Social Policy beyond Fear

The Globalization of Strangeness, the ‘War on Terror’, and ‘Spaces of Wonder’

Bibliographic Data

ID11197916
AuthorsChris Rumford (Royal Holloway University of London, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume42
Issue6
Pages630-644
Publication date2008-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Policy and Administration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9515.2008.00628.x
OpenAlexW2042085857
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited14

Fear has become central to social scientific understandings of contemporary insecurities. However, this article argues that a focus on fear is not sufficient, and that an exploration of ‘wonder’ is more productive, particularly when trying to understand modes of governance and policy regimes introduced as part of the ‘war on terror’. An appropriate starting point for such an exploration is the globalization of strangeness. The idea that globalization has undermined the familiar territoriality of a world of nation states has become accepted in the social science literature. However, the nature of the resulting unfamiliarity or strangeness of the world is rarely explored. This article focuses on the processes by means of which the world is rendered strange and examines the opportunities for new forms of governance opened up by a world designated as insecure, uncertain and unpredictable. The article pays particular attention to the ways in which this strangeness can generate ‘spaces of wonder’. Examples of such ‘spaces of wonder’ include ‘the world’, the UK's border, now offshore according to the Home Office, and ‘global borderlands’. The article advances a critical reading of contemporary political responses to ‘spaces of wonder’, particularly the ways in which the unknown and threatening are rendered in familiar and cosy terms

Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Globalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Strangeness · Wonder · Homelessness and Social Issues · Irish and British Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy

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