Postsecular Geographies: Re-Envisioning Politics, Subjectivity and Ethics

2017 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences

Over recent years there has been a surge of interest in postsecularity. The complex blurring of sacred-secular boundaries has found new expression in particular areas of the public life of cities, with the unexpected resilience and mutation of religion as a powerful political, cultural and global force. This book offers new insights on the concept of postsecularity and the associated idea of the postsecular city and public sphere. It provides a detailed account of how emergent postsecularity co-produces key spaces and subjectivities in contemporary urban life, as well as addressing criticisms levelled towards the concept of the postsecular. Though innovative empirical accounts, this book offers an in-depth examination of the 'who' and the 'what' that are created by the conditions of postsecularity. The book explores essential preconditions for the spaces and subjectivities of postsecular partnership, such as shared citizenship, tolerance, reflexive transformation and crossover narratives.

It justifies postsecularity as an adequate framework for critically analysing the emergence of new citizen subjectivities and spaces of engagement on the ground, aiming to both to deepen and add nuance to the concept of the postsecular public sphere, and connect this concept to new assemblages of ethical and political praxis.

Paul Cloke (Author)