Crisis Narratives Research Articles

(New) Bulgarian Enlighteners and Ambassadors? The Reinvention of National Identity in Times of Crisis

AbstractDrawing on empirical data from 37 Bulgarian students and young professionals in the UK, this article explores the intersection of the discourses produced by the European crises and migrants' national identity. In Bulgaria, the crisis narrative is embedded in the arguably never‐ending democratic transition, manifested in socio‐economic instability and political volatility. Simultaneously, “Brexit Britain” is enveloped in strong Eurosceptic sentiments, propelled by a combination of austerity measures and intensified Eastern European migratory flows. Both contexts subject Bulgarian migrants to stigmatizing representations. Looking at migrants' everyday practices, the data reveals that young Bulgarians draw on the related ideas of the “new” Enlightener and Ambassador to counterbalance negative discourses. Thus, the article explores the meanings and significance attributed to the Enlighteners and the Ambassadors, arguing that the participants engage in “social creativity” and “individual mobility” strategies that lead to reinvention of national identity.

Crisis in the Making: Public Theatre, Migration and Activist Aesthetics

This article is concerned with the European public theatre system’s relationship with migration. Focusing on the Portuguese theatre landscape and especially Lisbon, the essay will map some of the major issues regarding theatre and migration today, identifying both systemic failures and structural and aesthetic shifts in the public theatres’ engagement with migrant communities. Contemporary performative approaches will be surveyed with a special emphasis on initiatives that go against crisis narratives and position migration as a structural component of society rather than a temporary challenge. The article proposes a shift from aesthesized theatre practices towards activist aesthetics, a politically responsive, participatory and durational practice that would not only introduce counter narratives on migration, but it would be instrumental in re-thinking our national cultural, literary and theatrical canons.

Placing Refugees in Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Reflections from Berlin and Paris

In 2015, a large influx of people forcibly displaced into Europe culminated in what has often been referred to by the media, government officials, and policymakers as the refugee crisis. This trope typically describes the tension between, on the one hand, a general willingness of many European countries to resettle refugees, and fiscal constraints allegedly beyond the control of governments, on the other. In the bounds of this apolitical and ahistorical storyline, refugees are blamed for increased homelessness and affordable housing shortages, despite deepening neoliberal practices that predate their arrival. With the goal of decentering this trope, we explore the lived experiences of refugees in their quest for stable housing in two major host cities: Berlin and Paris. In contrast to the refugee crisis narrative, we present a twofold argument. First, we suggest that authoritarian neoliberalism in Berlin and Paris have played a central—yet variegated—role in creating nondemocratic conditions that have led to rental housing insecurity for vulnerable populations, including refugees. Second, we suggest that the refugee crisis trope itself may be understood as an integral feature of authoritarian neoliberalism, as it actively erases the history, politics, and social context that have led to the construction of shelter insecurity.

The power of Trump-speak: populist crisis narratives and ontological security

For most observers, the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States (US) came as a shock. This has been widely recast as the culmination of the American public’s long-standing dissatisfaction with the political elite and deep-seated frustrations with broader socio-economic conditions. We argue that the Trump campaign’s success also stemmed from its effective use of an emotionally charged, anti-establishment crisis narrative. With insights from political psychology, we examine the socio-linguistic mechanisms that underlie the effectiveness of ‘Trump-speak’ through both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of Trump’s communications toolkit during the 2016 US presidential election campaign. We show that his leadership legitimation claims rest significantly upon ‘crisis talk’ that puts his audience in a loss frame with nothing to lose and explain why ‘crisis talk’ impacts on political behaviour. As we demonstrate, the crisis stories that political agents tell simultaneously instil ontological insecurity among the American public and serve to transform their anxiety into confidence that the narrator’s policy agendas are the route back to ‘normality’. Through these rhetorical mechanisms, the Trump campaign manipulated individuals’ ontological (in)security as a tool in the politics of reassurance at the broader, societal level.

The anatomy of plausible futures in policy processes: Comparing the cases of data protection and comprehensive security

Due to rapid change and wicked policy problems, anticipatory policymaking is increasingly important. In addition to methods for producing foresight knowledge, tools are needed to make sense of the increasing amounts of future-oriented argumentation. This article presents a comparative analysis of anticipatory argumentation in two fields: the EU data protection reform and the Finnish concept for comprehensive security. A three-layer heuristic framework is presented for qualitative analysis of statements on plausible futures. The first layer consists of specific expectations regarding the future. The second layer is the generic anticipatory storyline. The third layer consists of the underlying futures consciousness. The data protection case presents an institutional reform narrative with short time perspective and relatively high agency, while the comprehensive security case presents a crisis narrative based on a contingency planning orientation with long time perspective, relatively developed systems perception and relatively low agency. In policy foresight with high uncertainty and high aspirations of agency, reflexivity and ethical responsibility are crucial components of foresight. This article promotes these by providing a tool for structuring anticipatory assumptions. The tool can be used for studying policy documents or during the policy process to craft more rigorous future-oriented policies.

