Work

Preemption, precaution, preparedness: Anticipatory action and future geographies

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: The paper focuses on how futures are anticipated and acted on in relation to a set of events that are taken to threaten liberal democracies. Across different domains of life the future is now problematized as a disruption, a surprise. This problematization of the future as indeterminate or uncertain has been met with an extraordinary proliferation of anticipatory action. The paper argues that anticipatory action works through the assembling of: styles through which the form of the future is disclosed and related to; practices that render specific futures present; and logics through which anticipatory action is legitimized, guided and enacted.

Source: Progress in Human Geography

DOI: 10.1177/0309132510362600

Author: Ben Anderson

Institution: Durham University

Language: English

Topic: Risk Perception and Management

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Award: Staging and Performing Emergencies: The Role of Exercises in UK Preparedness