Prefiguring Anarchy: An Exploration of Self-Managed Social Centres as Spaces of Radical Care

Abstract

This thesis explores the ways in which the future is approached and embodied through prefigurative politics in three self-Managed social centres in London, the United Kingdom. The concept of prefigurative politics, which entails the embodiment of an imagined future in the present, allows for a framing of everyday practices as political and radical. Because the communities that make up the social centres are very diverse, a myriad of different futures are simultaneously being prefigured through the radical politics enacted in the spaces. What these different futures have in common is the goal of creating autonomy and fighting against oppression. Through the creation of horizontal relationships, built upon care, solidarity, and support, the communities that make up the social centres try to achieve independence from structures of domination. This way, care can be considered a radical practice through which a more autonomous and just future is prefigured on a small, local scale.