Political Ecology of the Chure Region in Nepal

Conservation of Chure landscape is at the limelight of public policy debate given its geo-ecological and socio-economic prominence and its real and perceived environmental degradation. The dominant narrative of the Chure environmental crisis coupled with increasing pressures of some political constituencies prompted government’s declaration of the Chure as Environmental Protected Area. This policy response of the state has engendered contestations and dissonance among different actors associated with the Chure. This paper is based on review of relevant literature, direct observation and participation in the national and regional policy dialogues and public debate. We identify two broad strands of contested actors: the ones who strongly favor the government policy decision and those who are opposing it. We argue that this can be attributed to the competing understandings of the problem and the proposed solutions to the Chure conservation. Actors’ understandings of the Chure are based on their own identical political strands and do not necessarily reflect the underlying causes at the ground. The politics of scientific facts and evidences is also critical to this contestation. We identified three major strands of management approaches in the Chure discourse: state centric, community based and state-community collaborative. Deliberative scrutiny of current policies and attention to the political ecology of conservation could help arrive at negotiated understanding of the problem and sustainable approach to the Chure management.

What was sociology?

This article is about the future of sociology, as transformations in the digital and biological sciences lay claim to the discipline’s jurisdictional hold over ‘the social’. Rather than analyse the specifics of these transformations, however, the focus of the article is on how a narrative of methodological crisis is sustained in sociology, and on how such a narrative conjures very particular disciplinary futures. Through a close reading of key texts, the article makes two claims: (1) that a surprisingly conventional urge towards disciplinary reproduction often animates accounts of sociology’s crisis; (2) that, even more surprisingly, these same accounts are often haunted by a hidden metaphorical architecture centred on biology, vitality, vigour and life. The central gambit of the article is that, perhaps in spite of itself, this subterranean image of life actually hints at less reproductively conventional ways of understanding – and intervening in – sociology’s methodological ‘crisis’. Drawing, empirically, on the author’s recent work on urban stress and, theoretically, on Stefan Helmreich’s (2011, 2016) account of ‘limit biologies’, the articles ends with a call for a ‘limit sociology’ – a form of attention that could, similarly, expand rather than contract the present moment of transformation. At the heart of the article is a hope that thinking with such a limit may help sociologists to imagine a less deadening future than that on offer from a canonised discipline cathected by endless crisis-talk.

Whither the forest transition? Climate change, policy responses, and redistributed forests in the twenty-first century.

Forest transitions occur when net reforestation replaces net deforestation in places. Because forest transitions can increase biodiversity and augment carbon sequestration, they appeal to policymakers contending with the degrading effects of forest loss and climate change. What then can policymakers do to trigger forest transitions? The historical record over the last two centuries provides insights into the precipitating conditions. The early transitions often occurred passively, through the spontaneous regeneration of trees on abandoned agricultural lands. Later forest transitions occurred more frequently after large-scale crisis narratives emerged and spurred governments to take action, often by planting trees on degraded, sloped lands. To a greater degree than their predecessors, latecomer forest transitions exhibit centralized loci of power, leaders with clearly articulated goals, and rapid changes in forest cover. These historical shifts in forest transitions reflect our growing appreciation of their utility for countering droughts, floods, land degradation, and climate change.

Christianity and Crisis

This article examines how European narratives of crisis have been related to religion in different periods by different factions and with varying purposes. It first takes a look at some tendencies in the pre- and interwar era, during which religion was used both as part of a conservative, nationalistic narrative of crisis and as part of a progressive anti-nationalistic narrative of crisis. Secondly, it revisits some of the post-war debates, in which religion—or the biblical legacy—was commonly depicted as the root of the ideological perversions that had caused Europe’s recent crises. Yet at the same time, religion was also laid claim to as a constructive force in the building of post-war Europe, not least by the founding fathers of the European Union. Thirdly, the paper seeks to map the contemporary European landscape with regard to religion in various political and cultural discourses. Like in previous eras, religion is today laid claim to for various and often conflicting purposes. Against this backdrop, the paper ends by briefly pondering the critical role of theology in contemporary Europe.

