Politics of catastrophe : genealogies of the unknown / Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aradau, Claudia, 1976-

Contributor:

Munster, Rens van, 1977-

Series:

PRIO new security studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Terrorism--Political aspects.

Terrorism.

Terrorism--Government policy.

Crisis management.

Security, International.

Physical Description:

viii, 167 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Summary:

This book argues that catastrophe is a particular way of governing future events - such as terrorism, climate change or pandemics - which we cannot predict but which may strike suddenly, without warning, and cause irreversible damage.

In a time when catastrophe increasingly functions as a signifier of our future, imaginaries of pending doom have fostered new modes of anticipatory security knowledge and redeployed existing ones. Although sharing many similarities with crises, disasters, risks and other disruptive incidents, catastrophes further challenge the limits of knowledge and management. The politics of catastrophe is turned towards an unknown future, which must be imagined and inhabited in order to be made palpable, knowable and actionable. Politics of Catastrophe critically assesses the effects of the conjectural governance of 'catastrophes to come' and invites the reader to think about the possibility of an alternative politics of catastrophe.

This book will be of interest to students of critical security studies, risk theory, political theory and international relations in general. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Securing catastrophic futures

Conjectures of catastrophe : "the next terrorist attack"

Economies of catastrophe

Imagining catastrophes

Aesthetics of catastrophe

Catastrophe, exception, event

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [139]-160) and index.

ISBN:

9780415498098

0415498090

OCLC:

689858517