Crisis and Communitas. An Introduction

International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2022

This is the Introduction to the special issue on Covid-19 and the cultural constructions of a global crisis. Contextualizing understandings of the pandemic in relation to the concepts of 'event' and 'crisis', especially to the idea that modernity is itself a condition of perpetual crisis, it proposes that the pandemic is a crisis-event that catalyses new possibilities for making visible endemic inequalities and injustices across highly variable cultural and social domains, from the personal to the global. Always open to containment and appropriation, this crisis of visibility and invisibility is discussed as it pertains to the body, to space and social proximity, and to media and mediation. The individual contributions to the special issue are introduced in relation to these topics.

Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, 2021

This article provides an extensive theoretical introduction to the main topic of the special issue of the journal. The authors aim at updating the metaphoric discourse on the environmental crisis and climate change in the time recently challenged by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, concerning the central theme of the journal's issue, the authors review the "catastrophic criticism" developed in environmental humanities and ask how the perspective of depicting elemental nature has changed since modernity and its technological approach to the living world. Another question is what kind of metaphors are needed to reflect on the catastrophes and crises we face; and how the very concepts of crisis and catastrophe function as metaphors in the theories developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By reopening the question of agential nature distorted by crisis and catastrophe in a post-pandemic world, this article analyses the discursive and generic reappropriations of environmental risks, including the regional cultural background (e.g. the Chernobyl figure for CEE countries). An example which illustrates the irrelevance of nature theorized as a resource in modernity is taken from the canonical Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger. It is followed up by critical Frankfurt School philosophers' perspectives and is detectable in such environmentally loaded literature of Olga Tokarczuk's. The authors' findings show in this article how the pandemic realm has immensely repositioned how we read the leading theoreticians of catastrophic discourse. The examples are, e.g. Albert Camus or Oswald Spengler, and what texts we find relevant in the political, economic and social contexts of the debate on the contemporaneity of crisis and catastrophe, e.g. Niall Ferguson, Slavoj Žižek, Steven Pinker. In conclusion, this article draws on reopening the question on the role and authority of science in mitigating the climate and ecological crisis since the recent pandemic is an integral part of it.

Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich/The Problems of Literary Genres, 2021

This article provides an extensive theoretical introduction to the main topic of the special issue of the journal. The authors aim at updating the metaphoric discourse on the environmental crisis and climate change in the time recently challenged by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, concerning the central theme of the journal's issue, the authors review the "catastrophic criticism" developed in environmental humanities and ask how the perspective of depicting elemental nature has changed since modernity and its technological approach to the living world. Another question is what kind of metaphors are needed to reflect on the catastrophes and crises we face; and how the very concepts of crisis and catastrophe function as metaphors in the theories developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By reopening the question of agential nature distorted by crisis and catastrophe in a post-pandemic world, this article analyses the discursive and generic reappropriations of environmental risks, including the regional cultural background (e.g. the Chernobyl figure for CEE countries). An example which illustrates the irrelevance of nature theorized as a resource in modernity is taken from the canonical Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger. It is followed up by critical Frankfurt School philosophers' perspectives and is detectable in such environmentally loaded literature of Olga Tokarczuk's. The authors' findings show in this article how the pandemic realm has immensely repositioned how we read the leading theoreticians of catastrophic discourse. The examples are, e.g. Albert Camus or Oswald Spengler, and what texts we find relevant in the political, economic and social contexts of the debate on the contemporaneity of crisis and catastrophe, e.g. Niall Ferguson, Slavoj Žižek, Steven Pinker. In conclusion, this article draws on reopening the question on the role and authority of science in mitigating the climate and ecological crisis since the recent pandemic is an integral part of it.

Eikasia, 2020

The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic underscores the failed model with which we recurrently face the crises that affect our world, from climate change and the recent refugee emergencies, to the rise of political extremisms in Western societies. As the feminist philosopher Donna Haraway and the sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour argue, a paradigm shift and a redefinition of subjectivity are necessary to confront the Anthropocene. The Venice Biennale 2019, "May You Live in Interesting Times", curated by Ralph Rugoff, proposed an experimental model of artistic thought (which I will call "tentacular" utilizing the theory developed by Haraway) that questioned the paradigms inherited from the Enlightenment, and also, to a certain extent, from postmodernism. Due to its philosophical depth, this show is comparable to "Les Immatériaux" (1985), the historical exhibition curated by the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, who famously conceptualized postmodernism and the experience of the "postmodern sublime". This last concept will serve to establish a contrast with the "tentacular sublime", the contemporary experience manifested in the recent biennial. Resumen Pandemias y otras crisis sistémicas: Interesting Times, asuntos de hecho y pensamiento tentacular La actual pandemia de SARS-CoV-2 pone de relieve una vez más el modelo fallido con el nos enfrentamos a las crisis que afectan a nuestro mundo, desde el cambio climático y las recientes situaciones de emergencia de los refugiados, hasta la ascensión de los extremismos políticos en las sociedades occidentales. Como argumentan la filósofa feminista Donna Haraway y el sociólogo y filósofo Bruno Latour, se hace necesario un cambio de paradigma y una redefinición de la subjetividad para enfrentarnos al Antropoceno. La Bienal de Venecia 2019, "May You Live in Interesting Times", comisariada por Ralph Rugoff, propuso un modelo experimental de pensamiento artístico (que denominaré "tentacular" haciendo uso de la teoría desarrollada por Haraway) que cuestionaba los paradigmas heredados de la Ilustración, y también, en cierto grado, de la postmodernidad. Por su calado filosófico, la muestra es comparable a "Les Immatériaux" (1985), la histórica exposición comisariada por el filósofo Jean-François Lyotard, quien asimismo conceptualizó la postmodernidad y la experiencia de lo "sublime postmoderno", concepto que sirve para establecer un contraste con lo "sublime tentacular", la experiencia contemporánea que aportó la reciente la bienal.

