Link to Session Platform

Chairs(s):

Sasha Davis, Department of Environmental Studies and Sustainability. Keene State College

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Description:

Many popular social theories posit that crises and emergencies lead to a concentration of power as sovereigns either 'rule by exception' (Agamben 2005), take the opportunity to use the state to pass sweeping legislation that enhances corporate power at the expense of the general population (Klein 2007), or engage in intensified biopolitical calculations to manage populations and productivity (Foucault 2007). One of the hallmarks of the past several years, however, has been a remarkable decentralization of authority to manage crises. In an age where COVID responses vary from school to school, civil groups and other non-state entities provide disaster response, cities develop their own unique plans to reform/abolish or strengthen police forces, and many burdens of climate change mitigation fall to municipal governments; crises appear to bring forth more complex, layered, multi-faceted assemblages of competing sovereignties that are increasingly fractured, decentralized, and geographically specific. This session will feature paper presentations that critically reflect on the ways in which sovereignty and governance shift and devolve in times of crisis.

Non-Presenting Participants Agenda