Performativity, Politics, and the Production of Social Space

Theories of performativity have garnered considerable attention within the social sciences and humanities over the past two decades. At the same time, there has also been a growing recognition that the social production of space is fundamental to assertions of political authority and the practices of everyday life. However, comparatively little scholarship has explored the full implications that arise from the confluence of these two streams of social and political thought. This is the first book-length, edited collection devoted explicitly to showcasing geographical scholarship on the spatial politics of performativity. It offers a timely intervention within the field of critical human geography by exploring the performativity of political spaces and the spatiality of performative politics. Through a series of geographical case studies, the contributors to this volume consider the ways in which a performative conception of the "political" might reshape our understanding of sovereignty, political subjectification, and the production of social space. Marking the 20th anniversary of the publication of Judith Butler's classic, Bodies That Matter (1993), this edited volume brings together a range of contemporary geographical works that draw exciting new connections between performativity, space, and politics.

Michael R. Glass is a Lecturer of Urban Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Reuben Rose-Redwood is an Associate Professor of Geography and member of the Cultural, Social, and Political Thought program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

1. Introduction: Geographies of Performativity Reuben Rose-Redwood and Michael R. Glass Section One: Taking Performativity Elsewhere 2. Taking Butler Elsewhere: Performativities, Spatialities, and Subjectivities Nicky Gregson and Gillian Rose 3. Engaging Butler: Subjects, Cernment and Ongoing Limits of Performativity Lise Nelson 4. Performativity and Antagonism as Keystones for a Political Geography of Change Carolin Schurr 5. Performativity, Events and Becoming-Stateless Robert J. Kaiser Section Two: Performativity, Space, and Politics 6. Disentangling Property, Performing Space Nicholas Blomley 7. "Sixth Avenue is Now a Memory": Regimes of Spatial Inscription and the Performative Limits of the Official City-Text Reuben Rose-Redwood 8. "Becoming a Thriving Region": Performative Visions, Imaginative Geographies, and the Power of 32 Michael R. Glass 9. Performing Scale: Watersheds as "Natural" Governance Units in the Canadian Context Alice Cohen and Leila Harris Section Three: Political Performativity and the Production of Social Space 10. Finding New Spaces for Performativity and Politics Michael R. Glass and Reuben Rose-Redwood