The dashboard is the most striking cultural artefact of the current coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pand... more The dashboard is the most striking cultural artefact of the current coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. It reveals the fraught pandemic politics which are centred around territorial approaches on the scale of the state rather than international cooperation, democratic liberation, and local care. The dashboard is a biopolitical technology of anxiety, prompting national states of emergency. This narrow approach to framing the COVID-19 crisis is rooted in military-style pandemic preparedness planning that became fashionable in the 21st century. However, there is mounting evidence that this approach does not adequately address the uneven and unjust geographies of the present.
The concept of riskscapes has so far not embraced the concept of scale in any deeper sense. A con... more The concept of riskscapes has so far not embraced the concept of scale in any deeper sense. A conceptual integration of scale is needed, however, when dealing with the diversity of risks involved in opposing economic and environmental rationalities. Drawing on research conducted in a German coal-mining area, the article shows how the risk of regional economic decline and the risk of global climate change are pitted against each other. The article explores this ‘politics of scaling’ that lead to a reconfiguration of the coal riskscape, including a tentative step towards decarbonising German energy production.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2015
Abstract The article starts from the premise that invasive life has the capacity to produce human... more Abstract The article starts from the premise that invasive life has the capacity to produce human communities. Invasive life is conceptualized as a way in which humans categorize proliferating organisms as ‘non‐native’ to a particular territory. The article focuses on the kind of relationship of human beings to invasive life that invokes a sense of ‘being under attack’ on the human side. It is argued that the threat of invasive life produces ‘communities of fate’, which are theorized for the sake of this article in close relation to the concept of ‘communities of practice’. The social dynamics set in motion by such community formation are further analysed in relation to two different case studies: (1) the emergence of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Mexico, and (2) the invasive plants eradication campaign of a group of activists in Germany. The article concludes by discussing the merits of analysing social dynamics and community formation in relation to challenges posed by invasive life.
Die alltägliche Begegnung mit dem Fremden wird oft als eine Quelle der Verunsicherung gesehen - u... more Die alltägliche Begegnung mit dem Fremden wird oft als eine Quelle der Verunsicherung gesehen - und als eine der Ursachen für Fremdenfeindlichkeit. Was aber, wenn das Gegenteil der Fall ist? Abseits der Diskussionen um Minaretthöhen stellt diese Studie anhand des konkreten Beispiels kleiner migrantengeführter Lebensmittelgeschäfte die Integrationsfrage dort, wo das Zusammenleben mit dem Fremden tagtäglich erprobt wird. Dabei wird von alltagspraktischem Wirtschaftshandeln auf lokaler Ebene ausgegangen und mittels ethnographischer Methoden schrittweise ein praktisches und theoretisches Verständnis der eigentlichen Problematik gewonnen. Diese zeigt sich hier weniger in kultureller Differenz als in der Aushandlung sozialer Rollen vor dem Hintergrund alltäglicher Praktiken des Einkaufs.
This paper advances a theory of anxiety as social practice. Distinguishing between individual anx... more This paper advances a theory of anxiety as social practice. Distinguishing between individual anxieties and anxiety as a social condition, the paper suggests that anxiety has not been subject to the same level of theoretical scrutiny as related concepts such as risk, trust, or fear. Drawing on the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, the paper shows how contemporary anxieties involve the recognition of our own mortality and the destabilisation of established systems of meaning. The paper then turns to practice theory to show how social anxieties can be understood as events that rupture the fabric of everyday life, creating specific subjects and objects, ‘framed’ by different communities of practice, and becoming institutionalised to varying degrees. Focusing on a range of food-related anxieties, the paper explores the geographical and historical constitution of social anxiety, examining the process of anxiety formation and the factors that inhibit or enha...
The dashboard is the most striking cultural artefact of the current coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pand... more The dashboard is the most striking cultural artefact of the current coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. It reveals the fraught pandemic politics which are centred around territorial approaches on the scale of the state rather than international cooperation, democratic liberation, and local care. The dashboard is a biopolitical technology of anxiety, prompting national states of emergency. This narrow approach to framing the COVID-19 crisis is rooted in military-style pandemic preparedness planning that became fashionable in the 21st century. However, there is mounting evidence that this approach does not adequately address the uneven and unjust geographies of the present.
The concept of riskscapes has so far not embraced the concept of scale in any deeper sense. A con... more The concept of riskscapes has so far not embraced the concept of scale in any deeper sense. A conceptual integration of scale is needed, however, when dealing with the diversity of risks involved in opposing economic and environmental rationalities. Drawing on research conducted in a German coal-mining area, the article shows how the risk of regional economic decline and the risk of global climate change are pitted against each other. The article explores this ‘politics of scaling’ that lead to a reconfiguration of the coal riskscape, including a tentative step towards decarbonising German energy production.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2015
Abstract The article starts from the premise that invasive life has the capacity to produce human... more Abstract The article starts from the premise that invasive life has the capacity to produce human communities. Invasive life is conceptualized as a way in which humans categorize proliferating organisms as ‘non‐native’ to a particular territory. The article focuses on the kind of relationship of human beings to invasive life that invokes a sense of ‘being under attack’ on the human side. It is argued that the threat of invasive life produces ‘communities of fate’, which are theorized for the sake of this article in close relation to the concept of ‘communities of practice’. The social dynamics set in motion by such community formation are further analysed in relation to two different case studies: (1) the emergence of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Mexico, and (2) the invasive plants eradication campaign of a group of activists in Germany. The article concludes by discussing the merits of analysing social dynamics and community formation in relation to challenges posed by invasive life.
Die alltägliche Begegnung mit dem Fremden wird oft als eine Quelle der Verunsicherung gesehen - u... more Die alltägliche Begegnung mit dem Fremden wird oft als eine Quelle der Verunsicherung gesehen - und als eine der Ursachen für Fremdenfeindlichkeit. Was aber, wenn das Gegenteil der Fall ist? Abseits der Diskussionen um Minaretthöhen stellt diese Studie anhand des konkreten Beispiels kleiner migrantengeführter Lebensmittelgeschäfte die Integrationsfrage dort, wo das Zusammenleben mit dem Fremden tagtäglich erprobt wird. Dabei wird von alltagspraktischem Wirtschaftshandeln auf lokaler Ebene ausgegangen und mittels ethnographischer Methoden schrittweise ein praktisches und theoretisches Verständnis der eigentlichen Problematik gewonnen. Diese zeigt sich hier weniger in kultureller Differenz als in der Aushandlung sozialer Rollen vor dem Hintergrund alltäglicher Praktiken des Einkaufs.
This paper advances a theory of anxiety as social practice. Distinguishing between individual anx... more This paper advances a theory of anxiety as social practice. Distinguishing between individual anxieties and anxiety as a social condition, the paper suggests that anxiety has not been subject to the same level of theoretical scrutiny as related concepts such as risk, trust, or fear. Drawing on the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, the paper shows how contemporary anxieties involve the recognition of our own mortality and the destabilisation of established systems of meaning. The paper then turns to practice theory to show how social anxieties can be understood as events that rupture the fabric of everyday life, creating specific subjects and objects, ‘framed’ by different communities of practice, and becoming institutionalised to varying degrees. Focusing on a range of food-related anxieties, the paper explores the geographical and historical constitution of social anxiety, examining the process of anxiety formation and the factors that inhibit or enha...
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Papers by Jonathan Everts