Security, Preparedness, and the State
The objective of my dissertation research (2005-2009) was to explore contemporary forms and conceptions of security, by inquiring into how the Israeli state prepares for future biological threats.
I examined how scientists, security officials, and public health experts define and evaluate biological threats, including bio-terrorism and global epidemics, and the types of preparedness solutions and technologies the state has developed to address them. The study linked the issue of preparedness for future biological threats and the organizational and institutional dynamics forged through the process of coping with them. This study points to the emergence of a new state formation incorporating a wide array of units, professions, and technologies that are woven together for the sake of preparing for bio-threats. I term this preparedness figure, a pre-event configuration, and argue it is a dynamic assemblage rather than an institutionalized security apparatus. I further show how this configuration works not only as a solution to the problem of biological threats, but also how it re-conceptualizes the very idea of what constitutes an event or a threat. In other words, this configuration also determines what will be perceived as an event that requires advance preparation, and what will remain a non-event.
Science and (Risk) Society : The Case of Biosecurity
In two projects on biosecurity in Israel and the U.S., I have explored the politics of science and risk in contemporary societies (2010-2012, 2013-2016). Particularly, I analyze how scientists and policymakers have become increasingly concerned with the potential for scientific discoveries to be misused and present new risks to society. I suggest conceptualizing biosecurity as a boundary object to reflect distinct security dynamics and solutions to the problem of how to secure life in various contexts. The Israeli project is conducted collaboratively with Prof. Bracha Rager (Ben-Gurion U) and Dr. Ori Lev (Sapir College), funded by the Israel Ministry of Science (2013-2016).
From Risk to Uncertainty
I have developed a new analysis of the concept of uncertainty initially published in Current Anthropology and further examined in a co-edited book with Prof. Paul Rabinow (UC Berkeley). While the literature in both sociology and anthropology discusses thoroughly the concept of risk, including its cultural perceptions and its connection to modernity, the concept of uncertainty is under-studied at best. Through the analysis of preparedness for pandemic flu I discuss the emergence of a new type of uncertainty, which I term potential uncertainty, and distinguish it from possible uncertainty and risk. Moreover, I identify three types of preparedness technologies provided to address this uncertainty. Each presents a different conception of that future uncertainty, and a different way to manage it. I thus argue that uncertainty is not solely linked to the appearance of new risks in the world, which is the basis of the risk society approach, nor is it merely the premise of the preparedness paradigm, but it also acts as a form of governing.
In Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases (University of Chicago Press), Paul Rabinow and I further develop this framework and examine how uncertainty becomes a form of thought and action in the contemporary world. Examining the contributions of anthropologists from diverse domains—such as finance and markets, security and humanitarianism, and health and the environment –we claim that the scholarly discussions previously understood as concerning risk are inadequate. The world has increasingly become populated by forms, practices, and events of uncertainty that demand new concepts and a new anthropological approach. The book also challenges basic anthropological premises, and the way uncertainty-based thinking can contribute to anthropological research.
Scenarios and Technologies of Uncertainty
In the past few years I have specifically focused on scenarios as a dominant way to address future uncertainties through imagination and narration. In my ISF-funded research (2015-2018) Turning Points exercises in Israel, I explored through extensive fieldwork, nation-wide emergency preparedness exercises. In my current research project on Global Scenarios, funded by the ISF (2019-2023) I examine forms, practices, and conceptualizations of future plausibilities through scenarios in global organizations in the fields of health and energy. My BSF-funded research on future imagination technologies (2019-2023), comparatively examines modalities of future imagination, design, and planning in the high-tech sector in Israel and the US.