The First History of Our Financial Crisis

Adam Tooze's Crashed is arguably the first historical narrative of the financial crisis. It is an ambitious account of the crisis and its global economic, financial, political, and geopolitical causes and implications. Crashed is organized chronologically in four parts—the “Gathering Storm,” “The Global Crisis,” “Eurozone,” and “Aftershocks”—and focuses more on the macrolevel structures, processes, and decisions than on the microlevel and the people suffering from the crisis. Except, that is, in aggregate numbers and a few empathic comments such as this: “As house prices fell, equity dwindled, and the hardest hit slid into negative equity. Families scrambled to slash spending and pay down credit card and other short-term debt. The result was a smothering recession in consumer demand” (p. 143).

The Battle of Ideas on the Euro Crisis: Evidence from ECB Inter-Meeting Speeches

The European Central Bank (ECB) has often been portrayed as highly resistant to ideational change. This paper paints a different picture. A battle of ideas dominated the academic debate on the euro crisis: one view stressed crisis-stricken countries' fiscal laxity, whereas the other highlighted the systemic roots of financial turmoil. I argue that the failure of policy experiments inspired by the fiscal discipline view favoured the ECB's adoption of systemic risk ideas, which shaped its crisis response. Empirically, I use an innovative technique combining automated text classification and unsupervised scaling methods to detect ideational variation in ECB Executive Board members' public speeches. Results indicate that the ECB has progressively moved from a fiscal to a systemic narrative of the euro crisis. Significantly, this shift anticipated and accompanied the ECB's commitment to unlimited bond purchases in summer 2012. Evidence suggests that this ideational turn was incremental and driven by policy learning dynamics.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Post-Quake Portraits of the Disenfranchised in the Writings of Emmelie Prophéte and Kettly Mars

This article explores two post-disaster narratives, Impasse Dignité by Emmelie Prophète and Frontières de la Soif by Kettly Mars, which chronicle the massively destructive January 12, 2010 Haitian earthquake. Both works expose the disadvantaged victims and conditions of that catastrophic disaster by calling out the misery hidden in plain sight within Haitian society. These writers poignantly highlight the marginalized and most vulnerable in an effort to rip the veil off protected nationalistic imagery and perhaps encourage useful awareness, if not radical change. Focusing on geographical strictures, poor living conditions and a general lack of hope, Emmelie Prophète's Impasse Dignité is a riveting narrative of the persistent crisis of paucity residing in Haiti. In Aux Frontières de la Soif, Kettly Mars more graphically explores the aftermath of the quake by shining a light on the make-shift housing sites and the tent city sins foisted on the youngest of the female sinistrées. The haunting human portraits offered by both authors represent a call for examination of the true definition of societal depravation and its resultant wounding of the soul in the wake of a disaster once the shelter of status quo has been removed.

“Sweden Has Been Naïve”: Nationalism, Protectionism and Securitisation in Response to the Refugee Crisis of 2015

Fake news, disinformation campaigns, xenophobia, political resentment, and a general backlash on equality issues mark the current political climate. In this context, the idealism of the Swedish welfare state has gained a specific symbolic value. This article investigates how the idealisation of Sweden as a modern and gender-equal country was articulated as a focal point in the establishment of threat and crisis narratives in the political debate of the refugee crisis of 2015. The article shows how progressive and egalitarian ideals were viewed as outdated and naïve, but at the same time put forward as core values worthy of protection. The title refers to the statement made by the Swedish Prime Minister in 2015 stating that “Sweden has been naïve” and serves as an example of how the myth of Sweden as an exceptionally modern, secular, and equal society was evoked in processes of securitisation, nationalistic protectionism, and normalisation of xenophobia. The article concludes that the articulation of Swedish exceptionalism in the establishment of threat and crisis narratives may reproduce and enhance social inequality and polarisation.

Geopower: On the states of nature of late capitalism

The article argues that environmental planetary discourses have coalesced into the Anthropocene crisis narrative and reformulated the state of nature apparatus of Western political theory. The Anthropocene, as an ecological state of nature of late capitalism, casts light on the logics of geopower, which assembles species thinking, a fascination with nonlife and sovereignty, and the imaginary of extinction and mutation. Geopower shifts governmental technologies from human populations and their ‘milieu’ to nonhuman species, energy flows and ecosystems, from political economy and biopower to Earth science and systems ecology. This configuration of power suggests a shift in the neoliberal agenda and imposes the Earth as a political personage, generating threatening political myths and figures of chaos and sovereignty, such as Gaia, Chthulu and Climate Leviathans.

Violent Video Games, Sexist Video Games, and the Law: Why Can't We Find Effects?

