Edition Politik: Security in the Anthropocene: Reflections on Safety and Care

196 Pages·2017·1.293 MB·English

by  Harrington, Cameron

Cameron Harrington, Clifford Shearing
Security in the Anthropocene

Political Science | Volume 30
To Hin Wah, who found her wings in the crucible of adversity, and soared

CameronHarrington(Dr.)isanAssistantProfessorintheSchoolofGovernment
and International Affairs at Durham University.
Clifford Shearing (Dr.) holds professorships at the Universities of Cape Town,
Griffith and Montreal and positions at the University of New South Wales and
the Durban University of Technology.
Cameron Harrington, Clifford Shearing
Security in the Anthropocene
Reflections on Safety and Care
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The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Natio-
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedoruti-
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or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infor-
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Cover layout: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld
Cover illustration: Abundzu / Fotolia.com
Typeset by Mark-Sebastian Schneider, Bielefeld
Printed by CPI – Clausen & Bosse
Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-3337-5
PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-3337-9
Contents
Note on Authorship | 7
Preface | 9
Chapter One: Security in the Anthropocene | 13
Bringing deep time into security | 19
The Pleistocene | 20
The Holocene | 23
The Anthropocene | 26
Security in the Anthropocene | 31
Chapter Two: More-Than-Human Worlds | 37
Lineages | 41
The return of the Great Man | 45
Posthuman security | 49
Safety politics in the posthuman age | 56
Conclusion | 60
Chapter Three: Postnatural Security | 63
Creating nature | 66
Nature as purity | 68
Nature as instrumental value | 70
Nature as threat | 74
Niche construction and postnatural security | 78
Conclusion | 83
Chapter Four: The Horizon of Holocene Security | 85
Confronting the new Human Age: securitization and the horizon of
Holocene Security | 88
Reading Schmitt in the Anthropocene | 94
The dawn of Anthropocene security | 97
Conclusion | 105
Chapter Five: Towards a Security of Care in the Anthropocene | 109
The impossible past | 109
Can security be careful? | 117
Care and the Anthropocene | 123
The limits of care | 126
Risk and uncertainty | 127
Towards a micro-politics of care | 131
Conclusion | 139
Chapter Six: Conclusions | 141
Constructing the World | 142
Defenses and new directions | 145
Omissions and critiques | 145
Future directions | 151
References | 157
Register | 189
Note on Authorship
As is almost always the case in jointly authored work our roles were
integrated but not equal.  We worked together in conceiving of the idea for
the book and in developing both its architecture and its central arguments. 
We also worked together in developing the plans for each of the chapters. 
Cameron then took on the role of drafting the chapters.  Throughout this
writing process we worked together in developing and fleshing out our
arguments—more so in some chapters than others as we became more
confident of what our arguments were as the writing progressed.  Once
first drafts were completed Clifford took each chapter to the next stage. 
Sometimes this involved significant rethinking and rewriting.  At other
times what was involved was careful tweaking of the way the arguments
were expressed.  Cameron then finalised each chapter.

Preface
This was not an easy book to write, as readers will probably guess. Its
subject matter is rarely uplifting, and is often dispiriting. Given our
backgrounds in the disciplines of international relations and criminology
we are often required to think through seemingly tragic, locked-in
security dilemmas; ones that seldom deal with the brighter sides of
humanity. The Anthropocene is the most daunting security challenge
either of us have encountered. We have done our best to make sense of
our current predicament without giving in to cynicism or despair, though
some days this seemed impossible to do. There are no answers to be found
within the following pages. Our hope is that our contribution will provoke
debate, discussion, and further consideration of the multifaceted security
challenges we face.
The genesis of this book came in 2014. Cameron Harrington was
working on a postdoctoral project on water security at the University of
Cape Town under the supervision of Clifford Shearing. Over discussion
we realized that, independent of the other, we had both been thinking
deeply about Anthropocene questions. It was decided soon thereafter to
begin forming our different thoughts into a cohesive manuscript. The
journey has taken over two years and over that time we have become
indebted to many.
Our ideas have been shaped and reformed through numerous
discussions, presentations, workshops, and seminars in the exceptional
surrounds of Cape Town. We are grateful for the lively, interdisciplinary
community at the University of Cape Town, particularly our colleagues
based in the Global Risk Governance programme (GRG), the Faculty
of Law, Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), and the Centre of
Criminology (now the Institute for Safety Governance and Criminology).
Thanks to Elaine Atkins and Francisca Zimmerman in particular for