Gramscian considerations on the contentious politics of austere neoliberalism: critical junctures after the global economic crisis

Abstract

In dialogue with Della Porta’s work on protests as critical junctures and drawing on the comparative analysis of four case studies in Europe (Barcelona and Dublin) and North America (Baltimore and Montréal), the paper develops a neo-Gramscian perspective on the impact and legacies of urban resistance to austere neoliberalism after the Global Economic Crisis (GEC) of 2008–9. Framed by the postulated ‘interregnum’ in the hegemony of neoliberalism, it argues that the conjunctural politics of the period are defined by a continuing conflict between passive revolutionary subsumption and generative anti-systemic politics, which plays out in acute form in the international urban arena. The paper accordingly contributes to the journal’s work on the relationship between protests and social structures, situating urban movements in multi-scalar socio-economic, political and cultural contexts and developing reflections on the conjunctural significance of anti-systemic struggles.