De la culture de l'insécurité à une subjectivité de la vulnerabilité

The notion of insecurity can no longer be discussed outside of a global context that has set the authorized parameters of any debate about what civil societies are prepared to define as acceptable for the individual and for the community. I suggest that three assumptions or presuppositions have become implicit: first, that there are reasons to be afraid, secondly, that it is therefore necessary to choose between several different fears (should we limit civil liberties or endure an unbearable feeling of insecurity), and finally that insecurity is always fundamentally undesirable. Rather than letting one discipline dominate this discussion, I propose to look for answers to the issues raised by this normative frame in cultural productions (narratives or theoretical texts) that consider the relationship between danger and subjectivity. We will thus move between fiction (Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator), sociology (a report on the impact of a new surveillance camera in an urban space) and philosophy (Judith Butler’s work on vulnerability).