish theorists, as these approaches are often not explicitly articulated, but their significant elements appear in nominally non-consensual considerations. The purpose of this article is to bring this picture closer, not only from the personal side, but also as an attempt to reconstruct the essence of the political in terms of consensus, no longer antagonism or agonism. The other objective is to indicate both the theoretical potential of this approach and its interpretative usefulness against the background of other dominant approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ways in which the ethics of data-driven technologies might be (re)politicised, particularly where educational institutions are involved. The recent proliferation of principles, guidelines, and frameworks for ethical 'AI' (artificial intelligence) have emerged from a plethora of organisations in recent years, and seem poised to impact educational governance. This trend will be firstly shown to align with a narrow form of ethics - deontology - and overlook other potential ways ethical reasoning might contribute to thinking about 'AI'. Secondly, the attention to ethical principles will be suggested to focus excessively on the technology itself, with the effect of masking political concerns for equity and justice. Thirdly and finally, the paper will propose a more radical form of participation in ethical decision-making that not only challenges the assumption of universal consensus, but also draws more authentically on the capacities for debate, contestation, and exchange inherent in the educational institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the notion of tolerance in education. In general, tolerance is perceived as a means to resist hostility, raise awareness of cultural differences, mitigate violence, and maintain liberal and democratic values. In education, there are various initiatives, such as the International Day for Tolerance (UNESCO in Declaration of principles on tolerance, 1995), that aim to build resilience against different forms of hate and cultivate openness and acceptance of the other. Yet the idea of tolerance includes different understandings and interpretations. This paper argues that cultivating an embodied sense of tolerance among students, in particular in divisive communities, requires us to move beyond deliberative interpretations of tolerance and to advance a pragmatic understanding of tolerance through an agonistic lens. This paper starts with a review of several dominant interpretations of tolerance. The heart of the paper focuses on interpreting Dewey's pragmatism as a theoretical basis for advancing tolerance. The final part of the paper explores how pragmatism through an agonistic lens can support a more flexible and humane approach to dealing with political conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary public debates are often characterized by structural and substantial dissonances. This paper is concerned with normative and empirical evaluations of these dissonances and makes contributions on both levels. We argue that agonistic pluralism provides an insightful, yet often dismissed, theoretical perspective on the matter of political fragmentation. On the empirical level, we exemplify these considerations against the backdrop of the 2016 Austrian presidential elections and propose a corresponding measurement approach for political fragmentation. A combined network analysis and automated content analysis of comments on Facebook pages affiliated with political parties results in the following main findings: First, when looking at comments between different parties, fragmentation is at a low level at the beginning of the election campaign but increases over time. Second, degrees of fragmentation vary to a great extent between different parties. Third, offensive speech is one purpose for communication between political groups but not the main one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on depolarization, nonviolent agonism and the anarchy of difference as crucial themes in achieving positive peace. Topics include the significance of diversity, liberty & nonviolent conflict in countering polarization's contribution to violence; emphasizing the need for robust nonviolent agonism in peaceful democratic societies; and highlighting the role of liberty and diversity in fostering a society that values creative nonviolent conflict within the anarchy of difference.

