State of Fear in a Liquid World

This book examines the insecurity that besets our lives in the contemporary world, revealing it to be a symptom of the crumbling of the notion of security that modernity had sought to guarantee to its citizens. With the emergence of the 'liquid' world, insecurity has become endemic and is accepted as something we must live with, but this accepta

'Considering that the fear emanating from the state of anxiety and existential uncertainty is the dominant horror haunting our times, and the comprehensiveness of Carlo Bordoni's inventory of its roots and impacts, State of Fear in aLiquid Worldis a most welcome gift to the residents of the 21st Century.' - Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds, U.K 'In this thought-provoking book, Carlo Bordoni convincingly shows the powerful presence of insecurity and fear in contemporary liquid modern society. The book is packed with ominous insights about the normalization of the state of fear and about how we may still hope to counteract this tendency. A must read for anybody keen to understand our fear-infested culture.' - Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Aalborg University, Denmark'The world has become a scary place. We are fearful, but fear helps make sense of the world. Are we too scared to lose our fear? Carlo Bordoni offers resources to think anew and openly about our fears and our world. He issues a challenge stop being fearful and, instead, think.' - Keith Tester, LaTrobe University, Australia

Autorentext

Carlo Bordoni is a sociologist, journalist, former lecturer at the University of Florence and Director of the Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara (Italy). He writes for the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera and its literary supplement, la Lettura, for the quarterly Prometeo, *and the journal Social Europe online. He is the author of State of Crisis with Zygmunt Bauman, The End of Equality (Routledge, 2016) and Interregnum: Beyond Liquid Modernity*.

Inhalt

Preface: A silent companion in a liquid world

Acknowledgements

1. Phobos, a God repressed

2. Fear of the machine

3. Human adaption to the machine

4. Natural and moral disasters

5. Danger as an everyday experience

6. Social security and individual insecurity

7. Fear of Invasion

8. Fear of Exclusion

9. Waste in our future

10. The frailty of personal relationships

11. Forms of reassurance

12. Globalization and "overclass"

13. The Panopticon inside the net

14. The anxiety-inducing State and the management of insecurity

15. Unde malum? A temporary conclusion

References

Index