Event overview
Public lecture on the ontological insecurity wrought by the globalisation of neo-liberalism, by Giorgio Shani, International Christian University, Japan
This lecture will critically interrogate the emergence of Human Security as a response to the ontological insecurity wrought by the globalization of neo-liberalism. For Giddens (Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, 1991):47), to be ‘ontologically secure is to possess, on the level of the unconscious and practical consciousness, “answers” to fundamental existential questions which all human life in some way addresses.’
Religion and nationalism provide ‘answers’ to these questions in times of rapid socio-economic and cultural change (Kinvall, 2004). The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalization has resulted in the deracination of many of the world’s inhabitants resulting in a state of collective ‘existential anxiety’ (Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, 1991).
Under such conditions of existential anxiety, the search for identity and community becomes paramount. However, secular conceptions- including ‘critical’ accounts- of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ (Commission on Human Security, 2003) fail to take into account the importance of identity for security.
It will be suggested that a ‘post-secular’ understanding of Human Security (Shani, 2014) is better able to provide ontological security in times of rapid global transformation but only if it accounts for the centrality of religion to post-colonial subjectivity as a legacy of colonialism.
Giorgio Shani PhD (London) is Professor of Politics and International Relations at International Christian University, Tokyo and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre of International Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is author of Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age (Routledge 2008) and Religion, Identity and Human Security (Routledge 2014).
He has published widely in internationally reviewed journals including International Studies Review, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Postcolonial Studies (forthcoming). He is a series editor of I (Rowman and Littlefield International) and currently serving as President of the Asia-Pacific region of the International Studies Association.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Nov 2016 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
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