Imaginaries of Ecological Crisis: Critical Junctures of/and/as Democracy

Abstract

Speaker: Amanda Machin What does ecological crisis do to our political imagination? Moments of crisis can dislocate the symbolic order and open possibilities for radical change. Ironically, it is precisely through the puncturing of taken-for-granted daily life, that it becomes possible to notice what has become normalised, and to imagine how it might be different. From this perspective, the ecological crisis might be the symptom of the failure of imagination but also its inspiration. Yet imaginaries of crisis can sometimes suture such critical moments. Filling the future with permanent catastrophe can paralyse citizens, securitise the issues that confront them and justify the suspension of their rights and freedom. The emergency response invoked by imaginaries of crisis can dissolve any ‘normal’ time for democratic reflection and readjustment: For Joseph Masco crisis has thus become a counterrevolutionary force (2017).   This paper attends to imaginaries of crisis and the impact of ecological crisis on the political imagination. It considers the way that imagining crisis can both politicise issues and mobilise movements while at the same time it can depoliticise democracy through the denial of contingency and debate. While refusing to argue for or against crisis, it calls for the reimagining of crisis as a critical juncture; a point at which the possibilities for radical transformation can be grasped.