American Ethnology Society Website, 2020

This essay is an introduction to a collection of essays on "Intersecting Crises," which I edited for the American Ethnological Society website in October 2020. The essays offer an ethnographically grounded approach to crises and their intersections with the Covid-19 pandemic. In this introduction, I critically reflect on the ubiquity of crisis talk and the questions it raises: What is a crisis, and who has the power to define an event or condition as such? How and when do crises begin or end? How are crises experienced and responded to, and how are such responses shaped by identity and social position? Rather than thinking of “crisis” as an external shock to an otherwise stable and functioning system, the essays develop processual understandings that recognize the diverse forces and agencies that produce what come to be understood as crises over long spans of time.

2021

This paper starts from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 Brazil, to propose a reflection that combines concepts as Necropolitics, Crisis and Biopower with the anarchic thought of Antonin Artaud, a key figure to theatre studies, in order to set lines of flight alongside the current moment, while trying to think beyond the crisis. It articulates important references of the contemporary thought about the pandemic with the disquietude that plague us as artists and scholars from Aporia-Research group in Philosophy and Performance, virtually discussed over the months of social distancing.

Phronimon, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak is currently scrutinised by professional philosophers from different traditions and geographical areas. By focusing on several contributions from European academic philosophers, this article assesses whether such philosophical works manifest and reproduce, consciously or unconsciously, neocolonial and Eurocentric understandings of the Covid-19 pandemic. Particular attention will be given to Agamben's and Žižek's interpretations to show the role played in their analysis by reductionist and regressive constructions of the social world. I will then draw on several contributions from African and Africana philosophers (Gqola, Asante, More, West and Outlaw), to set up a theoretical space in which the social experiencing of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the self-understanding of academic philosophers, could be positively reconceptualised. This act of resignification has its aim in promoting adequate forms of institutional analysis and professional engagement, and it points to the emancipatory task philosophy embodies in the global South.

2021

hydroxychloroquine, and the safety of vaccines, eroding trust in recommendations. 6 Failed efforts at mass persuasion prompted algorithmic censorship. Algorithms capable of censoring "conspiracy" talk about the pandemic were advertised by those seeking to police social media sense-making. 7 Accordingly, Vujić decries "algopolitical totalitarianism," described as "a simulation of imprisonment in various countries and beyond on a global scale, automating the repression of 'rule violations' and inciting self-censorship." 8 Algorithmic control over meaning-making presumes a uniform and invariant story of origins, effects and best practices of governance, and yet the shifting significance of particular SARS-CoV-2 narratives, such as the Wuhan Laboratory origins narrative, demonstrates how a once-censored account moved from social media margins to mainstream news headlines over time. Moreover, censorship of dissident expert views regarding pandemic policies and treatment protocols have further eroded public trust in institutional intentions, as observed by the nongovernmental organization, Human Rights Watch. 9 Authoritarian policing of meaning breeds resistance even while relegating alternative knowledge and experiences to the margins where outlaw narratives exert a kind of liminal force in both containing and troubling a preferred version, 10 what we might call "the one," following Alain Badiou. 11 Although crisis communications best practices emphasize transparency and dialogue, in practice crisis communication too often simply aim to re-establish a disrupted institutional order. 12 Crisis communications don't simply aim to restore institutional order, but also operate epistemically as they provide a preferred narration of crisis timelines, characteristics, effects and governance. These narrations are inescapably political as they reflect the intentionalities of crisis authorities conditioned by cultural expectations, as well as exigent crisis contingencies. Drawing upon ongoing pandemic

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2008

Les interventions dans les ≪ cas d'urgences humanitaires complexes ≫ sont devenues une partie essentielle de la société planétaire. Le texte fournit un compte rendu de la conception des ≪ urgences ≫en termes d'imaginaire social qui procure une caractéristique à la fois de la perception et de l'action. Cet imaginaire moule la définition et la rhétorique des urgences, les façons dont elles se présentent et sont reconnues, et l'organisation de l'intervention. II reflète à la fois l'anxiété face au risque et une foi moderne envahissante en la capacité de gérer les problèmes. Quoique les événements exigeant ces interventions – par exemple, au Soudan – soient souvent rapportés comme étant manifestement convaincants, l' « imaginaire social des urgences » organise conceptuellement ce système.Interventions into “complex humanitarian emergencies” have become a central part of global society. This article provides an account of the construction of “emergencies” in t...

Contemporary Arab Affairs

This article studies the major transformations resulting from the global Covid-19 pandemic and how to examine it from the point of view of social philosophy through two sub-themes. The first relates to understanding the state of collective panic in Spain, France, and Italy. It is logical that fear of the pandemic should not turn into a state of collective panic in societies living under technologically advanced political systems, except in cases where these societies lack the basic elements on which social ties are based. Therefore, how do we understand the fragility of these social ties in European countries where mass panic is threatening daily life? The second sub-theme is related to the gestures and features of creating a new geopolitical map that has benefitted from the geopolitical retreat of the West to consolidate other political and regional alliances, mainly the Chinese initiative to tender aid to Italy at a time when other European countries turned their backs on and clos...