David A Westbrook
Biographic Data
| ID | 119257 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David A Westbrook |
| GIVEN NAMES | David A |
| FAMILY NAME | Westbrook |
| SIGNATURE | WESTBROOK D A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University at Buffalo, State University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3074-3115 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Anticipation, Social Theory, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
This paper is about how the future is conceived and perceived in military policy circles. The recent proliferation of terms used to articulate the likely features of future warfare—“hybrid,” “unconventional,” and especially “deep” wars—suggests that far from witnessing a coherent military readjustment to future threats, we are instead seeing linguistic, largely bureaucratic efforts to think about the near future, and how we should respond today, …
From the Ivory Tower to the Football Stadium: A Rueful Response to Michael Hüther
In “Tired of Science?! Notes on the Relationship between University and Society,” Michael Hüther insightfully updates a preoccupation of German intellectuals running back at least to Kant’s Conflict of the Faculties, the relationship between science and society, and so between “truth” and “politics,” and the extent to which an enlightened politics is even possible—but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves
Social Capitalism: A Descriptive Sketch
I wish to discuss political economy in some rather idiosyncratic ways. For those of you with jobs in finance or related fields (in which I teach), please do not take anything said here too seriously, as that would be professionally irresponsible. That was a joke, sort of. There are basic ways that we as a society think about, and professionally certify, participation in our economy. Normative political thought, and therefore teaching, proceeds on…
Afghanistan, “We Hardly Knew Ye”: Why the Lessons of Vietnam Were Not Learned
A long time ago, this past midsummer, the United States left Afghanistan (or at least its main body of troops left) much as the Taliban said it would, as everybody knew it would, sooner or later, didn’t they? Kabul fell almost immediately, on August 15. (Small irony: I write on Armistice Day, November 11.) The U.S. government claimed to be surprised at the speed with which the Afghan military collapsed. Just speculating, but with the endgame clea…
Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy, and a Sense of the Modern
Getting Through Security offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of global security structures. The authors unveil the “secret colleges” of counterterrorism, a world haunted by the knowledge that intelligence will fail, and Leviathan will not arrive quickly enough to save everyone. Based on extensive interviews with both special forces and other security operators who seek to protect the public, and survivors of terrorist attacks, Getting …
Security by Design: Counterterrorism at the Airport
Figure 1. “Man-made - San Francisco - Airport,” photograph by Andrew Choy, Santa Clara, California, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license.Figure 2. “Brussels after the terror attacks,” photograph b
Magical Contracts, Numinous Capitalism
Magical contracts, numinous capitalism
Much of US social reality is constructed through contractual rituals, typically thought to be words that create enforceable relations. Such relations are backed by the power of the state and are said to exist on some plane above the empirical. Politically, we speak of a social contract. Economically, contracts lie at the heart of markets, and thus of a commercial society. But just how do individuals use words that construct a suprasensible realit…
Creative Engagements Indeed! Open 'Disciplines,' the Allure of Others, and Intellectual Fertility
Just like asking after love suggests loneliness, asking after creative engagements invokes lack, perhaps even hunger. How many of us in the academy, to say nothing of the cubicle stalag, feel deeply disengaged? How many suspect that, although we work ostentatiously enough, our work could be done by others, or not at all, and so does not offer us the opportunities to be authors (parents, gods)? Are we neither creative nor engaged
Designs for an anthropology of the contemporary – By Paul Rabinow & George E. Marcus with James D. Faubion & Tobias Rees: Book reviews
Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters
Strategic Consequences of Radical Islamic Neofundamentalism
Intellectual Vocations in the City of Gold
The Globalization of American Law
City of Gold
David A. Westbrook argues that we live in "the city of gold"--a global, cosmopolitan polity where politics are done through markets, and where global capital markets, not states, have become the dominant force in our social life
City of Gold: An Apology for Global Capitalism in a Time of Discontent
Conception -- Money as communication -- Finance and the war against time -- Urban renewal -- Governance -- Alienation -- Inauthenticity -- Identity, tense -- The reformation of economics -- After economic justice -- The disenchantment of liberalism -- True markets -- Orderly markets -- Beyond the market
Intellectual Vocations in the City of Gold
Security by Design: Counterterrorism at the Airport
Figure 1. “Man-made - San Francisco - Airport,” photograph by Andrew Choy, Santa Clara, California, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license.Figure 2. “Brussels after the terror attacks,” photograph b
