Learning from Conflict

摘要

As Chantal Mouffe and others have argued, conflict is part and parcel of democratic politics; it is something to be embraced more than eliminated, and in fact it may be impossible to live without conflict in a world of difference.1 This appears ever more the case in the contemporary era, as we see a surge in conflicts and protests in which citizens pit themselves against each other or the state, often in response to local policies or spatial interventions related to inequities in cities and the built environment. Many of those involved in mobilizations or protests around these issues do not necessarily aim to dismantle the state, but rather, are seeking opportunities to negotiate transformative change with their neighbours or institutions of power. Even among those who seek to radically challenge unjust social and spatial conditions or abusive institutional practices, some form of negotiated engagement often results. There is, however, very little theoriza-tion of the longer-term impacts of such conflicts, and the conditions under which contestation and struggle in and over the built environment will transform political, social, and spatial practices as opposed to reinforce existing power structures and conditions of socio-spatial exclusion and privilege.