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11 - Representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

By
Saward Michael
Edited by
Andrew Dobson  and
Robyn Eckersley
Saward Michael
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Studies The Open University
Andrew Dobson
Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Robyn Eckersley
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Summary

‘Political theory’ is a wide and diverse body of work; in this book's title, it comes across as inert, the receptor, the thing that is acted upon. The active ingredient, the ‘challenge’, is ecological. There is, of course, no given, bounded body of political theory to be acted upon, but rather a shifting set of arguments and assumptions. And the ecological challenge is in fact many challenges – to conventional views of the state, social justice, democracy, progress, individualism and more. Which of a range of possibilities to pick when it comes to ‘representation’? How to represent the problem of representation?

Political representation is normally discussed in terms of how accurately elected representatives reflect the interests of voters. In this chapter, I argue that representation happens in many more places than just elected legislatures, and in many more ways than the accurate capturing of human interests. I start from the view that representative claims are made by a great variety of political actors, and that representation involves the active portrayal of constituencies rather than simple reflection of them. From that base, it quickly becomes clear that adding some ‘proxy’ representatives of nature into conventional legislatures (Dobson 1996), for example, is just one part of the ecological challenge, and probably not the most important part.

Type
Chapter
Information
Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge , pp. 183 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Representation
    • By Saward Michael, Department of Politics and International Studies The Open University
  • Edited by Andrew Dobson, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617805.012
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Representation
    • By Saward Michael, Department of Politics and International Studies The Open University
  • Edited by Andrew Dobson, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617805.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Representation
    • By Saward Michael, Department of Politics and International Studies The Open University
  • Edited by Andrew Dobson, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617805.012
Available formats
×