1. Introduction: Politics of Anxiety, Emmy Eklundh, Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet and Andreja Zevnik / Part I: Politicizing Anxiety / 2. For want of not: Lacan’s conception of anxiety, J. Peter Burgess / 3. When does Repression become Political?, Henrique Tavares Furtado / Part II: Security: Control / 4. Anxiety: Trauma: Resilience, Mark Neocleous / 5. The New Age of Suspicion, Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet and Fabienne Brion / 6. The Effects of Uncertainty: Anxiety and Crisis Preparedness, Carsten Baran / Part III: Resistance: Reclaiming / 7. The Politics of Anxiety and the Rise of Far-Right Parties in Europe, Norma Rossi / 8. Indignation as resistance: Beyond the Anxiety of No Future Alternatives, Paolo Cossarini / 9. Neurotic Neoliberalism and the Economics of Anxiety, Japhy Wilson / Part IV: Epilogue / 10. Sovereign Anxiety and Baroque Politics, Michael Dillon
Emmy Eklundh is a Lecturer in Spanish and International Politics at
King’s College London. She researches social movements and populist
parties in Europe and contemporary challenges to democratic
theory.
Andreja Zevnik is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at
the University of Manchester. She publishes widely on topics of
political philosophy, psychoanalysis, political struggles of
marginalised groups (especially in the US), and the subject of
resistance.
Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet is researcher at the Université Catholique
de Louvain (UCL, Belgium) and associate researcher at the Centre
for Research on Conflict Liberty and Security (CCLS, Paris -
France).
Anxiety is arguably more fundamental to the human condition than
any other emotion or affect. Yet we know comparatively little about
its specificities. This book theorizes anxiety beyond the limits of
20th century psychoanalysis, and offers a novel approach to the
politics of anxiety, demonstrating not just the dangers but
potentials of anxiety for political subjects of the present.
*Julian Reid, Professor of International Relations, University of
Lapland*
From media discourses about economic crises to insecurity traumas
about terrorism, or from exacerbated fears of political extremism
in Western democracies to daily suspicions or neuroses about
“others” who do not look or act “like us,” our contemporary
condition is often seen or felt by many to be stress-inducing,
highly uncertain, and indeed anxiety-creating. This important
volume tackles the political dimensions and implications of today’s
“logic of anxiety.” Focusing not just on what, transnationally,
this politics of anxiety looks like but also on what it does and
produces—and on what subjects and subjectivities it both enables
and undermines—Politics of Anxiety deftly combines rich theoretical
analyses with prescient empirical studies. The result is a text
that is sure to be an essential reading for students and scholars
eager to understand and challenge contemporary practices, policies,
and ideologies of fear, terror, and anxiety.
*François Debrix, Professor, Virginia Tech, USA*
This much needed collection will put the politics of anxiety (and
the anxiety of politics) squarely on the critical agenda. The
editors are to be congratulated for curating such a stimulating set
of interventions drawing out the distinctive immanent logics of
anxiety in contraposition to the transcendent and linear logics of
calculative risk. The collection bristles with an excitement and
positivity which is as necessary as it is refreshing.
*David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, University
of Westminster*
This book is a must read. While there are many accounts that have
the ambition to explain today’s political uncertainty, the authors
of this book convincingly show that anxiety is the main driving
force. Economic inequalities may play an important role but the
power of affect and emotions is even more important.
*Jan Willem Duyvendak, Distinguished Research Professor of
Sociology,University of Amsterdam*
This insightful volume analyses the politics of anxiety and its
connection to security and resistance. By focusing on what
different logics of anxiety can tell us about the present and the
opening up of new political spaces, this excellent book grasps
wholeheartedly the changing nature of anxiety and subjectivity in
an era riddled with uncertainty. A true joy to read!
*Catarina Kinnvall, Professor of Political Science, Lund
University. Co-author of ‘The Political Psychology of
Globalization: Muslims in the West’*
The contributors to this volume convincingly argue that we are
firmly in an age of anxiety in which security threats are not
specified and fear is of the unknown. Yet, while anxiety—as an
affect and practice of security—enables the articulation of a
never-ending and trauma-inflected list of threats that rob us of a
temporality of the future, it also creates openings for a politics
of resistance. This volume capably pinpoints how anxiety is central
for understanding security practices in a variety of events and by
drawing on several theorists often overlooked in the field of
International Relations. Most importantly, it contributes to the
difficult work of rechanneling anxiety toward an imaginary of
change in the face of practices of security and sovereignty that
fail to justify themselves or allay our fears.
*Jack Amoureux, Visiting Assistant Professor, Wake Forest
University*
As a volume, it is well-anchored in its engagement with Lacan,
seeking specifically to rethink existing discussions around the
topic of anxiety.
*Security Dialogue*
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