Insecurity

**Investigating insecurity as the predominant logic of life in the present moment** Challenging several key concepts of the twenty-first century, including precarity, securitization, and resilience, this collection explores the concept of insecurity as a predominant logic governing recent cultural, economic, political, and social life in the West. The essays illuminate how attempts to make human and nonhuman systems secure and resilient end up having the opposite effect, making insecurity the default state of life today. Unique in its wide disciplinary breadth and variety of topics and methodological approaches—from intellectual history and cultural critique to case studies, qualitative ethnography, and personal narrative—__Insecurity__ is written predominantly from the viewpoint of the United States. The contributors’ analyses include the securitization of nongovernmental aid to Palestine, Bangladeshi climate refugees, and the privatization of U.S. military forces; the history of the concept of insecurity and the securitization of finance; racialized urban development in Augusta, Georgia; Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and the consequences of the Marie Kondo method; and the intricate politics of sexual harassment in the U.S. academy. Contributors: Neel Ahuja, U of California, Santa Cruz; Aneesh Aneesh, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Lisa Bhungalia, Kent State U; Jennifer Doyle, U of California, Riverside; Annie McClanahan, U of California, Irvine; Andrea Miller, Florida Atlantic U; Mark Neocleous, Brunel U London; A. Naomi Paik, U of Illinois, Chicago; Maureen Ryan, U of South Carolina; Saskia Sassen, Columbia U. Investigating insecurity as the predominant logic of life in the present moment Challenging several key concepts of the twenty-first century, including precarity, securitization, and resilience, this collection explores the concept of insecurity as a predominant logic governing recent cultural, economic, political, and social life in the West. The essays illuminate how attempts to make human and nonhuman systems secure and resilient end up having the opposite effect, making insecurity the default state of life today. Unique in its wide disciplinary breadth and variety of topics and methodological approaches—from intellectual history and cultural critique to case studies, qualitative ethnography, and personal narrative— Insecurity is written predominantly from the viewpoint of the United States. The contributors’ analyses include the securitization of nongovernmental aid to Palestine, Bangladeshi climate refugees, and the privatization of U.S. military forces; the history of the concept of insecurity and the securitization of finance; racialized urban development in Augusta, Georgia; Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and the consequences of the Marie Kondo method; and the intricate politics of sexual harassment in the U.S. academy. Contributors: Neel Ahuja, U of California, Santa Cruz; Aneesh Aneesh, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Lisa Bhungalia, Kent State U; Jennifer Doyle, U of California, Riverside; Annie McClanahan, U of California, Irvine; Andrea Miller, Florida Atlantic U; Mark Neocleous, Brunel U London; A. Naomi Paik, U of Illinois, Chicago; Maureen Ryan, U of South Carolina; Saskia Sassen, Columbia U. Investigating insecurity as the predominant logic of life in the present moment0 Challenging several key concepts of the twenty-first century, including precarity, securitization, and resilience, this collection explores the concept of insecurity as a predominant logic governing recent cultural, economic, political, and social life in the West. The essays illuminate how attempts to make human and nonhuman systems secure and resilient end up having the opposite effect, making insecurity the default state of life today.0Unique in its wide disciplinary breadth and variety of topics and methodological approaches-from intellectual history and cultural critique to case studies, qualitative ethnography, and personal narrative-Insecurity is written predominantly from the viewpoint of the United States. The contributors' analyses include the securitization of nongovernmental aid to Palestine, Bangladeshi climate refugees, and the privatization of U.S. military forces; the history of the concept of insecurity and the securitization of finance; racialized urban development in Augusta, Georgia; Amazon's Mechanical Turk and the consequences of the Marie Kondo method; and the intricate politics of sexual harassment in the U.S. academy.0Contributors: Neel Ahuja, U of California, Santa Cruz; Aneesh Aneesh, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Lisa Bhungalia, Kent State U; Jennifer Doyle, U of California, Riverside; Annie McClanahan, U of California, Irvine; Andrea Miller, Florida Atlantic U; Mark Neocleous, Brunel U London; A. Naomi Paik, U of Illinois, Chicago; Maureen Ryan, U of South Carolina; Saskia Sassen, Columbia U "Based on a 2019 conference, this manuscript explores the concept of "Insecurity" as one of the governing logics of economic, political, and social life in the West at the end of the 2010s. The project's definition of insecurity expands the concept from its primarily economic meaning to include affective, ecological, and geopolitical concerns. Economic systems, climate systems, defense systems, data systems, academic governance: all are designed with security (and thereby insecurity) in mind. By focusing on insecurity, the manuscript shines a light on the ways in which purported attempts to make us secure and resilient end up having the opposite effect by making insecurity the default state of life in the 21st century. The contributors each take up the complex interdependence of security and insecurity from a variety of different methodological, theoretical, and disciplinary points of view"-- Provided by publisher Cover Page 1 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Introduction 8 Chapter 1. Securitati Perpetuae:Death, Fear, and the History of Insecurity 22 Chapter 2. Microwork, Automation, and the Insecurity of Contemporary Labor 52 Chapter 3. Deadly Entanglements:U.S. Imperialism and Perils of Privatizing Security 86 Chapter 4. Governing Suspects: Race, Preemption, and Economies of Threat in American Warfare 116 Chapter 5. Figuring the Climate Refugee: From Insecurity to Adaptation in Representations of Bangladeshi Environmental Migration 136 Chapter 6. Cyber-Insecurities and Racialized Threat in the Embattled Urban Ecosystem 160 Chapter 7. The Burnout Generation Tidies Up: On the Insecurity of Adulting 192 Chapter 8. Rogue Capabilities and Invisible Violence: A Conversation between Saskia Sassen and Aneesh Aneesh 222 Chapter 9. Letting Go 236 Contributors 266 Index 268