This paper interprets the rhetoric and social phenomena of "taking sides" and "scapegoating" amidst radical societal division. Exploring the social mechanics of unity and division, I visit the work of René Girard and Chantal Mouffe, who offer a lucid ambivalence regarding the dilemma that neutrality is a practical impossibility. And in turning to implications of their shared paradox--that to be genuinely "peaceful" may require graceful divisiveness--I consider cases and theory on nonviolently fomenting conflict. In contrast with certain liberal social theories of transcending division, this paper treats the desire for politics beyond hegemony--or politics without a scapegoat--as something of an eschatological ideal, toward which Girard, Mouff e, and others offer a tension-filled, crypto-Augustinian, agonistic pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its "deliberative turn," the field of science and technology studies (STS) has strongly advocated opening up decision-making processes around science and technology to more perspectives and knowledges. While the theory of democracy underpinning this is rarely explicitly addressed, the language and ideas used are often drawn from deliberative democracy. Using the case of synthetic biology and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), this paper looks at challenges of public engagement and finds parallels in long-standing critiques of deliberative democracy. The paper suggests that STS scholars explore other theories of decision-making and explores what an RRI grounded in agonistic pluralism might entail. An agonistic RRI could develop empirical research around questions of power relations in contemporary science and technology, seek to facilitate the formation of political publics around relevant issues, and frame different actors' stances as adversarial positions on a political field rather than "equally valid" perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous Special Issue of I Religions i that focused on religious diversity, the Editors contrasted the "normative framework that rules religious pluralism" with "a descriptive notion of religious diversity" ([7]). As a concept, diversity is fundamentally oriented towards tracing difference; in this sense, the authors primarily understand it as a descriptive concept that denotes the multiplicity of identities in modern society. Steven Vertovec coined the term superdiversity to describe this increasing diversity ([10]). [Extracted from the article]

The concept of recognition warrants re-examination in political theory. Despite its ubiquity in theoretical discussions and saturation in real political struggles, recognition is under-theorized, especially in relation to issues of post-immigration multiculturalism. We greatly appreciate, therefore, the generous responses of Anna Elisabetta Galeotti, Sune Laegaard, David Owen, and Simon Thompson to our original article. In this rejoinder, we take up three issues on which they converge. First, we address the provenance or sources of our theoretical position and its connection to James Tully's agonism and Tariq Moodod's sociological-cum-political approach. Second, we clarify the theoretical ground of our concept of acknowledgement and its specific relation to "identity" and "negative difference." Finally, we address the suggestion that recognition as acknowledgement is a specifically political model. We hope this exchange will encourage further consideration and analysis of why symbolic acknowledgement matters and qualifies as a form of multicultural recognition in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of big data and fake news, museums' collection practices are particularly important democratic cornerstones. Participatory technologies such as crowdsourcing or wikis have been put forward as a means to make museum collections more open and searchable, motivated by a desire for efficiency but also as a way to engage the public in the development of a more diverse and polyphonic heritage. However, there is a lack of a nuanced vocabulary to describe participatory technologies in terms of democracy. Without a deeper understanding of how technology shapes the overall structures, there is a risk that the tools instead undermine democratic ambitions. Addressing the need to conceptualize democracy in these contexts, we therefore develop a framework for participatory technologies with an eye toward the long-term development and preservation of cultural heritage. In this framework different democratic processes intersect with democratic values, from a liberal conception of democracy to a more deliberative democracy, to an agonistic pluralism emphasizing the importance of acknowledging conflict and diversity. To firmly ground our vocabulary in museum collection practices, we have investigated two cases from museums in the US that have opposite participatory strategies for enriching images with metadata; the Smithsonian Transcription Center, and the National Gallery of Art collection on Wikimedia Commons. These cases demonstrate how the framework can be used to identify patterns of participation showing the support for different values and processes. Furthermore, our conceptual investigation points out a contradiction in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research, between the pluralism and conflicts emphasized in more critical and participatory design perspectives used in the development of design, and the features in the actual design of participatory technologies, emphasizing consistency and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay locates the concept of sentido pensante or sensible thought within the recent historical events of the coronavirus pandemic to ask the question on the systems of production of