![\"Hulme](\"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/jwi\/files\/2016\/09\/2459358103_f90dd0fc6e_o.jpg\")
<\/a>Hulme Crescents, Manchester 1979 Photo credit: Alan Denney<\/a> (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n The 2016-17 PTRG Programme kicked off with a cross-disciplinary paper examining the interplay between political theory and architecture. Tahl\u2019s research seeks to apply political theory frameworks not only to overtly political cases but also to approaches and case studies in architecture. In particular he focuses on the process of \u2018r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em>\u2019, whereby critiques of dominant practices in either politics or architecture are \u2018coopted\u2019 by the very practices that they challenge. Through co-optation or r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em> such critiques are \u2018absorbed by society and transformed from a threat to the system into an integral part of it.\u2019 Building on the work of a range of political theorists, most notably Ernesto Laclau, this paper looks to provide an analysis and reconstruction of this process in order to arrive at a model for better understanding how r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em> functions within architecture. Tahl looks to situate this discussion within the context of the influential social critiques which emerged from the protest movements of 1968.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our discussion touched on the interdisciplinary character of Tahl\u2019s approach and the similarities and differences in forms of both critique and r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em> in politics and architecture. This included questions about how r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em> is experienced in these different spheres and the extent to which the concepts we use to understand r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration <\/em>can be transported directly from one discipline to the other. We also considered whether some forms of critique are more resistant to r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em> than others and, if this is the case, the characteristics which might define those critiques which are more r\u00e9cup\u00e9ration<\/em>-proof. An important theme throughout the discussion related to the role which architecture does play, and the role which architecture ought<\/em> to play, in challenging existing structures of social power.<\/p>\n Written by Andrew Drever<\/a><\/p>\n ****<\/p>\n