Bunkerization as a fantasy of consumer sovereignty

The politics of American disaster preparation

Bibliographic Data

ID4480745
AuthorsRobert E Kirsch (0000-0001-9109-1865, Arizona State University, corresponding author), Emily Ray (0000-0003-2395-3165, Sonoma State University)
Year2025
Volume189
Issue1
Pages54-69
Publication date2025-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/07255136251353237
OpenAlexW4412015458
LanguageEN
References cited8

This paper theorizes "bunkerization" as an organizing principle in American society that emerged after the atomic bombings of Japan and continues through contemporary crises. Bunkerization reconfigures domestic space as a defensive fortress through consumer choices, inverting Schmitt's definition of sovereignty from "the sovereign is he who decides in the exception" to "the sovereign is he who is decided by the exception." Three key arguments are advanced: (1) bunkerization explains how Americans oriented themselves post-1945 and manifests distinctively in American society; (2) bunkerized society transforms citizens into consumer-sovereigns managing personal micro-states while maintaining American identity; and (3) this consumer sovereignty fantasy reveals how America conceptualizes its katechontic function-restraining apocalypse while envisioning post-collapse futures. Bunkerization is critiqued as a neoliberal fantasy that individualizes collective threats, making them manageable through market choices rather than collective action, leaving citizens to purchase their way to an illusory safety

Aesthetics · Art · Fantasy · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Disaster Management and Resilience · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Tools

Open DOI