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Anxiety Culture

The New Global State of Human Affairs

John P. Allegrante, Ulrich Hoinkes, Michael I. Schapira, and Karen Struve
with a foreword by Renata Salecl

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A collection of timely essays on the rising wave of anxiety in culture.

The twenty-first century is characterized by uncertainty: from catastrophic climate change to the accelerating pace of technological change, societies around the world are gripped by anxiety about the future. In Anxiety Culture, editors John Allegrante, Ulrich Hoinkes, Michael Schapira, and Karen Struve bring together a distinguished group of international scholars to examine the forces that increase anxiety as a phenomenon beyond solely individual experiences of clinical anxiety to pervade global culture.

These trenchant...

A collection of timely essays on the rising wave of anxiety in culture.

The twenty-first century is characterized by uncertainty: from catastrophic climate change to the accelerating pace of technological change, societies around the world are gripped by anxiety about the future. In Anxiety Culture, editors John Allegrante, Ulrich Hoinkes, Michael Schapira, and Karen Struve bring together a distinguished group of international scholars to examine the forces that increase anxiety as a phenomenon beyond solely individual experiences of clinical anxiety to pervade global culture.

These trenchant essays examine our culture of anxiety across diverse avenues of society. Covering fears related to climate change, populist and extremist movements around the world, gun violence, artificial intelligence, and more, contributors also examine how anxiety is expressed in literature and the media and how a culture of anxiety affects policymaking. Chapters are organized into five sections: disciplinary perspectives on anxiety, climate change and the environment, population health and social well-being, migration, and technology.

There's room for hope, however. Contributors provide pragmatic recommendations for coping with anxiety culture in public education, governments, and NGOs. Anxiety Culture is a unique attempt to define this condition and an indispensable resource for those seeking stability in an unstable age, providing a set of conceptual and practical narratives for navigating both existing and emergent planetary challenges.

Contributors: Kristina Allgoewer, Bryndis Asgeirsdottir, John Baldacchino, Christine Blaettler, Michel Bourban, Dominic Boyer, Eva J. Daussà, Nicholas Freudenberg, Monica van der Haagen-Wulff, Kelsey Hudson, Karena Kalmbach, Emmanuel Kattan, Markus Lemmens, Eric Lewandowski, Raphaël Liogier, Roman Marek, Christian Martin, Paul Mecheril, Angelika Messner, Caine C. A. Meyers, Julie Mostov, Dirk Nabers, Frauke Nees, Konrad Ott, Sonali Rajan, Julie Reshe, Bàrbara Roviró, Renata Selecl, Inga Dora Sigfusdottir, Frank Stengel, Ingibjorg Eva Thorisdottir, Maren Urner, Iris Wieczorek, Zhao Xudong, Liya Yu

Reviews

Reviews

A moment's thought about the state of the world is enough to provoke anxiety. But will that anxiety make things better or worse? The answer must lie in a much better understanding of this complex phenomenon, something the editors give us in this superb compilation that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Thoroughly original. The authors regard anxiety as a sociocultural phenomenon that varies across time and space. It differs from other handbooks of anxiety, which emphasize the biological and clinical aspects.

70 years ago, W.H. Auden wrote of an Age of Anxiety. We are still living in it. Thank you, John Allegrante, Ulrich Hoinkes, Michael Schapira, and Karen Struve for this timely guide to why we worry in this moment, and how we can shape a less anxious future.

With the world and all of its peoples seemingly teetering on the edge of the abyss, Anxiety Culture takes a long hard look at the sources of our underlying existential unease to show us light in the midst of the encircling darkness. A superb and timely collection.

Anxiety Culture is notable for both its intellectual ambition and its wise restraint. This volume provocatively argues that widespread anxiety across social, political, environmental, and technological domains defines the present moment and calls us to corrective action. But it also refrains from propounding grandiose solutions, instead offering thoughtful directions for further research and policy.

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Book Details

Release Date
Publication Date
Status
Preorder
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
424
ISBN
9781421450360
Illustration Description
14 figures
Table of Contents

Foreword, by Renata Salecl
Preface
Introduction: Anxiety a New Global Narrative
Part I: Disciplinary Perspectives on Anxiety
1. Vulnerable Political Brains in Anxiety Cultures
2. The Cognitive Neuroscience

Foreword, by Renata Salecl
Preface
Introduction: Anxiety a New Global Narrative
Part I: Disciplinary Perspectives on Anxiety
1. Vulnerable Political Brains in Anxiety Cultures
2. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Anxiety
3. Anxiety Culture as Social Reality and Object of Philosophical Consideration
Part II: Climate Change and the Environment
4. Eco-Anxiety
5. Death Anxiety and Fossil Fuels
6. Climate Change Anxiety in Young People
7. Who Is Afraid of Climate Change?
Part III: Population Health and Social Well-Being
8. A Public Health Perspective on Anxiety
9. Anxiety and School Gun Violence in America
10. Adolescent Anxiety
11. Anxiety and Global Health
Part IV: Migration, Language, and Culture
12. Crisis, Affect, and Migration
13. Narrative Anxiety
14. Multilingual Anxiety in Migration Contexts
15. Anxiety and Mobility/Immobility
Part V: Technology
16. Anxiety Culture as Fuel for Industrialism
17. Fear and Technology in Modern Europe
18. Fear and Freedom in Technology
19. Technology Policy in Society 5.0
Part VI: Coda
20. Discourse, Fantasy, and Anxiety in Trump's America
21. Climate Anxieties in Discourse
22. No Longer Waiting for Messiah
Afterword, by John Baldacchino
Appendix
Contributors
Index

Author Bios
John P. Allegrante
Featured Contributor

John P. Allegrante, PhD

John P. Allegrante (NEW YORK, NY), an applied behavioral scientist, is the Charles Irwin Lambert professor of health behavior and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Ulrich Hoinkes
Featured Contributor

Ulrich Hoinkes, PhD

Ulrich Hoinkes (KIEL, GERMANY) is a Romance philologist, a linguist, and a professor of Romance studies and teacher education at the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel.
Michael I. Schapira
Featured Contributor

Michael I. Schapira, PhD

Michael Schapira (ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND) is an independent scholar and the author of University in Crisis: From the Middle Ages to the University of Excellence.
Karen Struve
Featured Contributor

Karen Struve, PhD

Karen Struve (BREMEN, GERMANY) is a professor of Franco-Romance and literary studies at the University of Bremen.