Biopolitical Disaster PDF
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Biopolitical Disaster Biopolitical Disaster employs a grounded analysis of the production and lived-experienceofbiopoliticallifeinordertoillustratehowdisasterproduction and response are intimately interconnected. The book is organized into four parts, each revealing how socio-environmental consequences of instrumentalist environmentalities produce disastrous settings and political experiences that are evident in our contemporary world. Beginning with “Commodifying crisis,” the volume focuses on the inherent production of disaster that is bound to the crisis tendency of capitalism. The second part, “Governmentalities of disaster,” addresses material and dis- cursive questions of governance, the role of the state, as well as questions of democracy.Thispartexploresthelinkagebetweenproblematicenvironmental rationalities and policies. Third, the volume considers how and where the (de)valuation of life itself takes shape within the theme of “Affected bodies,” andinvestigatesthecorporealimpactsofdisastrousbiopolitics.Thefinalpart, “Environmental aesthetics and resistance,” fuses concepts from affect theory, feminist studies, post-positivism, and contemporary political theory to identify sites and practices of political resistance to biopower. Biopolitical Disaster will be of great interest to postgraduates, researchers, and academic scholars working in Political ecology; Geopolitics; Feminist critique; Intersectionality; Environmental politics; Science and technology studies; Disaster studies; Political theory; Indigenous studies; Aesthetics; and Resistance. Jennifer L. Lawrence is Postdoctoral Research Associate at The Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience, Virginia Tech, USA. Sarah Marie Wiebe is Assistant Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Department of Political Science, University of Hawai’i at Ma-noa. Interventions Edited by: Jenny Edkins Aberystwyth University and Nick Vaughan-Williams University of Warwick The series provides a forum for innovative and interdisciplinary work that engageswith alternative critical, post-structural, feminist, postcolonial, psycho- analyticandculturalapproachestointernationalrelationsandglobalpolitics.In ourfirst5yearswehavepublished60volumes. Weaimtoadvanceunderstandingofthekeyareasinwhichscholarsworking within broad critical post-structural traditions have chosen to make their interventions, and to present innovative analyses of important topics. Titles in the series engage with critical thinkers in philosophy, sociology, politics and otherdisciplinesandprovidesituatedhistorical,empiricalandtextualstudiesin international politics. Forafulllistofavailabletitlespleasevisithttps://www.routledge.com/series/INT The most recent title in this series are: East-Asian Marxisms and their Trajectories Edited by Joyce C.H. Liu and Viren Murthy The Evolution of Migration Management in the Global North Christina Oelgemöller Neo Delhi and the Politics of Postcolonial Urbanism Rohan Kalyan The Political Afterlife of Sites of Monumental Destruction Reconstructing Affect in Mostar and New York Andrea Connor Biopolitical Disaster Edited by Jennifer L. Lawrence and Sarah Marie Wiebe Biopolitical Disaster Edited by Jennifer L. Lawrence and Sarah Marie Wiebe Firstpublished2018 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2018selectionandeditorialmatter,JenniferL.LawrenceandSarah MarieWiebe;individualchapters,thecontributors TherightofJenniferL.LawrenceandSarahMarieWiebetobeidentified astheauthorsoftheeditorialmaterial,andoftheauthorsfortheir individualchapters,hasbeenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and78 oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting fromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation withoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested ISBN:978-1-138-65945-2(hbk) ISBN:978-1-31562-021-3(ebk) TypesetinTimesNewRoman byTaylor&FrancisBooks Contents List of contributors vii Foreword ix WARRENMAGNUSSON Acknowledgements xiv Introduction: Living with disaster 1 SARAHMARIEWIEBEANDJENNIFERL.LAWRENCE PARTI Commodifying crisis 11 1 Manufacturing biopolitical disaster: Instrumental (ir)rationality and the Deepwater Horizon disaster 15 JENNIFERL.LAWRENCE 2 Disaster biopolitics and the crisis economy 30 KEVINGROVE 3 Lives as half-life: The nuclear condition and biopolitical disaster 47 TIMOTHYW.LUKE 4 Even natural disasters are unlikely to slow us down … 62 ANDYSCERRIANDNADERSOBHANI PARTII Governmentalities of disaster 79 5 The governmentality of disaster resilience 81 PETERROGERS 6 Catastrophe and catastrophic thought 97 GARNETKINDERVATER vi Contents 7 Politics of re-radicalizing the deracinated as invasive species: Human displacement, environmental disasters of state enclosures, and the irradicability of biodiversity 113 MARKF.N.FRANKE PARTIII Affected bodies 135 8 Emergency life and indigenous resistance: Seeing biopolitical disaster through the prism of political ecology 139 SARAHMARIEWIEBE 9 Marginally managed: “Letting die” and fighting back in the oil sands 158 EMILYRAY 10 “Of