epistemology. It invites the reader, at the insistence of Raúl Fornet Betancourt, to incisively investigate our current masked reality of manufactured consent, to cultivate convivencia, and to make room akin to a trench of ideas for the flourishing of a revolutionary love in our time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of citizens being mere spectators who "watch" politics is widespread in public and academic debates. Scholarship in relation to democratic theory tends to see spectatorship as a state in which citizens are politically uninterested, isolated, and passive. Although this understanding aptly captures the problems about the idea of spectatorship, it is only a partial awareness and prevents us from seeing that positive forms of spectatorship are also possible. I show that positive spectatorship occurs when citizens show an interest in one or more political problems and, together with others, strive to understand them better. I consider the distinctive elements of this form of spectatorship characterized by careful observance, relationality, and proactivity. I argue that it is normatively desirable, and I reflect on the ways in which positive spectatorship helps thinking about democratizing politics. Relatedly, I also revisit the theatrical metaphor of politics, which is often associated to the concept of spectatorship as something negative for democracy. I argue that, when combined with a proper understanding of spectatorship, the theatrical metaphor can be used originally to envisage ways forward in the democratization of our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay contributes to developing a new approach to political legitimacy by asking what is involved in judging the legitimacy of a regime from a practical point of view. It is focused on one aspect of this question: the role of identity in such judgment. I examine three ways of understanding the significance of identity for political legitimacy: the foundational, associative, and agonistic picture. Neither view, I claim, persuasively captures the dilemmas of judgment in the face of disagreement and uncertainty about who "I" am and who "we" are. I then propose a composite, pragmatic picture. This view casts the question of political legitimacy as an existential predicament: it is fundamentally a question about who you are—both as a person and as a member of collectives. The pragmatic picture integrates rational, prudential, and ethical qualities of good judgment that were heretofore associated with mutually exclusive ways of theorizing legitimacy. It also implies that the question of legitimacy cannot be resolved philosophically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on participation in Danish urban planning has identified three typical formats of engagement: hearings, dialogue meetings, and workshops. Alongside these mainstream approaches, a plethora of less formalized and experimental formats drawing inspiration from collaborative and performative art practices have emerged. However, common to both the mainstream and experimental formats of participation is a difficulty when it comes to dealing with more strategic issues of power in the city. This article introduces and discusses the development, application, and power analytics of a format that focuses on these issues, the conflict and power mediation method Free Trial! conceived by a local nongovernmental organization as a staged court case for high-profile issues in the city, which straddles political theater, deliberative participation, and research. The article demonstrates that advocacy, agonism, and liminoidity are the core elements that make the format effective in handling contentious issues in a constructive and enlightening manner within its created arena. However, it also shows that the handling of issues of power transcends the limits of this arena. To avoid reproducing unbalanced power relations of the city in general, the core elements of the format need to be incorporated among the wider public through an autonomous organization with this as its primary aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within political philosophy and particularly in the work of Chantal Mouffe and Hannah Arendt, "agonism" has been described as representing the notion of being able to challenge and dissent in a productive way. However, little is known about how agonism is used in the educational literature, other than some applications relevant to democratic education. This paper considers the use of agonism in the educational literature drawing on the findings of a systematic scoping review exploring how it has been used in the context of education. Five databases were searched for literature published using agonism within the context of education to map the existing body of work in a systematic fashion, and to explore how agonism has been differently conceptualised and utilised by researchers in the field of education. The findings suggest that there have been a range of attempts to apply agonistic principles in different educational sub-fields (including, citizenship education, early years education, initial teacher training, arts education and international education), and different interpretations of such principles into education based on different philosophical underpinnings (dissociative and associative approaches). As agonism is mostly explored in a theoretical way, we also discuss the potential of abstract theoretical agonistic principles from different philosophical traditions to be translated into meaningful practical applications for education in order to inform curriculum development, infuse democratic principles into classroom practice, and help to negotiate deep-running tensions amongst key stakeholders in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the