When Disasters Come Home: Making and Manipulating Emergencies in the West

ISBN-13: 9781509550630 / Angielski / Miękka / 2023 / 224 str.

David Keen

Recenzje

"This is an important book, full of original and thought-provoking insights, about how the permanent emergencies that characterize large parts of what is known as the Global South, as well as the self-reinforcing 'magical thinking' that goes with them, are increasingly to be found in places like Britain and the United States of America."Mary Kaldor, the London School of Economics and Political Science"In this remarkable book, David Keen has brought decades of disaster research to devastating fruition. Once thought the lot of less fortunate regions, a state of permanent emergency engulfs the rich world. From the economy, politics and society to the environment and climate change, an interconnected and self-reinforcing general crisis now defines the way people live and die. As Keen shows, however, all disasters have winners and losers. Unable to address this general crisis and, should it reduce profits, unwilling to tackle its root causes, politicians have instead embraced permanent emergency as a new and magical mode of government. Able to override democracy in the name of emergency, the winners have foisted austerity and precarity on the masses, while inflicting acts of exemplary cruelty on the weak and vulnerable. This book lays bare the predicament and sounds the alarm: sleepwalkers, ignore it at your peril."Mark Duffield, University of Bristol"A comprehensive insight into how and why disasters are created by the western democracies."Ksenia Chmutina, Loughborough University

Spis treści

AcknowledgementsChapter 1: Disasters Coming HomeChapter 2: Lessons from the 'Far Away'Chapter 3: A Self-reinforcing System?Chapter 4: Emergency PoliticsChapter 5: Hostile EnvironmentsChapter 6: Welcoming InfectionChapter 7: Magical ThinkingChapter 8: Policing DelusionsChapter 9: Action as PropagandaChapter 10: Choosing DisasterChapter 11: Home to RoostBibliographyNotes

O autorze

David Keen is Professor of Conflict Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.