Every city needs a Klinika: The struggle for autonomy in the post-political city

ABSTRACT

The article uses the struggle for an autonomous social centre in Prague to examine the concept of post-politicization in the post-socialist city. Using the case of the squatted social centre Klinika, it discusses different kinds of prefiguration and argues that the struggle for this space has the ability to re-politicize the post-political city. The case of Klinika demonstrates that post-politics is not a one-way process – but re-politicization is not either. These processes may therefore be understood as something akin to a ping-pong interaction between the post-political forces of order and the re-politicizing action of radical opponents of the status quo.

KEYWORDS:

• [autonomy
• post-politics
• prefiguration
• Prague
• post-socialism
• politicization]

Acknowledgments

I would like thank to the editors of special issue and the two anonymous reviewers for their interesting and useful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This study is a result of the research funded by the Czech Science Foundation, grant nr. 20-15012SGrantová Agentura České Republiky [20-15012S].

Notes on contributors

Arnošt Novák

Arnošt Novák is is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sociology in the Department of Social and Cultural Ecology at Charles University in Prague. He received his PhD (2015) in environmental studies from Charles University. His main areas of research interests involve environmental movements and environmental politics, commons, urban activism, and autonomous politics. He is author of The Dark Green World: Radical Ecological Activities in Czech Republic After 1989 (SLON, 2017, in Czech). His texts have appeared in Journal of Urban Affairs, Baltic Worlds and Mezinárodní Vztahy (Czech Journal of International Relations)