The concept of survival as an instrument for the politics of fear: the colonisation of everyday life in the discourses of nuclear warfare and ecology

Abstract

The concept of survival functions as a guiding probe in the history of emotions. The history of modernity can be recounted as a generalization of situations of danger; since the middle of the 20th century, it has encompassed the whole of society. This article is devoted to two fields in which the concept of survival is applied and which are themselves constitutive of this totalizing process, namely the discourses on nuclear war and on ecology. In both, survival plays a central role in the historical reflection and politicization of the new dangers resulting from the development of new technologies and the consequences of the growth of the capitalist economy.