Beyond Safety: Risk, Cosmopolitanism, and Neoliberal Contemporary Life

Beyond Safety examines how representations of neoliberal contemporary life are altered by concerns about the ethical impossibility of individual safety in the face of risks with global consequences. It explores how global danger and safety are depicted in contemporary transnational fictional and popular texts, questioning and re-imagining the norms and practices of contemporary global citizenship.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 192 pages
\n Publication date: 07 October 2021
\n Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Beyond Safety is a thought-provoking book that delves into the ethical implications of individual safety in the face of risks with global consequences. It challenges the prevailing representations of neoliberal contemporary life, highlighting the interconnectedness of the world and the resulting precarious outcomes and dangers. The book emphasizes the global connections that produce and reflect these outcomes, such as the climate crises in the Caribbean and Australia, ongoing European refugee and American border crises, and the recent concerns about Coronavirus.

It underscores the fact that risk is not just a matter of probability but also of social and economic inequalities, with particular segments of society having the means to ignore or shift it to others. Emily Johansen, the author of the book, investigates depictions of global danger and safety in contemporary transnational fictional and popular texts. These texts, characterized by a narrative or representational emphasis on border crossing and global interdependences, use risk to question and re-imagine the norms and practices of contemporary global citizenship.

Beyond Safety brings together three of the central keywords of contemporary literary criticism of the last ten years: cosmopolitanism, precarity, and neoliberalism. It demonstrates how their intersection allows for a fuller conception of contemporary life and imagines a new global future. The book offers valuable insights into the complexities of contemporary global politics and society, challenging readers to think critically about the ethical and social implications of our interconnected world.

\n Weight: 346g\n
Dimension: 160 x 236 x 22 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781501377013\n \n