Anarchy,Geography and Drift

Abstract: The consumerist economies of the late modern city, in combination with contemporary models of urban policing, operate to close down the public spaces of social life. In response, social groups dedicated to democratic urbanism utilize anarchic tactics of “dis‐organization” and direct action to reopen public space and to revitalize it with unregulated activity. Complicating and animating these spatial conflicts is the issue of drift. On the one hand, consumerist economies and contemporary policing strategies exacerbate urban drift, spawning the very sorts of spatial transgression they seek to control. On the other hand, many of the progressive movements that battle for open space and alternative economic arrangements themselves embrace a culture of drift, and explore drift for its anarchic and progressive potential. In this context drift can usefully be investigated as an emergent form of epistemology, community, and spatial politics.