Eveline Dürr, Jonathan Alderman, Catherine Whittaker, Christiane Brenner, Irene Götz, Hannah Michel, Agnes Rugel, Brendan Röder und Alena Zelenskaia
Band 3 der Kleinen Reihe des Sonderforschungsbereichs Vigilanzkulturen
Der SFB 1369 gibt die Publikationsreihe Kleine Reihe des Sonderforschungsbereichs Vigilanzkulturen beim Wehrhahn Verlag heraus. Zusätzlich zu den Print-Ausgaben sind die Bände auch online über Open Access LMU verfügbar.
Vigilanz steht für die Verknüpfung persönlicher Aufmerksamkeit mit überindividuellen Zielen. Dies geschieht alltäglich im Bereich der Sicherheit, des Rechts, des Gesundheitswesens oder auch der Religionen: überall dort, wo wir auf etwas achten, gegebenenfalls auch etwas tun oder melden sollen. In der Kleinen Reihe des Sonderforschungsbereichs 1369 Vigilanzkulturen werden in allgemein verständlicher und ›handlicher‹ Form exemplarisch die Geschichte, kulturellen Varianten und aktuellen Formen dieses Phänomens beleuchtet.
Becoming Vigilant Subjects argues that practices of vigilance are key to forming individual subjectivity. The authors include anthropologists, historians, and literary scholars. They draw on historically and culturally diverse case studies to examine how individuals develop their own vigilant selves in response to being observed by (often powerful) others – be they present, absent, or imagined. The authors argue that, in the interplay between this assumed observation and individual watchfulness, subjectivity emerges. However, as shown in the case studies, this is an ambivalent process. The focus of this book is therefore on the becoming – rather than being – of subjects against the backdrop of heightened attention, which is directed towards objectives beyond individual goals and tasks. The different cases, relating to the realm of religion, citizenship, and migration, show how individuals engage with, and potentially change, the social world within which they are embedded. All of these examples emphasize that subjects are not just shaped by the context of vigilance, but have agency and the ability to transform their own circumstances. Becoming Vigilant Subjects makes a valuable contribution to the as yet understudied topics of subjectivity and vigilance, by interrogating how both inform one another.
