Authoritarian subjectivation through nested spatio-temporal scales – a case study from an East German boomtown

Understanding civil society as both an ‘integral’ part of (local) states (Jessop, 2020) and a pivotal locus of the formation of authoritarian politics, this paper analyses the granular emergence of authoritarianism in processes of political subjectivation. Despite increasing interest in the spatiality of political subjectivation (Ansell and McNamara, 2018; Mullis, 2021), multiscalar and temporally sensitive analyses of authoritarian micropolitics are yet lacking. Addressing this gap, the paper traces the spatio-temporality of political subjectivation. The analysis is based on a 13-month ethnographic and qualitative case study in a very poor, politically polarized inner-city neighbourhood of Leipzig, East Germany. Drawing from this material, authoritarian articulations of residents are contextualized with their experiences of multiple, nested spatio-temporal scales of subjectivation. Through introducing the concept temporalities of belonging, it is then demonstrated how subjects’ politicized relations to others are shaped by their generational and stratified positions within multiple geo-historical scales. These are identified as an unevenly reunited nation; a post-shrinking (post-socialist) boomtown; a stigmatized yet gentrifying neighbourhood and lastly, commodifying rental houses. Untangling these different scales in their interdependence, I focus on the specificity of a nostalgic temporality of belonging that incentivizes authoritarian scapegoating of more marginalized populations over practical, solidary engagement with occurring problems in the neighbourhood. Literature ANSELL, B. and MCNAMARA, K.R. (2018) Housing, Place, and Populism. In: American Political Science Association Annual Meetings. Boston, MA. JESSOP, B. (2020) Putting Civil Society in Its Place: Governance, Metagovernance and Subjectivity. Bristol: Policy Press. MULLIS, D. (2021) Urban conditions for the rise of the far right in the global city of Frankfurt: From austerity urbanism, post-democracy and gentrification to regressive collectivity. Urban Studies, 58(1), pp. 131–147.