How Everyday Radicalism and Contemporary Municipalism Can Create More Democratic Futures

The need for radical democracy to transform the political economy and urban governance feels as urgent as it does distant. Recent scholarship and activism has located the ‘everyday’ as a prime site of radical politics. This is a critical sociological perspective of the everyday, in which the social becomes integral to political struggle. Pre-figurative politics imagine the future through practising it in the present in order to advance change. It holds much potential for providing immediate improvements in peoples’ lives and a shift towards a more just society through re-invigorating the imagination of radical democracy. The promise has not been fully realised.

This paper aims to explore the potential of pre-figurative politics through articulating the concept of ‘everyday radicalism’ and how this can be connected this with contemporary forms of radical municipalist public policy and institutions. Drawing on an action research project with a women’s group in Manchester, England, the paper will argue for democratisation of the concept and practice of pre-figurative politics by opening it up to include DIY social action. It will argue that evidence of alternative practices can be connected to democratic institutions through the development of a more radical form of evaluation alongside contemporary innovations in municipalism. It is hoped that this can contribute towards the aim of creating a new political purpose for sociology (Back and Puwar, 2012).