A crisis of crisis management

The polycrisis, the organization of pessimism, and the defensive turn

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2398506
AutoresBenjamin Seyd (0000-0002-8346-9423, Universität Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen28
Número4
Páginas644-671
Fecha de publicación2025-04-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13684310251336133
OpenAlexW4409901453
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas54

In an attempt to systematize the widespread, though analytically vague diagnosis of a 'polycrisis,' the article theorizes the current condition as the outflow of a 'crisis of crisis management.' In this reading, the paradigm of financialization, established in the 1970s and increasingly overwhelmed by economic risk, geopolitical complexities, and ecological devastation, is no longer trusted to reconcile the competing objectives of emancipation, democratization, sustainability, and growth-thus giving rise to a plethora of co-constitutive crises. Meanwhile, institutional erosion has unleashed affective energies that drive increasingly fierce attempts at political re-articulation. Together, these constitute a defensive turn, in which a revisionist-populist, an eco-modernist, and an eco-emancipatory project appear increasingly entrenched. Yet, given the depth of the crisis and its added ecological complication, likely none of these will prevail. With a further 'controlled burning' in the cards, the 'organization of pessimism' (Benjamin) will likely move beyond the well-known political options of the present

Crisis management · Economics · Epistemology · Pessimism · Political economy · Political science · Positive economics · Sociology · Disaster Management and Resilience · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US