crisis of post‐politics has sparked an authoritarian turn in spatial planning in England. The proposed reform of the English planning system in 2020 is a defining moment, marking not only the failure of consensus‐seeking politics in governing dissents but also the rising authoritarian responses to fix it. This is manifest in the intensification of state control, strengthening of executive power, and decline of democratic institutions, with a shift of emphasis from techno‐managerial to executive‐punitive practices, and from seemingly consensual to openly antagonistic approaches. This drift to authoritarianism has been justified by invoking a "state of exception," whereby the established rules and procedures are displaced by the appeal to "exceptional" circumstances, such as emergencies, national securities, and global pandemics. We draw on a case study of shale gas "fracking" in England to show how authoritarianism has crept into planning processes through changes in legislation, reconfiguration of rules, rescaling of decision‐making, and shrinking of democratic spaces. We discuss the role of a "political moment" in the politicisation of fracking, arguing that the return of the political has engendered antagonistic and exclusionary practices, rather than the agonistic pluralism that planning scholars have called for. In managing planning conflicts, consent, compromise, and co‐option are increasingly complemented or replaced by discipline, control, and explicit exclusion. Instead of denying, neutralising, or suppressing antagonism by calling for consensus, authoritarian politics exaggerates it by establishing frontiers between legitimate and non‐legitimate voices of dissents. The paper concludes by emphasising that the authoritarian turn can only offer a contingent and fleeting solution to the failure of post‐political planning to deliver neoliberal pro‐growth goals. It cannot eradicate the crisis of legitimacy in planning, nor can it foreclose the political struggle for fixing its meaning and purpose. This paper argues that the crisis of post‐politics has sparked an authoritarian turn in spatial planning in England, and that the proposed reform of the English planning system in 2020 is a defining moment that marks the failure of consensus‐seeking politics in governing dissents and the rising authoritarian responses to fix it. We draw on a case study of shale gas "fracking" in England to show how authoritarianism has crept into planning processes through changes in legislation, reconfiguration of rules, rescaling of decision making, and shrinking of democratic spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article presents current conceptualisations in the field of agonistic peace and how they relate to studies of war-to-peace transitions in developing countries and post-colonial contexts. It argues for a need for analytical approaches to agonistic peace, which has thus far mainly been advanced in terms of theory and conceptual refinement in the field of peace research. This collection of case studies represents a first attempt at putting together a broad range of studies based on different analytical strategies for analysing agonistic peace. This introductory essay unpacks the main conceptual developments in the field, starting with Mouffe's concept of agonistic democracy, which subsequently has been moved to the field of peace studies. We present the proliferation and application of the agonistic peace concept in recent years and show how agonistic peace links to and differs from broader developments in critical peace research. Moreover, we present the different themes and contributions examined by the articles: inclusion, dialogue and power as well as identity, recognition and reconciliation, which we cluster around the two overall themes of institutional dynamics and relational transformation. Lastly, we point to broader implications for the field and avenues open for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically (re)engages the concept of agonistic peace. It highlights the ways in which the scholars in this volume have built upon, deepened and broadened both the concept and the application of agonistic peace. It draws attention to how they have expanded our understanding of agonism and its implications for the field of peace study. This review essay concludes with some observations about future directions for research and questions that have been prompted by this collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In settler colonial societies like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, Indigenous–state relations are defined by ongoing conflict over unresolved questions of sovereignty, self-determination, and land. These conflicts have remained intractable regardless of the policy approaches engineered by the state. This article outlines an analytical approach to agonistic reconciliation by mapping the polar ends of a spectrum of responses to conflict in Indigenous–settler relations, with inclusion at one end of this spectrum and decolonisation at the other. Agonistic inclusion seeks to engage reconciliatory relations within colonial democratic institutions, while agonistic decolonisation rejects the legitimacy of these institutions and seeks radical innovation in their place. The article concludes by arguing that scholars must be alert to the seductive pull of inclusion and push instead towards the radical innovation that decolonisation demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept of agonistic peacebuilding in the light of the ongoing peace process in Colombia. We subscribe to an approach to agonistic peacebuilding that acknowledges conflict as an inevitable but also possibly productive dynamic. We think that the work by the