Nur für Schwindelfreie? Eine Geographie politischer Praktiken nach Hannah?Arendt

摘要

Times of crisis often call the legitimacy of existing social orders into question. These practices of dispute and debate that question, challenge, or affirm the rules that govern our social life are what constitutes the realm of the political. This article fathoms the potential of a Political Geography that makes political practices its main point of interest. Arendt's political philosophy provides the foundation for a geography of political practices that asks about (a)?the way in which the possibility and necessity of the political is tied to the spatiality of our human condition, (b)?the relation of political practices to spatial structures and their production of particular places, spaces and scales, and (c)?the role which materiality plays in stabilizing, constraining and shaping political practices. Combining insights from Arendt's concept of political action with recent ideas of practice theories, a definition of political practices that relies on three characteristics – reflexivity, perspectivity, and expressivity – is introduced. I will argue that these metapragmatic practices, although they distinguish themselves from pragmatic practices, nevertheless, always remain embedded in and related to the web of our everyday doings.