Change and the politics of certainty / Jenny Edkins.

By:

Edkins, Jenny [author.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Online access: Manchester University Press Manchester Open Access | Online access: OAPEN Open Research Library (ORL) | Online access: OAPEN DOAB Directory of Open Access BooksPublisher: Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 1 online resource (245 pages) : illustrations (black and white); digital, PDF file(s)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9781526147264
1526147262
9781526119049
1526119048

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Electronic books.

Additional physical formats: Print version (hardback): No title; Print version: No titleDDC classification:

320.01 23

LOC classification:

JA71 .E35 2019eb

Online resources:

EBSCOhost

Contents:

Introduction -- 1. Objects among objects -- 2. Intellectuals as experts -- 3. The final core of uncertainty -- 4. Humanitarianism, humanity, human -- 5. Memory and the future -- 6. Loss of loss -- 7. Tracing disappearance -- 8. Stardust -- 9.. The grenfell tower file -- 10. From one world to another Conclusion.

Summary: Despite the imperative for change in a world of persistent inequality, racism, oppression and violence, difficulties arise once we try to bring about a transformation. As scholars, students and activists, we may want to change the world, but we are not separate, looking in, but rather part of the world ourselves. The book demonstrates that we are not in control: with all our academic rigour, we cannot know with certainty why the world is the way it is, or what impact our actions will have. It asks what we are to do, if this is the case, and engages with our desire to seek change. Chapters scrutinise the role of intellectuals, experts and activists in famine aid, the Iraq war, humanitarianism and intervention, traumatic memory, enforced disappearance, and the Grenfell Tower fire, and examine the fantasy of security, contemporary notions of time, space and materiality, and ideas of the human and sentience. Plays and films by Michael Frayn, Chris Marker and Patricio Guzmán are considered, and autobiographical narrative accounts probe the author's life and background. The book argues that although we might need to traverse the fantasy of certainty and security, we do not need to give up on hope.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

No physical items for this record

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Despite the imperative for change in a world of persistent inequality, racism, oppression and violence, difficulties arise once we try to bring about a transformation. As scholars, students and activists, we may want to change the world, but we are not separate, looking in, but rather part of the world ourselves. The book demonstrates that we are not in control: with all our academic rigour, we cannot know with certainty why the world is the way it is, or what impact our actions will have. It asks what we are to do, if this is the case, and engages with our desire to seek change. Chapters scrutinise the role of intellectuals, experts and activists in famine aid, the Iraq war, humanitarianism and intervention, traumatic memory, enforced disappearance, and the Grenfell Tower fire, and examine the fantasy of security, contemporary notions of time, space and materiality, and ideas of the human and sentience. Plays and films by Michael Frayn, Chris Marker and Patricio Guzmán are considered, and autobiographical narrative accounts probe the author's life and background. The book argues that although we might need to traverse the fantasy of certainty and security, we do not need to give up on hope.