Trauma and Dereification: September 11 and the Problem of Ontological Security

Zaretsky, Eli

doi:10.1111/1467-8675.00268

Cited by 24 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…For Zaretsky, 'By its randomness, its unpredictability, and its facelessness, but its transformation of everyday life into a scene of fear and destruction, by the introduction of terror into a vast region that had previously seemed impregnable, September 11 irrevocably disrupted the ontological level of security that the nation-state framework had taken for granted'. 35 As I will argue later, Zaretsky's assessment that 9/11 produced a radically new social reality in which ontological security structures were fundamentally fractured is deeply persuasive in the case of the insecuritization of 'British Muslims.' In late modernity, individuals' routines are performed through an interaction between four sites: home, in terms of a physical space that has psychological and political meaning; family and friends, a social order that is immediate and personal; work (or school, or college), a public space in which we operate; and identities, chosen connections that make sense intersubjectively, through which in part we construct our biographies.…”

Section: The Insecuritization Of Britain's Muslimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing Ontological Insecurity: The Insecuritization of Britain's Muslims

Croft¹

2012

Contemporary Security Policy

135

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The development of ontological security studies, for example by Mitzen, Steele, and Berenskoetter and Giegerich, has been an important innovation in the field. However, by focusing on the level of the state rather than that of the individual, this new tradition is somewhat different from the intellectual origins of ontological security in sociology and psychology. Drawing on those disciplines, I argue that the key focus should be on the understandings of individuals about their own security, intersubjectively constructed. Ontological security can be understood in terms of the need to construct biographical continuity, to construct a web of trust relations, to act in accordance with self-integrity, and to struggle against ontological insecurity, or dread, in Kierkegaard's sense. I then take and apply this framework to understand the process by which British Muslims have become insecuritized (understood as a term through which dominant power can decide who should be protected and who should be designated as those to be controlled, objectified, and feared) in the period since 9/11.

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Section: The Insecuritization Of Britain's Muslimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing Ontological Insecurity: The Insecuritization of Britain's Muslims

Croft¹

2012

Contemporary Security Policy

135

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“…In the introduction to this study, we noted the prevalent use by President Bush of the phrase “war on terror”—a phrase that was used only once by the Prime Minister who preferred to use the phrase “war on terrorism.” With respect to President Bush's phraseology, if terror is a feature of the symbolic order then the suggestion of a “war on terror” means that the war is not against “an entity” (such as a state—typically against which war is waged) but is rather a war against a symbolic abstraction. If, as Zaretsky (2002) suggests, terror undermines the ability to trust—then perhaps the “war on terror” is a war against threats to the trust that citizens have in government. The Canadian preference for “war on terrorism” is perhaps only slightly less obtuse.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emphasis on the close relationship with the United States suggests a sharing of knowledge, invoking the trust of the citizenry (whose lives will potentially be affected) and suggesting that Canada is in a knowledgeable, and thus trustworthy, position. The prominence of the two countries’ relationship in the communication may suggest an attempt to regain the citizens’ trust if, as Zaretsky (2002) suggests, terror undermines this very ability.…”

Section: Canada the United States And The Canada–us Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Threat: The Canadian State and Terrorism

Brunschot

Sherley

2005

The Sociological Quarterly

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Canada's position vis-à-vis September 11 differs substantially from the United States' in both circumstance and rhetoric. Although Canada was not the target of the terrorist attack, the United States is Canada's closest neighbor. In the words of the Prime Minister in the weeks following September 11, the United States is "more like family than friends." Given this, how has the terrorist threat been interpreted for and communicated to the public by the Canadian state? Through ethnographic content analyses of the documents (speeches and press releases) found on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Web site, we consider the communications by the Canadian state with respect to the events of September 11. We analyze this information within the overarching frameworks of risk and trust. In terms of risk, we examine the Prime Minister's communications and the framing of this communication as it relates to the discourse of probable harm and/or benefit. As for trust, we consider the emphasis on reputation and how this affects the information provided and its delivery. These risk/trust underpinnings speak to the Canadian state's construction of security, security threats, and the construction of the Canadian state more generally.The Sociological Quarterly 46 (2005) 645-669

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“…Similarly, emotions like shame or honour can have significant importance to security of the self rather than physical security (Steele, 2008). Ontological security has been applied to cases as varied as conflict resolution (Kay, 2012; Lupovici, 2012; Rumelili, 2015), regional identity and security (Browning and Joenniemi, 2013; Mitzen, 2006a) and the relationship between national identity, multiculturalism and ontological (in)security in the context of globalisation and the post-9/11 world (Croft, 2012; Kinnvall, 2004; Kinnvall and Nesbitt-Larking, 2010, 2011; Zaretsky, 2002).…”

Section: Discourses Of Identity and Ontological Security: Nordic And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Drawing the discourses of ontological security: Immigration and identity in the Danish and Swedish cartoon crises

Agius¹

2016

Cooperation and Conflict

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The controversy of the Danish cartoon crisis in 2006 overshadowed a similar one that took place in Sweden a year later. The crises have broadly been framed as a clash of values but both cases reveal differences worthy of investigation, namely for the complex tensions and convergences between the two states on questions of immigration, Nordic solidarity and national identity. This article aims to explore the intersubjective discourses of identity that were threaded through the debates on the cartoon crises, looking to the overlapping discourses that have constructed ideas of identity in terms of ontological security, or security of the self. It argues that both cartoon crises represent a complex discursive performance of identity that speaks to a broader set of ontological security concerns which intersect at the international, regional and national levels. Even in their differences, Swedish and Danish discourses show the tensions associated with the desire for a stable and consistent idea of self when contrasted with the Muslim 'other', explored in the context of discourses of modernity and tolerance, which operate as key sites that work to reiterate, reclaim and reinstate the idea of the progressive state.

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Trauma and Dereification: September 11 and the Problem of Ontological Security

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Constructing Ontological Insecurity: The Insecuritization of Britain's Muslims

Constructing Ontological Insecurity: The Insecuritization of Britain's Muslims

Communicating Threat: The Canadian State and Terrorism

Drawing the discourses of ontological security: Immigration and identity in the Danish and Swedish cartoon crises

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