How Not to Learn From Catastrophe

Habermas, Critical Theory and the “Catastrophization” of Political Life

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6350477
AutoresAntonio Y Vázquez-Arroyo (0000-0003-1817-6381, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume41
Fascículo5
Páginas738-765
Data de publicação2013-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitical Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0090591713492776
OpenAlexW2054069118
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14

This essay conceptualizes the intersections between contemporary catastrophes and political life by exploring how narratives of catastrophe mediate discursive and objective processes of catastrophization. It argues for the need to counteract catastrophization, a discursive and objective political phenomenon, by not only re-cognizing how catastrophes impinge on political life but by offering a more critical understanding of this intersection. The essay thus calls for the politicization of catastrophe as a response to the “catastrophization of political life.” Apropos of these concerns, it engages with Habermas in order to explore how his political theory and interventions illustrate important aspects of the intersections between narratives of catastrophe and contemporary political life, say, how discursive catastrophization leads to the misrecognition of objective modalities of catastrophe. Overall, this essay offers an account of how to conceptualize catastrophe and catastrophization in order to articulate the broad contours of a political theory of catastrophe

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Modalities · Narrative · Order (exchange · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics