Geography

Reconceptualizing Resistance: Residuals of the State and Democratic Radical Pluralism

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Arguing that resistance to the state is too narrow a conceptualization of a political project that challenges neoliberalism, we posit that there are latent, residual apparatuses of the state which can be activated as part of a systematic progressive politics. We examine Massachusetts'"Dover amendment", a legal framework which governs group home siting throughout the state. Dover offers a powerful tool with which to resist a neoliberal socio-spatial agenda, though it has been underutilized toward enabling an alternative landscape. We analyze how and why Dover has often remained latent as a tool for socio-spatial resistance, and consider a provocative case in Framingham, Massachusetts that suggests how residual state apparatuses may be leveraged in support of an explicitly resistive, progressive agenda. © 2012 The Author. Antipode © Antipode Foundation Ltd.

Publication Title

Antipode

Publication Date

2013

Volume

45

Issue

1

First Page

61

Last Page

79

ISSN

0066-4812

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.00980.x

Keywords

democratic radical pluralism, group home siting, law, resistance, state, urban politics

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