Auerbach Lecture | 23.06.2025 | 18 Uhr
Susanne Krasmann (Soziologie, Hamburg): Assuming Responsibility in Insecure Times. The Emergence of Political Collectivities
Abstract
Our times are marked by a multiplication of crises and insecurities. Among the most fundamental ones are the disastrous consequences of climate change, the rise of authoritarianism and autocratic regimes, and the ‘return of war to Europe’. The latter phrase, coined in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was indicative of a growing societal sense in Europe that the democratic political order of peace and security was deeply unsettled.
On the example of the German debate on how to react to the war on Ukraine and whether to support the battered country militarily, the lecture discusses the idea of the epistemic object that emerges in an affective public. To do so, it introduces a further notion: Assuming responsibility, it is argued, is a genuinely performative act. It involves making a truth claim – about what is – and creating realities by envisioning what should or should not be under conditions of radical uncertainty. The decisions made themselves contribute to the formation of political collectivities: They make certain values materialize in the first place. However, the matter of concern changes not only with the debate, but also with the material objects, or ‘realities’, that enter the scene: the decisions that are made, or left undone, the ‘facts’ (such as the actual stockpiles of weapons) that condition decisions, or the events (such as news of gruesome incidents or strategic advantages on the battlefield) that traverse the debates. The lecture develops an analytics of emergent political collectivities in an affective public, and thus sheds light on the fragility of political orders.
Ort & Zeit: Ort & Zeit: Bibliothek Erich Auerbach Institut, Weyertal 59 (Rückgebäude, 3. OG), 50937 Köln |
Montag, 23.06.2025 | 18:00 Uhr