Modes of Uncertainty
Anthropological Cases
"Modes of Uncertainty" offers groundbreaking ways of thinking about danger, risk, and uncertainty from an analytical and anthropological perspective. Our world, the contributors show, is increasingly populated by forms, practices, and events whose uncertainty cannot be reduced to risk – and thus it is vital to distinguish between the two. Drawing the lines between them, they argue that the study of uncertainty should not focus solely on the appearance of new risks and dangers – which no doubt abound – but also on how uncertainty itself should be defined, and what the implications might be for policy and government.
Organizing contributions from various anthropological subfields – including economics, business, security, humanitarianism, health, and environment – Limor Samimian-Darash and Paul Rabinow offer new tools with which to consider uncertainty, its management, and the differing modes of subjectivity appropriate to it. Taking up policies and experiences as objects of research and analysis, the essays here seek a rigorous inquiry into a sound conceptualization of uncertainty in order to better confront contemporary problems. Ultimately, they open the way for a participatory anthropology that asks crucial questions about our contemporary state.
About the Author
Limor Samimian-Darash is assistant professor at the Federman School of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Paul Rabinow is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or co-author of many books, including, most recently, "Designs on the Contemporary", "Demands of the Day", and "Designing Human Practices", all published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
"'Modes of Uncertainty' gives an impressive view of powerful and original scholarship, precise research, and strong linkages between theorizing and analyzing data, addressing the question of how humans in a variety of settings are dealing in concrete ways with unknown but highly important near futures that are directly linked to, but not controlled by, their actions" – Reiner Keller, author of "Doing Discourse Research"
