Vol. 3 No. 1 (2012): States of Emergence, States of Emergency

The felt belief that we reside in a state of emergency is a powerful rhetorical feature of contemporary life. If the experience of anxiety induced by that belief provides an efficient means of governmental control, its prevalence and efficiency are consolidated in a globalised world by ever-broadening modes of technological production and interaction. There is a sense that ‘emergency’ is thus involved in a reciprocal relationship with ‘emergence’.