Politics of Catastrophe

The imaginary of catastrophe increasingly functions as a signifier of our future: How do we manage an event, a terrorist attack, pandemics, global warming, that has yet to take place, cannot be predicted, but which may strike suddenly, without warning, and cause irreversible damage? In their newly published book,Politics of Catastrophe. Genealogies of the Unknown, Rens van Munster and Claudia Aradau explore this question in detail. They show that unexpected, catastrophic events bring out the very limits of security knowledge and risk management. Claiming that imaginaries of pending doom have fostered new modes of anticipatory security governance that draw on imagination and aesthetic representations, Politics of Catastrophe critically assesses the effects of these new practices and challenges the reader to think about the possibility of an alternative politics of catastrophe.

International praise for Politics of Catastrophe:

"This book advances our understanding of the complex and often paradoxical terrain of the catastrophe as a field of knowledge and target of anticipatory governance. In doing so, its authors stand at the forefront of new thinking about contemporary regimes of security, power and governmentality." - Mitchell Dean, University of Newcastle, Australia

"This excellent volume is the first book-length engagement with the implications of catastrophe for contemporary practices of security governing. It is an important contribution to our current understandings of the politics of preemption, and it is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the contemporary logic of security and securitization." - Marieke de Goede, University of Amsterdam