Counter-hegemonic Politics Between Coping and Performative Self-contradictions (A European Commentary)

This chapter provides a critical analysis of a case study of a self-managed informal collective and leftist house project in Germany, the Political Cultural Centre (PCC), drawing on observations, group discussions and biographical interviews conducted between June and December 2016. Formed in 2015 by a group of art students and left-wing activists as an alternative space housed in an old building, the PCC consisted of about 30 young people, ranging in age from 18 to 40 years of age, with the majority between 20 and 25 years at the time of our research. This chapter analyses the group’s experiences of alternative-space life through the lens of (counter)politics, focusing on how these young people dealt with the challenges of self-performative contradictions through practices of coping. In so doing, this chapter reflects on the complexities that arise from the (counter-)hegemonic idea of the centre as a political project and reconstructs the power relations and the temporality of doing counter-hegemonic politics within a capitalist society. Based on this analysis, the chapter compares the PCC experience with case studies of other social movements, specifically the Manchester-based young feminists and socialists (Chapters 5 and 6, respectively).