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CORDIS

States of Need / States of Emergency: Towards a Political Grammar of Exigency

Projektbeschreibung

Warum der Notfall in der Politik wichtiger ist als die Notwendigkeit

Seit der Französischen Revolution ist die Geschichte europäischer Politik von einer immer stärker asymmetrischen Abwägung zwischen Notfall und Notwendigkeit geprägt. Dieses komplexe Verhältnis ist noch immer ein Faktor in der Gestaltung nationaler und globaler Politik, sei es in der europäischen Migrationskrise, dem Klimanotstand oder der COVID-19-Pandemie. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt NOT geht von der These aus, dass bei der politischen Sorge um Notstände üblicherweise chronische und anscheinend weniger dringende soziale, wirtschaftliche und ökologische Problemlagen übersehen werden. Es wird analysieren, wie die Grammatik der modernen Politik die kurzsichtige, dramatische, subjektorientierte und anthropozentrische Perspektive reproduziert, die den Notfall über die Notwendigkeit stellt. Dazu greift es auf literarische und theoretische Texte vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur heutigen Zeit zurück.

Ziel

NOT is a critical study of the emergency-discourse of modern European politics. My thesis is that the political preoccupation with states of emergency tends to overlook – with dire consequences – underlying chronic and ostensibly less urgent socio-economic and ecological conditions, or what I call states of need. This structural relation is captured in the ambivalence of the German word 'Not,' which means at once emergency and need. Since the French Revolution, the history of European politics has been defined by an always asymmetrical negotiation of the tension between emergency and need. This asymmetric articulation of political life is perpetuated by habits of speaking about politics, which are in turn rehearsed in literary and historiographical genres for representing the political theater. For this reason, NOT is an exercise in political philology. I analyze the way in which the grammar of modern politics reproduces the myopic, dramatic, subject- and anthropocentric perspective that privileges emergency over need by addressing a diverse archive of literary and theoretical texts from the 18th century to the present. My research historicizes this political grammar with attention to biopolitics, revolutionary rhetoric, political economy and development economics, human rights discourse, and ecological and Anthropocene debates. In doing so my aim is to excavate alternative forms of expression that do justice to the nexus of need/emergency and thereby recover ways to better articulate the political challenges we face today. In the spirit of Horizon 2020, appreciating the place of Europe in the contemporary world involves understanding the complex legacy of emergency/need that continues to inform national and global politics – as the European migrant crisis, the climate emergency and now the corona crisis have made clear. NOT is a second-book project supplemented by satellite conferences, edited publications, a public lecture series and teaching at the LMU.

Koordinator

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Netto-EU-Beitrag
€ 174 806,40
Adresse
GESCHWISTER SCHOLL PLATZ 1
80539 MUNCHEN
Deutschland

Auf der Karte ansehen

Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Aktivitätstyp
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Gesamtkosten
€ 174 806,40