Culture, Catastrophe, and Rhetoric: The Texture of Political Action (Studies in Rhetoric and Culture Book 7)

This volume explores political culture, especially the catastrophic dimension of the global social order emerging in the twenty-first century. An array of case studies provide an account of how change is experienced, negotiated, and resisted in specific settings that define a society's capacity for political action. This volume explores political culture, especially the catastrophic elements of the global social order emerging in the twenty-first century. By emphasizing the texture of political action, the book theorizes how social context becomes evident on the surface of events and analyzes the performative dimensions of political experience. The attention to catastrophe allows for an understanding of how ordinary people contend with normal system operation once it is indistinguishable from system breakdown. Through an array of case studies, the book provides an account of change as it is experienced, negotiated, and resisted in specific settings that define a society's capacity for political action The Communal Dilemma As A Cultural Resource In Hungarian Political Expression / David Boromisza-habashi -- Chronotypes Of The Political : Public Discourse, News Media, And Mass Action In Postconflict Macedonia / Andrew Graan -- The In-between States : Enduring Catastrophes As Sources Of Democracy's Deadlocks In Kosovo / Naser Miftari -- Occupy Wall Street As Rhetorical Citizenship : The Ongoing Relevance Of Pragmatism For Deliberative Democracy / Robert Danisch -- Contemporary Social Movements And The Emergent Nomadic Political Logic / Peter N. Funke And Todd Wolfson -- Project Heat And Sensory Politics In Redeveloping Chicago Public Housing / Catherine Fennell -- Reading Between The Digital Lines : The Political Rhetoric Of Ethical Consumption / Eleftheria J. Lekakis -- The Uncertainty Of Power And The Certainty Of Irony : Encountering The State In Kara, Southern Ethiopia / Felix Girke -- Grassroots Rhetorics In Times Of Scarcity : Debating The 2004 Locus Plague In Northwestern Senegal And The World / Christian Meyer -- Too Too Much Much : Presence And Catastrophe In Contemporary Art / Monica Westin -- Conclusion : What Next? Modernity, Revolution, And The Turn To Catastrophe / Ralph Cintron. Edited By Robert Hariman And Ralph Cintron. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. The Communal Dilemma as a Cultural Resource in Hungarian Political Expression 2. Chronotopes of the Political: Public Discourse, News Media, and Mass Action in Postconflict Macedonia 3. The In-Between States: Enduring Catastrophes as Sources of Democracy’s Deadlocks in Kosovo 4. Occupy Wall Street as Rhetorical Citizenship: The Ongoing Relevance of Pragmatism for Deliberative Democracy 5. Contemporary Social Movements and the Emergent Nomadic Political Logic 6. “Project Heat” and Sensory Politics in Redeveloping Chicago Public Housing 7. Reading between the Digital Lines: The Political Rhetoric of Ethical Consumption 8. The Uncertainty of Power and the Certainty of Irony: Encountering the State in Kara, Southern Ethiopia 9. Grassroots Rhetorics in Times of Scarcity: Debating the 2004 Locust Plague in Northwestern Senegal and the World 10. Too Too Much Much: Presence and Catastrophe in Contemporary Art Conclusion: What Next? Modernity, Revolution, and the “Turn” to Catastrophe Index