Colombian research programme La paz es una obra de arte (Peace Is a Work of Art) is an inspiring case to analyse from this perspective. This programme, based at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, helps us understand in depth how agonistic peacebuilding strategies work through the arts, using clown interventions to foster life story narratives in order to transform former enemies into adversaries and engage all actors in the creation of peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data collected from a dialogue meeting in Turkey of 19 women participants with different ideological orientations, ethnicities and sects, as well as 10 in-depth follow-up interviews, this article explores the dynamics of listening and emotions in dialogue in multiple-identity conflicts. Considering listening as an important component of agonistic peace, the article aims to understand the conditions that help or hinder listening and one's perception of being listened to in the face of weighty emotions in the context of women's dialogic encounters. The article shows that agonistic listening facilitates the expression of emotions and views, and an interest in Other's story, while an attitude of care stemming from previous experience of working together on women's issues may help transform the antagonistic Other into an agonistic one. However, agonistic listening does not lead to significant perspective change and entails only a temporary suspension of one's categories to lend the Other an attentive ear; it is a conception of listening that recognises the temporary and limited character of listening and the place of emotions in dialogue with the Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1998 Agreement in Northern Ireland has often been portrayed as a textbook example of agonistic peace allowing parties to continue conflict in a political, adversarial manner post accord. Here, I investigate the institutional and dialogical reality of this claim by scrutinising agonistic aspects of interaction occurring in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Specifically, I analyse a video recording of the first sitting after the Assembly did not sit between 2017 and 2020. The debate provides a snapshot of the situation in Northern Ireland and gives insights into what agonistic interaction looks like in practice. The meeting reveals mutual acceptance of radically different identities and perceptions of the past as well as a jovial mode of interaction with elements of self-irony displaying an ability to hold identities and positions lightly. However, the room for counter-hegemonic discourses and passionate, intense contestation about difficult issues is very limited at the meeting. Rather, the Assembly shapes up as a theatre of opposition where Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party perform opposition while forming a new hegemony. Taking the opening debate as a point of departure, I discuss questions regarding inclusion, passionate debate and hegemony that the Northern Irish case poses for agonistic peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divided cities are characterised by intergroup contestation over the wider issue of state legitimacy. Violent conflict has left a legacy of segregation, weak public services and clientelistic networks. Debates and practices for conflict management in divided cities centre on accommodationist or integrationist approaches. While accommodationist methods seek to recognise and accommodate ethnosectarian divisions within public institutions, it risks intensifying ethnosectarian polarisation and empowering elites to deepen control over communities. Integrationist methods, alternatively, aim to foster shared identities and relationships between groups, but are too optimistic in assuming that divisions can be overcome through rational deliberation. As an alternative, I deploy Mouffe's theory of agonistic conflict to show how various non-sectarian movements contest the hegemony of a sectarian system that reproduces exclusion and inequality. To this end, I use key dimensions of agonism – 'rearticulation/disarticulation' and 'chains of equivalence'– to analyse different types of non-sectarian actors and successive waves of protest, known as 'You Stink' and the 'Thawra', in post-war Beirut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While an extensive part of the conflict transformation literature stresses the importance of transforming the identities of conflict parties through recognition, it fails to recognise the propensity of such transformations to generate ontological insecurity and dissonance, and consequently a possible backlash towards antagonistic identities. Drawing on agonistic thought, we develop a conception of agonistic recognition, premised on non-finalism, pluralist multilogue and disaggregated recognition. We suggest that these elements of agonistic recognition may guard against the development of ontological insecurity and dissonance in recognition processes. We comparatively analyse the connections and tensions between recognition, ontological insecurity/dissonance and identity backlash experienced during the transformation of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the context of the Oslo Peace Process in the 1990s and Turkey's 'rapprochement' with Greece in the context of its EU accession process in the 2000s. We also assess the presence of the elements of agonistic recognition in these two conflict transformation processes. Our contribution constitutes an important step towards the specification of agonistic peace in terms of its underlying recognition processes and in developing the empirical study of agonistic elements in actual conflict transformation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]