Magical contracts, numinous capitalism
Much of US social reality is constructed through contractual rituals, typically thought to be words that create enforceable relations. Such relations are backed by the power of the state and are said to exist on some plane above the empirical. Politically, we speak of a social contract. Economically, contracts lie at the heart of markets, and thus of a commercial society. But just how do individuals use words that construct a suprasensible realit…
Strategic Consequences of Radical Islamic Neofundamentalism
The Globalization of American Law
City of Gold: An Apology for Global Capitalism in a Time of Discontent
Conception -- Money as communication -- Finance and the war against time -- Urban renewal -- Governance -- Alienation -- Inauthenticity -- Identity, tense -- The reformation of economics -- After economic justice -- The disenchantment of liberalism -- True markets -- Orderly markets -- Beyond the market
City of Gold
David A. Westbrook argues that we live in "the city of gold"--a global, cosmopolitan polity where politics are done through markets, and where global capital markets, not states, have become the dominant force in our social life
Intellectual Vocations in the City of Gold
The Globalization of American Law
Strategic Consequences of Radical Islamic Neofundamentalism
Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters
Designs for an anthropology of the contemporary – By Paul Rabinow & George E. Marcus with James D. Faubion & Tobias Rees: Book reviews
Creative Engagements Indeed! Open 'Disciplines,' the Allure of Others, and Intellectual Fertility
Just like asking after love suggests loneliness, asking after creative engagements invokes lack, perhaps even hunger. How many of us in the academy, to say nothing of the cubicle stalag, feel deeply disengaged? How many suspect that, although we work ostentatiously enough, our work could be done by others, or not at all, and so does not offer us the opportunities to be authors (parents, gods)? Are we neither creative nor engaged
Magical contracts, numinous capitalism
Much of US social reality is constructed through contractual rituals, typically thought to be words that create enforceable relations. Such relations are backed by the power of the state and are said to exist on some plane above the empirical. Politically, we speak of a social contract. Economically, contracts lie at the heart of markets, and thus of a commercial society. But just how do individuals use words that construct a suprasensible realit…
Magical Contracts, Numinous Capitalism
Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy, and a Sense of the Modern
Getting Through Security offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of global security structures. The authors unveil the “secret colleges” of counterterrorism, a world haunted by the knowledge that intelligence will fail, and Leviathan will not arrive quickly enough to save everyone. Based on extensive interviews with both special forces and other security operators who seek to protect the public, and survivors of terrorist attacks, Getting …
Security by Design: Counterterrorism at the Airport
Figure 1. “Man-made - San Francisco - Airport,” photograph by Andrew Choy, Santa Clara, California, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license.Figure 2. “Brussels after the terror attacks,” photograph b
Social Capitalism: A Descriptive Sketch
I wish to discuss political economy in some rather idiosyncratic ways. For those of you with jobs in finance or related fields (in which I teach), please do not take anything said here too seriously, as that would be professionally irresponsible. That was a joke, sort of. There are basic ways that we as a society think about, and professionally certify, participation in our economy. Normative political thought, and therefore teaching, proceeds on…
Afghanistan, “We Hardly Knew Ye”: Why the Lessons of Vietnam Were Not Learned
A long time ago, this past midsummer, the United States left Afghanistan (or at least its main body of troops left) much as the Taliban said it would, as everybody knew it would, sooner or later, didn’t they? Kabul fell almost immediately, on August 15. (Small irony: I write on Armistice Day, November 11.) The U.S. government claimed to be surprised at the speed with which the Afghan military collapsed. Just speculating, but with the endgame clea…
From the Ivory Tower to the Football Stadium: A Rueful Response to Michael Hüther
In “Tired of Science?! Notes on the Relationship between University and Society,” Michael Hüther insightfully updates a preoccupation of German intellectuals running back at least to Kant’s Conflict of the Faculties, the relationship between science and society, and so between “truth” and “politics,” and the extent to which an enlightened politics is even possible—but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves
Anticipation, Social Theory, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
This paper is about how the future is conceived and perceived in military policy circles. The recent proliferation of terms used to articulate the likely features of future warfare—“hybrid,” “unconventional,” and especially “deep” wars—suggests that far from witnessing a coherent military readjustment to future threats, we are instead seeing linguistic, largely bureaucratic efforts to think about the near future, and how we should respond today, …
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · History (4 works) · Law and economics (4 works)