Сity as a polis: agonistic practices in the urban environment

Abstract

The article analyzes a special type of political behavior and political conflict, which the authors propose to call “agonistic”. Based on the works of Chantal Mouffe, Hannah Arendt and others, the concept of agonistics in the public sphere of democratically organized societies, is considered. The article notes that in the urban environment, agonistic conflicts manifest themselves most intensively, which, in particular, is due to the high degree of diversity of elements of the city as a system, as well as the presence in it of objects that have symbolic significance in the process of actors’ competition for the possession of discursive power. It is suggested that the “wars of memory and monuments”, which in recent years have been a significant part of the socio-political life in Europe and the societies of the post-Soviet space, can be interpreted in accordance with this concept. As examples, the authors explore two cases, which are: the debate around the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, England, and the discussion about the future of the Soviet cultural and architectural heritage in the capital of Latvia, Riga. The article also raises the following question: whether these cases should be considered in the context of a new area of socio-humanitarian knowledge, post-colonial urban studies.