course they count, but not right now”: Regulating precarity in Lee Maracle’s Ravensong and Celia’s Song 172 DALLASHUNT 11 Life at all costs: The biopolitics of chemotherapy in contemporary television and film 188 TEENAGABRIELSON PARTIV Environmental aesthetics and resistance 201 12 The great turning 205 CHRISTINEFRYE 13 The underestimated power effects of the discourses and practices of the food justice movement 207 ÉRICDARIER 14 Interrogating the neoliberal biopolitics of the sustainable development–resilience nexus 225 JULIANREID 15 The aesthetics of triage: Towards life beyond survival 242 GEOFFREYWHITEHALL 16 End piece: Dealing with disastrous life 257 FRANÇOISDEBRIX Index 264 Contributors Éric Darier, Senior Campaigner on Ecological Agriculture, Greenpeace International, Canada François Debrix, Director of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought and Professor in the Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech, USA MarkF.N.Franke,AssociateProfessorandDirectoroftheCenterforGlobal Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Huron University Col- lege, Canada Christine Fry, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spiritual Practice and Care, Starr King School for the Ministry, USA Teena Gabrielson, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Wyoming, USA Kevin Grove, Assistant Professor of Geography, Florida International Uni- versity, USA Dallas Hunt, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia, Canada. Garnet Kindervater, Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Dartmouth University, USA Jennifer L. Lawrence, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at The Global Forum on Urban & Regional Resilience, Virginia Tech, USA Timothy W. Luke, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech, USA Warren Magnusson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Victoria, Canada Emily Ray, Assistant Professor and MPA Coordinator in the Department of Political Science, Sonoma State University, USA Julian Reid, Professor of International Relations, University of Lapland, Finland viii List of contributors Peter Rogers, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Australia Andy Scerri, Assistant Professorof Political Science, Virginia Tech, USA Nader Sobhani, Masters of Science candidate in the Environmental Econom- ics and Climate Change program, London School of Economics and Poli- tical Science, UK Geoffrey Whitehall, Professor in the Department of Politics and Coordinator of the Social and Political Thought Graduate Program, Acadia University, Canada Sarah Marie Wiebe, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Department of Political Science, University of Hawai’i at Ma-noa Foreword Warren Magnusson I must have been about 12 when I first realized that the world might end before I grew up. That led to various juvenile calculations about my chances of ever becoming an adult. As each year passed I felt relieved, because it seemed less and less likely that civilization would be wiped out beforeI found out what it was like to be a grown up. Ihavebeen agrownupforalongtimenow.Likemost people Iamused to pushingmyfearsabouttheultimatefateoftheworldtotheside,sothatIcan focus on day-to-day life. This book is atimely reminderof the dangerof such evasions. There is not just one threat to our future as humans, nor is the threat just to us. Other species are also affected, although we are the ones causing most of the problems and only we can solve them. When Iwasyoung, theapocalyptic event most of us imaginedwasa World War III that would involve large-scale nuclear attacks on Europe, North America, and parts of Asia – attacks that would kill hundreds of millions of people immediately and perhaps cause a long “nuclear winter” that would bringhumanitytothevergeofextinction,oratleastdestroycivilizationaswe knew it, and reduce everyone to a Hobbesian war of each against all. Although fears about a large-scale nuclear war have faded (perhaps prema- turely), we are now aware that there are other catastrophic events that could have similar effects: the spread of uncontrollable diseases, the release of che- micals that somehow destroy or severely compromise the biosphere, collision with a huge asteroid, or climate change that is so rapid and widespread that we simply cannot cope with it. Even if humanity were to survive such an event, it would not be in a form that wewould recognize; hence all the novels and films to which Garnet Kindervater alludes about the horrific future that could result from our current mistakes. This book tells us much about those mistakes, but its tone is not apoc- alyptic. As Tim Luke points out in his chapter, fears about an apocalypse are often mobilized to justify the emergency measures that have become part of the routine of modern life, and so they help to normalize the practices that keep us on the edge of biopolitical disaster. Modern governmentality is about spreading the risks of catastrophe, building resilience into our communities and ways of doing things, and making civilization so robust that it can
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