Planetary Precarity and ‘More-Than-Human Security’: The Securitization Challenge in the Aftermath of COVID-19

Abstract

has elevated anew the import of holistically conceiving human-environmental wellbeing and tackling the overarching precarities of our ecologies, societies and public health in strategies of securitization. This paper considers the key challenge of reimagining securitization in the aftermath of COVID-19 and makes two core arguments. The first is that in addressing precarity a key starting point lies in being mindful of how it is differentially experienced across multiple social hierarchies in the human world. The paper draws upon Judith Butler's work on 'frames of seeing' to consider how our current moment can elicit a contrapuntal concern for those who have always been precarious but not in view. The second core argument is that it is vital to move beyond a concern for human precarity to a concern for a broader sense of planetary precarity, which in turn prompts the need to strategize for a 'more-than-human' sense of security. Developing the concept of 'human security', the paper reflects on how we can usefully envision a 'more-than-human security' for a more biologically stable and sustainable planet.

Socio-ecological precarity at the juncture of multiple crises

“…Here, once again, we can see a subtle reference to precarity as a dual signifier; not only as a descriptor of precarious conditions and processes but as a collective form of human and more-than-human resistance and struggle. Furthermore, the concern for a planetary precarity asks for a 'more-than-human' sense of security (Morrissey, 2021). Uncovering the foundations of such processes requires a relational exploration of more-than-human infrastructures, including mutual interdependency and care.…”