Contentious Politics in Austere Times

The current conjuncture is becoming defined by political austerity, and this paper engages with different forms of contentious politics that are emerging in response. The paper reviews debates on post‐politics arguing that while post‐political perspectives speak to important tensions in relation to contemporary social and political relations, they also risk limiting an engagement with existing forms of political contestation. The paper makes three cuts through crisis geographies by exploring contested place making in relation to the 2011 riots, debates about localism and resilience, and the construction of spaces of antagonism by the Occupy Movement. By considering such diverse forms of resistance alongside each other rather than treating them separately, we emphasize the importance of attending to multiple articulations of contentious politics. We conclude by arguing that it is important to recognize the different means by which actors are seeking to bring crisis and austerity into contestation.