States and ontological security: A historical rethinking

Zarakol, Ayşe

doi:10.1177/0010836716653158

Cited by 106 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Structural issues derailed national cohesion and promoted ethnic identity that created fear of being targeted for reasons of political ethnicity and religion. Zarakol (2017) stresses that "we find that poverty and violent civil conflicts, political persecution, human rights abuses, and ethnic tensions have a substantial influence on migration" (p. 5). Whereas, political ethnicity is a source of disunity which requires strong leadership to educate citizens on the importance of nationalism over ethnicity.…”

Section: Ethnic and Political Divisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unthinkable Journeys: Sub-Saharan Africa Involuntary Youth Migration

Atem¹

2020

JEDS

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Section: Ethnic and Political Divisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unthinkable Journeys: Sub-Saharan Africa Involuntary Youth Migration

Atem¹

2020

JEDS

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“…Yet, what this being is -its ontology -is formed intersubjectively through norms and practices of selfhood and its recognition. BWithout ontological security,^writes Zarakol, Bthe self cannot know where it begins and ends,^and this is a prerequisite for any type of (physical) security because Bwhat is essential to the body (and its survival) can only be defined by the self^( [19], p. 1). It is a security that makes secure and certain what exactly a thinking BI^is.…”

Section: Ontological (In)security and Anthroposmentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing ourselves from ourselves? The paradox of “entanglement” in the Anthropocene

Hamilton

2017

Crime Law Soc Change

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The Anthropocene presents new challenges to the natural and social sciences by claiming that humanity is Bentangled^with a myriad of scales, spaces, being(s), and temporalities. Yet, how does this entanglement alter our understanding of security? This article argues that the Anthropocene threatens not our physical security, but our ontological security: our deep and normalized conceptions of humanity and what it means to be a human Bself^in a stable and continuous world. By replacing the foundation of ontological security in modernity -the uncertainty of death -with a new uncertainty of anthropos, the result is an existential discontinuity emanating from our own human selves. The Anthropocene thus manifests the need to secure humanity from humanity, or the paradox of securing oneself from oneself. Recent turns to the concept of Bquantum entanglement^attempt to resolve this paradox by re-instilling a certain and secure Bentangled^human self within an otherwise uncertain and insecure Anthropocene epoch. The article concludes that this move actually illustrates humanity's separation, or dis-entanglement, from nature. Ethical and moral responsibilities to mediate and safeguard life and the planet derive not from (quantum) science nor from entanglement, but from a social world within which humans possess the agency to mediate and judge how to act through such concepts.We live in a world where the impact of humanity upon the Earth's natural processes and systems is becoming frighteningly evident. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) have recently passed the dreaded 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold, portending runaway anthropogenic climate change in the future [1]. Biodiversity loss, or the vanishing of species at rates more than 100 times faster than without human interference, points to the Earth's sixth mass extinction -the first caused by humans [2]. And with these two core planetary boundaries transgressed, along with others such as land system transformation and biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus Crime Law Soc Change (2017) 68:579-595

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“…Some authors, drawing on Giddens, posit that the pursuit of ontological security in world politics is a feature of radical transformations brought about by contemporary processes such as globalization (Kinnvall 2004). Others, such as Zarakol, construe ontological security as a universal and trans-historic need of the individual and collective agents alike (Zarakol 2017). Historically, therefore, the modern state is only one among many institutional sources of ontological security.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict, Peace, and Ontological Security

Ejdus¹

2020

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

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Freedom from anxiety; Security of being; Security of the self Definition/Description Ontological security denotes the ability of actors to maintain their biographical continuity and a healthy sense of self. It is maintained through routines and stable relationships with significant others. When actors are ontologically secure, they do not pose fundamental questions related to existence, finitude, autobiography, and relations. This allows them to maintain cognitive control of their environment, go on with daily life, and have a sense of purposeful agency. Ontological security is unmade by critical situations, unpredictable events that catch actors off guard and rupture their routines. As a result of crises, actors cannot sustain their narratives about the self and others, which is generating debilitating anxiety. Although the concept of ontological security was coined by psychologists and initially developed by sociologists, it has also travelled to International Relations (IR) where scholars have used to make sense of world politics, including peace and conflict.

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States and ontological security: A historical rethinking

Cited by 106 publications

References 55 publications

Unthinkable Journeys: Sub-Saharan Africa Involuntary Youth Migration

Unthinkable Journeys: Sub-Saharan Africa Involuntary Youth Migration

Securing ourselves from ourselves? The paradox of “entanglement” in the Anthropocene

Conflict, Peace, and Ontological Security

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