Chernobrov, D. (2016) Ontological Security and Public (Mis)Recognition of International Crises: Uncertainty, Political Imagining, and the Self. Political Psychology. ISSN 1467-9221
Abstract
Public narratives of unexpected international events frequently help (re)imagine uncertainty as something familiar or predictable. This process underlies social and political responses and is deeply significant in relation to identity and boundary security. I propose to read early perceptions of international crises through a reformulation of ontological security principles that find motivation for behaviour in self-identity needs. Political imagining is shown to seek continuous self-concepts and to routinize new encounters within familiar and self-affirming frames. This article suggests a new approach to ontological continuity: instead of an unchanging narrative its security may rest in a continuously positive version of the self, with narratives of others balancing and securing the relationship. In the second half of the paper I draw on interviews about the ‘Arab Spring’ to show how illusions of recognising unexpected events and the political imagining this produces can be motivated by self-concepts in need of security.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Authors. Political Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society of Political Psychology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
Keywords: | ontological security; uncertainty; perception; international crisis; political imagining; Arab Spring |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Journalism Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Feb 2016 12:15 |
Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2016 14:29 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pops.12334 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/pops.12334 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:93823 |