Description
Book SynopsisDissects the post9/11 symbiosis between the state and private security firms, and its basis: the conviction that uncertainties—devastation by terrorist attack, financial market collapse—must be discerned and preempted, however unlikely they may be.
Trade Review"
The Politics of Possibility addresses a topic that has been crying out for just this kind of novel analysis. Louise Amoore scrutinizes how the security state has shifted its focus from probability to possibility. Combining theoretical sophistication with an eye for the telling detail, she offers new ways of thinking about the practices of sovereign power and the making of security decisions."—
Michael Dillon, author of
Biopolitics of Security in the 21st Century: A Political Analytic of Finitude"Just as Foucault laid bare the machinery of modern authority with prescience and originality, Louise Amoore lays bare the machinery of power operating in the contemporary neoliberal West. It is based on authorization, on systems of data mining and algorithmic expertise that allow corporations, consultancies, and states, often acting in conjunction, to frame and enact the future for specific profit and security interests. This book subtly and elegantly repudiates any inclination to think that sovereign power has waned."
—Ash Amin, coauthor of
Arts of the Political: New Openings for the Left"Louise Amoore’s
The Politics of Possibility is theoretically sophisticated, empirically engaged, and highly relevant to our contemporary milieu. This is a most admirable combination." -- Colin Koopman * Theory & Event *
"[T]his is not only a theoretically engaging and stimulating book, but also a very empirically rich and nuanced contribution to contemporary work on risk and security." -- Maj Grasten * Political Studies Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction. On the Politics of Possibility 1
Part I. Techniques
1. On Authority: Probabilities for a World of Possibility 29
2. On Risk: Securing Uncertain Futures 55
Part II. Spaces
3. On the Line: Life Signatures and the Writing of the Border 79
4. On Location: Reconciling Security and Mobility 105
Part III. Effects
5. On Aesthetics: Security's Objects and the Form of Data 129
6. On a Potential Politics: Toward an Ethics of the Unanticipated 155
Notes 177
Bibliography 203
Index 217
