How can we begin to tackle the challenges posed to democratic politics if we do not talk about actual politics as part of our research? This problem is both conceptual and practical. A politics requires a practice. We cannot understand the nature of the practice without understanding its politics; we cannot understand the politics without appreciating its processes and organization. Yet so many studies do just this. This paper will argue that a fugitive politics limits our abilities to take progressive thought and action forward. By ignoring the actual politics we end up depoliticising counter politics because we offer precious few suggestions as to how we can do democratic politics better (on both small and large scales). Without an understanding of how a Left progressive politics can develop then the politics itself will remain nebulous and ill defined. What might it mean then to put the development of a counter politics at the heart of our analyses? What are the conditions required (including the communicative conditions) for radical political organizations/collectives to endure, build capacity and effect social change?
University Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
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