ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces and distinguishes representational and post-representational political approaches and explains why anti-detention activists are looking beyond the representational. In doing so, the chapter explains and interrogates the central problematic of the book. The first section defines what we mean by representational politics and locates it within the wide and diverse existing literature in which representation is a dominant framing of political action. The second section identifies the representational current prevalent in anti-detention organising and discusses the uses and limitations of representational forms of political intervention. The third section introduces the concept of post-representational politics as a form of analysis and an approach to political praxis. I give a tripartite typography of post-representational politics in action, arguing that it encompasses direct action, prefigurative politics and activist edgework. Finally, the chapter concludes by raising challenges for post-representational forms of anti-detention activism.
