LAUSR

ABSTRACT This paper utilizes the concepts of agonism and antagonism to further the existing analysis of active citizenship within local governance. At present, this relationship is taking place as housing stock increasingly becomes the subject of financialization. Embedded in this context, and with a particular focus on active citizenship’s manifestation in estate redevelopment and how it moulds the interactions between citizen and state, I discuss how differing conceptions of the nature of active citizenship serve to create distrust and hostility throughout the redevelopment process, using the case study of the Cressingham Gardens estate in the London borough of Lambeth. Through conducting extensive qualitative research with state actors and estate residents, this study illustrates the mechanisms by which active citizenship that falls outside the remit deemed acceptable by the state is challenged on a live, contested site.