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Crisis: Critique, Temporality, and Trauma

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Liberal Democracy in Crisis

Part of the book series: The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy ((PSTCD))

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Abstract

In this chapter, the author explores the possibility and conditions for resistance to neoliberal governmentality by conceptually unpacking the notion of crisis. After critically analysing the different conceptions of crisis in business and management studies, international relations, and Marxism, this chapter proceeds to examine whether the alignment of critique, the temporality of crisis, and the trauma of socio-political violence can provide sufficient ground for the emergence of resistant subjectivities. Through critical engagement with the theoretical writings of Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, the author uncovers the transgressive and reflective qualities of critique in times of crisis, the suspension of old ways of reasoning that the suddenness of crisis provokes and the trauma that its consequences can inflict.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Similar recognition of the shared ontology between crisis and critique and the importance of this relationship for social theory can be found in the works of authors, such as Seyla Benhabib (1986); Jürgen Habermas (1990, 2001) and Rodrigo Cordero (2014). Other authors maintain that the analytical utility of the concept of crisis has become either weakened or obsolete in the age of postmodernity; see, for example, Ulrich Beck and Cristoph Lau (2005), Jean Baudrillard (1993, 1994) and Bruno Latour (2004).

  2. 2.

    Derrida contrasts these “nonevents” with registered “great moments”, in the timeframe between 1964 and 1984, as set by his interviewer, such as the May 1968 events, the moon landing, and the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS University of London, London, UK

    Alen Toplišek

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Toplišek, A. (2019). Crisis: Critique, Temporality, and Trauma. In: Liberal Democracy in Crisis. The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97937-3_4

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