The Apocalypse from Below
The Dangerous Idea of the End of the World, the Politics of the Oppressed, and Anti-Anti-Apocalypticism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3321670 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joe P L Davidson (0000-0003-1800-3771, University of Warwick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 479-491 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055424000479 |
| OpenAlex | W4397011538 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 32 |
The apocalypse is frequently deployed by political movements, especially contemporary climate activists, to advance their causes. This article develops a framework for defending such invocations of the end of the world. With many other political theorists, I suggest that the apocalypse is a dangerous concept, not least because of its association with authoritarian accounts of history. However, we should not reject the apocalypse. I argue for a form of anti-anti-apocalypticism, using the criticisms directed against the concept as a launchpad to rethink it in viable terms. While acknowledging the value of different ways of defending the apocalypse, I highlight the importance of the causes of apocalyptic movements. Simply put, apocalypses from below are defensible because they have the capacity to clarify the political position of the oppressed and open new political possibilities for the group. By contrast, apocalypses from above, because they fail to fulfill these functions, are not
Apocalypticism · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Theology · American Political and Social Dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Black mirrors
Urban crisis? Reconstructing a ubiquitous concept
Where Have All the Futures Gone? Towards a Sociological Explanation for the Crisis of Promissory Legitimacy
Towards Climate Gnosticism
Apocalyptic fear, heroic victimization and destructive pleasure
The paradox of fanaticism
Atmospheric Conditioning
Political theories of climate temporality
Apocalyptic Democracy
Acting Otherwise in the Face of Ecological Collapse
Rural Root Shock
Hitler's Millennial Reich
The Sense of an Ending
An Apocalypse is a Relative Thing
To Carl Schmitt
The Apocalypse and Political Discourse in an Age of Covid
Collective Responsibility for Oppression
Existential Threats
Critique and Disclosure
Justice and the Politics of Difference
The empty city
Governing the End Times? Planet Politics and the Secular Eschatology of the Anthropocene
Racial Apocalypse
Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism
Apocalyptic Political Theology
Apocalypticism as Radical Realism? On the Dangers and Benefits of Wishful Thinking in Prefigurative Politics
The Antinomies of Violence and Catastrophe
Black Feminist Thought
Worlding beyond 'the' 'end' of 'the world
Earth beyond repair
Césaire's Apocalyptic Word
Environmental apocalypse and space
Fear of a Black planet
Apocalypse Forever
Eschatology and Space
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 11 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |