Staging Representation in the Square

This paper explores a new and distinctive site of the staging representative politics and its performance: the Square. The Square is a device for thinking about power and politics when the represented and representatives are physically co-present, such as in a city square or council chambers. The paper brings ideas of participation and representation together. It argues that Hanna Pitkin’s inclusion of literal absence in her widely accepted definition of representation is misleading. Physical co-presence, virtual or remote co-presence, or an absence of co-presence are not central to the very meaning of representation. Evoking a sense of presence (Pitkin’s ‘in some sense’) through performing representative claims can and will occur in all these contexts including the face-to-face. The paper examines key dimensions of power and disempowerment in the Square, and how physical co-presence highlights performance – positioning and staging of self, others and material objects in space, the privileging of voice and movement. The analysis throws into relief key issues of where and when claims to representation are, or can be, staged and performed, and contributes to our efforts to understand the critical role of staging, timing and material context in shaping the dynamics of political representation.