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Anxiety, fear, and ontological security in world politics: thinking with and beyond Giddens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2020

Catarina Kinnvall  and
Jennifer Mitzen Open the ORCID record for Jennifer Mitzen [Opens in a new window]
Catarina Kinnvall
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Lund University, Box 52, 221 00, Lund, Sweden
Jennifer Mitzen*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mitzen.1@osu.edu
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Abstract

Research on ontological security in world politics has mushroomed since the early 2000s but seems to have reached an impasse. Ontological security is a conceptual lens for understanding subjectivity that focuses on the management of anxiety in self-constitution. Building especially on Giddens, IR scholars have emphasized how this translates to a need for cognitive consistency and biographical continuity – a security of ‘being.’ A criticism has been its so-called ‘status quo bias,’ a perceived tilt toward theorizing investment in the existing social order. To some, an ontological security lens both offers social theoretic foundations for a realist worldview and lacks resources to conceptualize alternatives. We disagree. Through this symposium, we address that critique and suggest pathways forward by focusing on the thematic of anxiety. Distinguishing between anxiety and fear, we note that anxiety manifests in different emotions and leaves room for a range of political possibilities. Early ontological security scholarship relied heavily on readings of Giddens, which potentially accounts for its bias. This symposium re-opens the question of the relationship between anxiety and subjectivity from the perspective of ontological security, thinking with and beyond Giddens. Three contributions re-think anxiety in ontological security drawing on existentialist philosophy; two address limitations of Giddens' approach.

Keywords

ontological securityanxietysubjectivityfearGiddens
Type
Symposium: Anxiety, Fear, and Ontological Security in World Politics: Edited by Catarina Kinnvall and Jennifer Mitzen
Information
International Theory , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 240 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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