Manufacturing Phobias: The Political Production of Fear in Theory and Practice

by Hisham Ramadan (Editor), Jeff Shantz (Editor)

Overview

Fear is a powerful emotion and a formidable spur to action, a source of worry and – when it is manipulated – a source of injustice. Manufacturing Phobias demonstrates how economic and political elites mobilize fears of terrorism, crime, migration, invasion, and infection to twist political and social policy and advance their own agendas.

The contributors to the collection, experts in criminology, law, sociology, and politics, explain how and why social phobias are created by pundits, politicians, and the media, and how they target the most vulnerable in our society. Emphasizing how social phobias reflect the interests of those with political, economic, and cultural power, this work challenges the idea that society’s anxieties are merely expressions of individual psychology. Manufacturing Phobias will be a clarion call for anyone concerned about the disturbing consequences of our culture of fear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442628847
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	04/04/2016
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hisham Ramadan is a professor in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Jeff Shantz is a professor in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Table of Contents

Phobic Constructions: An Introduction (Hisham Ramadan and Jeff Shantz)

Part 1. Endless Façades: Rethinking Social Phobias

1. Pathologizing Resistance and Promoting Anthropophobia: The Violent Extremism Risk Assessment (VERA) as Case Study (Heidi Rimke)

2. Conflicts of Rights: Free Speech, Freedom to Practice a Religion and the Social Phobia Mighty Machine (Hisham Ramadan)

3. Phobic Constructions: Psychological, Sociological, Criminological Articulations (Jeff Shantz and Hisham Ramadan)

Part 2. Bordering on Fear: Phobias, National Identities, Citizenship

4. Constructions of Phobias, Fractured and Stigmatized Selves, and the Ideal Citizen in Iranian School Textbooks (Amir Mirfakhraie)

5. How to Save… A Nation?: Televisual Fiction Post-9/11 (Melissa Ames)

6. The Preparation for National Revolution or Accepting the Inevitable Decay? (Dmitry Shlapentokh)

7. Phobia in an Age of Post Migrant Rights: The Regional Response and Criminalization of Tamil Refugees (Michael CK Ma and Davina Bhandar)

Part 3. Politics by other Means: Phobias and Political Practice

8. Death Panels on the Prison Planet: The New World Order Conspiracy and the Radicalization of American Politics (Johann Pautz)

9. Degradation Ceremonies: Fear Discourses, Phobic Production, and the Military Metaphysic in Canada (Jeff Shantz)

10. Manufacturing the ‘avaton’ and the ghetto: Places of Fear in the Centre of Athens (Penny (Panagiota) Koutrolikou)

Afterword: Opposing Phobias Going Forward (Hisham M. Ramadan and Jeff Shantz)

What People are Saying About This

Alan Sears

"Manufacturing Phobias offers a creative take on the politics of fear in the early twenty-first century. What distinguishes this collection is the range of issues covered, including Islamophobia, crime, popular culture, and migrants' rights, and its geographic breadth."

Editorial Reviews

" Manufacturing Phobias offers a creative take on the politics of fear in the early twenty-first century. What distinguishes this collection is the range of issues covered, including Islamophobia, crime, popular culture, and migrants’ rights, and its geographic breadth."

—Alan Sears, Department of Sociology, Ryerson University

From the Publisher