Introduction

The ‘turn to culture’ which characterises recent postmodern theorising has had important ramifications for political theory and practice. For many, it has represented a turn away from politics, for others a reconceptualisation of the political. The nature of ‘the political’ has long been subject to dispute within political theory. Yet the disputes have tended to take place within a topographical framework, evaluating competing conceptions of the political as located within the state, civil society or the personal realms of life. In contrast, postmodern perspectives on the political have tended to adopt non-topographical conceptions which are dynamic and fluid. Rather than focusing on institutions, these perspectives have highlighted discursive, linguistic, psychological and performative moments of political action. On this schema, the political is neither procedural, hermeneutic nor expressive, it is aesthetic.

These aesthetic conceptions of the political have offered significant insights into contemporary society.