This is the online first version published on 2023-08-15. Read the most recent version.

Agonism, decision, power – The art of working unfinished

Authors

  • John Pløger University of Agder, Kristiansand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14512/rur.1668

Keywords:

Agonism, decision, participation, Chantal Mouffe, Michel Foucault

Abstract

The current debate on agonism has become fixed in an institutional approach: How can an agonistic design institutionally become a tool against forms of domination? An agonistic space needs decisions that do not silence dissensual voices with a finite decision. This paper suggests that this agonistic approach needs de-cisions or simply put, temporary decisions drawn from seeing a decision as a solution for now. A de-cision is not a no-decision, but a decision recognised as temporary. The paper proposes ‘the sketch’ as an appropriate mode for working de-cisionally and unfinished. By having a sketch and working de-cisionally, planners are able to invite agonistic positions to ongoing talks and to act progressively, adaptably, or rationally in the face of emerging circumstances and uncertainty. To work unfinished from a sketch transforms the planning process from being a matter of reaching a finite decision to a strife about how to understand the present and which temporary contours and directions to move on from. The paper as such thus deals with difficult praxis questions, for instance: How is it possible to allow dissent to inform planning praxis in praxis? How can quarrelling and working unfinished empower planning democracy?

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Published

2023-08-15

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Issue

Vol. 81 No. 5 (2023)

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Research Article

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Articles in Raumforschung und Raumordnung – Spatial Research and Planning are published under a Creative Commons license. From Vol. 79 No. 2 (2021), the license applied is CC BY 4.0. From Vol. 77 No. 1 to Vol. 79 No.1, articles were published under a CC BY-SA license. Earlier volumes have been re-published by oekom 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY 4.0. 

How to Cite

1.
Pløger J. Agonism, decision, power – The art of working unfinished. RuR [Internet]. 2023 Aug. 15 [cited 2024 Oct. 7];81(5). Available from: https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/1668
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