1st Edition

Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life

Edited By Rachel Pain, Susan J. Smith Copyright 2008
    280 Pages
    by Routledge

    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    'Fear' in the twenty-first century has greater currency in western societies than ever before. Through scares ranging from cot death, juvenile crime, internet porn, asylum seekers, dirty bombs and avian flu, we are bombarded with messages about emerging risks. This book takes stock of a range of issues of 'fear' and presents new theoretical arguments and research findings that cover topics as diverse as the war on terror, the immigration crisis, stranger danger, global disease epidemics and sectarian violence. This book charts the association of fear discourses with particular spaces, times, social identities and sets of geopolitical relations. It examines the ways in which fear may be manufactured and manipulated for political purposes, sometimes becoming a tool of repression, and relates fear to political, economic and social marginalization at different scales. Furthermore, it highlights the importance and sometimes unpredictability of everyday lived experiences of fear - the many ways in which people recognize, make sense of and manage fear; the extent of resistance to fear; the relation of fear and hope in everyday life; and the role of emotions in galvanizing political and social action and change.

    Chapter 1 Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life, Rachel Pain, Susan J. Smith; section1 State Fears and Popular Fears; Chapter 2 1This is an abridged and updated version of ‘The Critical Geopolitics of Danger in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan’, first published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2005, 23, 555–80. Some of the material in this chapter is reproduced from that article by kind permission of Pion Limited, London., Nick Megoran; Chapter 3 ‘Growing Pains’? Fear, Exclusion and Citizenship in a Disadvantaged UK Neighbourhood, Catherine Louise Alexander; Chapter 4 Fear and the Familial in the US War on Terror, Deborah Cowen, Emily Gilbert; Chapter 5 1This is an abridged version of a chapter with the same name published in Sorkin, M. (2007), Indefensible Space: The Architecture of the National Insecurity State by kind permission of Routledge., Cindi Katz; section2 Fear of Nature and the Nature of Fear; Chapter 6 Pandemic Anxiety and Global Health Security, Alan Ingram; Chapter 7 Nature, Fear and Rurality, Jo Little; section3 Encountering Fear and Otherness; Chapter 8 Scaling Segregation; Racialising Fear, Peter E. Hopkins, Susan J. Smith; Chapter 9 Practising Fear: Encountering O/other Bodies, Michael Haldrup, Lasse Koefoed, Kirsten Simonsen; Chapter 10 Neither Relaxed nor Comfortable: The Affective Regulation of Migrant Belonging in Australia, Greg Noble, Scott Poynting; Chapter 11 Youth and the Geopolitics of Risk after 11 September 2001, Kathrin Hörschelmann; section4 Regulating Fear; Chapter 12 On Strawberry Fields and Cherry Picking: Fear and Desire in the Bordering and Immigration Politics of the European Union, Henk van Houtum, Roos Pijpers; Chapter 13 Identity Cards and Coercion in Palestine, Nadia Abu Zhara; Chapter 14 Ethno-sectarianism and the Construction of Fear in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Peter Shirlow; section5 Fear, Resistance and Hope; Chapter 15 Whose Fear Is It Anyway? Resisting Terror Fear and Fear for Children, Rachel Pain;

    Biography

    Rachel Pain is Reader in Human Geography, University of Durham, UK and Susan J. Smith is Professor of Geography, University of Durham, UK.

    'It is not enough to say "face your fear". Your "fear" or our "fear", contemporary debates too often treat "fear" as if it can be resisted, manipulated, denied, transformed. This collection of essays takes complexities about "fear" and enables us to do all of the above. Its eclectic and challenging contributions place the "fear" debate into lived experience, political realities and histories, "known" resistance and acceptance of one's place in a complex world. A must read, and a must discuss, with a little hope rather than fear thrown in.' Betsy Stanko, Royal Holloway, University of London and London Metropolitan Police 'This book delivers in its aim to provide a new way of knowing what fear is and the many ways it functions within society .' MC Reviews '...In connecting geopolitics to everyday life, the authors revitalise the debate and shed light on the meanings and emotions of human beings in different settings and with different privileges, or lack thereof...The editors also clearly show how the research on fear of crime goes far beyond issues of criminology, safety and security, and how a lower priority given to everyday life has been a shortcoming in the greater discussion on geopolitics. The book is recommended to scholars from different disciplines and interests as fear touches upon so many parts of life.' Urban Studies