During the early 2000s, several states and municipalities sought to regulate minors’ access to violent video games owing to perceived harms to minors. The resultant case law, culminating in the US Supreme Court case Brown v. EMA (2011), demonstrated court skepticism of the science linking violent games to harm in minors. Such skepticism was increasingly confirmed as numerous newer studies could not link violent games to socially relevant outcomes. In more recent years, there has been a newer focus on sexist games and the harm these might cause. This field appears at risk for repeating some of the problems of the violent game field, including exaggeration of mixed findings, lack of curiosity regarding null findings, and unreliable research designs. By persisting in advancing a narrative of public health crisis, despite evidence to the contrary, social science has risked damaging its reputation in the eyes of the courts.

Political Science and the Eurozone Crisis. A Review of Scientific Journal Articles 2004–15

AbstractWe take a closer look at how political science engaged with Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) over a period of 12 years (2004–15). How intensively, and with what focus, have political science journals dealt with EMU? How has the scientific discourse on the topic changed with the outbreak of the global financial crisis, which led to a eurozone crisis?Our systematic, qualitative analysis of articles (N=161) dealing with EMU in selected peer‐reviewed political science journals yields a number of interesting findings. First, we observe marked differences between the pre‐ and post‐crisis period. Specifically, political science has increasingly taken up issues of financial regulation and questions of trust in a monetary union. Second, political scientists did not engage as much as expected with the democratic ramifications of the crisis management. Finally, different crisis narratives persist, and none have been completely refuted.

문학의 위기와 영화적 서사 - 스페인 아방가르드 소설의 경우 -

문학의 위기와 영화적 서사 - 스페인 아방가르드 소설의 경우 -

The Blind Monks and the Elephant: Contrasting Narratives of Financial Crisis

We explore three persuasive narratives of the US subprime crisis. First the role played by pecuniary externalities in amplifying shocks to the quality of risk‐assets held by Investment Banks; second is adverse selection in marketing these assets; and third is financial panic. Their relevance is attested by the emergency support provided by the US Federal Reserve Bank and Treasury; and by subsequent findings in courts of law. While these contrasting narratives illuminate different aspects of the crisis, we conclude it was because they all had a part to play that the US financial system was so exposed to radical failure.

Crisis, what crisis? A feminist analysis of discourse on masculinities and suicide

ABSTRACTHigh male suicide rates are often constructed as evidence for an apparent ‘crisis of masculinity’. Conversely, ‘crisis of masculinity’ has been used to explain differential rates of male and female suicide in the UK (and elsewhere). We analyse three public cases where male suicide and ‘masculinity-crisis’ discourse are employed together. Our feminist analysis demonstrates that ‘crisis talk’ and male suicide are addressed in divergent ways. We therefore distinguish between ‘progressive’ and ‘conservative’ crisis narratives. Conservative narratives position high male suicide rates as a pernicious outcome of ‘threats’ to traditional gender roles and norms, suggesting the solution is to return to them. Contrastingly, progressive crisis accounts use male suicide to demonstrate that existing gender norms harm men as well as women and argue they should be altered to address male suicide. Conservative narratives often map on to anti-feminist politics, whereas progressive accounts reflect aspects of feminism. There is no neat feminist/anti-feminist distinction, however, as postfeminist ideas are also evident. We argue that, overall, each of the articulations of a ‘crisis of masculinity’ as evidenced by high rates of male suicide reinforces problematic gender politics. Further, in reifying simplistic, dualistic models of gender, they may ultimately constrain efforts to reduce suicide.

European elites and the narrative of the Greek crisis: A discursive institutionalist analysis

AbstractThis article examines elite European discourses during the Greek financial crisis from its pre‐history in September 2008 up to the arrival of the SYRIZA government in January 2015. The article employs the conceptual literature on Discursive Institutionalism (DI) and Historical Institutionalism (HI). Having coded 1,153 unique quotes drawn from a dataset of 15,354 news wires from Reuters, the authors argue that the communicative discourse of 63 senior European (and IMF) officials on the Greek crisis during that period demonstrates significant volatility. Four distinct narrative frames are identified: ‘neglect’, ‘suspicious cooperation’, ‘blame’ and ‘reluctant redemption’, punctuated by three discursive junctures in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which reflect the content of the changing communicative discourse of the Greek crisis. The article's contribution is twofold: empirically, it is the first to provide a systematic analysis of the protagonists’ communication of the Greek crisis; and theoretically, it combines DI and HI in an effort to conceptualise an important part of our understanding of ‘bail‐out politics’ throughout the Eurozone crisis.