Thinking Radical Democracy Spatially

In this paper I reflect upon the project of radical democracy as developed by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, and in particular on Mouffe's article “Post-Marxism, democracy and identity”. In the first part of the paper I consider some interesting parallels between the project of radical democracy and certain recent lines of thought within geography, and argue that the two areas of work could helpfully inform each other. In the second part of the paper I raise some general issues about radical democracy, including questions of identity, anti-essentialism and universalism.