From ‘normalcy’ to extreme context: the contribution of Elias Canetti to the understanding of risk dynamics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19245/25.05.OF.07.21.01Keywords:
Affect, Canetti, crowd, epistemic accident, extreme context, football-related disaster, virtual terrorismAbstract
Abstract
The article presents the case of Piazza San Carlo, Torino, 3rd June 2017. That evening, in the main square of Torino, large screens were showing the last act of the Champions League. Thousands of Juventus fans - about 30,000 in fact - were gathered there to attend the Juventus-Real Madrid match. The unhappy outcome of that cheery evening left 1,527 people injured and in need of rescue and two women who died later. It proposes a reading that mobilize the categories of crowd behavior, as set out by Elias Canetti, in order to discuss the occurrence of an epistemic incident that transforms a normal situation into an extreme context. In this example, we can see how the fear of terrorism causes real material effects and shapes the ‘phantom power’ of virtual terrorism. The case is first read as the effect of an epistemic accident in which a disruption happened and the status of common knowledge, collapsed. In the second place it is read through the concept of the transmission of affect which makes visible the embodiment of a crowd. The spreading of emotions depends upon their being given expressions by the deployment of all the senses.
References
Alaimo, S. (2012), “States of Suspension: Trans-corporeality at Sea” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 19(3): 476-493.
Berthod, O. and Müller-Seitz, G. (2018), “Making Sense in Pitch Darkness: An Exploration of the Sociomateriality of Sensemaking in Crises” Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(1): 52-68.
Borch, C. (2012), The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brennan, T. (2004), The Transmission of Affect. Cornell: Cornell University Press.
Brighenti, A. M. (2010), “Tarde, Canetti, and Deleuze on crowds and packs” Journal of Classical Sociology, 10(4): 291-314.
Bouty, I., Godé, C., Drucker-Godard, C., Lièvre, P., Nizet, J. and Pichault, F. (2012), “Coordination practices in extreme situations” European Management Journal, 30(6): 475–489.
Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M.D., Short, C.E. and Coombs, W.T. (2017), “Crises and crisis management”, Journal of Management 43(6): 1661–1692.
Canetti, E. (1981), Auto-da-Fé (trans. C. V. Wedgewood) New York, NY: Continuum, (original 1935).
Canetti, E. (1978), Crowds and Power (transl. Carol Stewart) New York: Continuum, (original 1960).
Clough, P.T. and Halley, J. (eds) (2007), The Affective Turn, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Colville, I., Brown, A.D. and Pye, A. (2012), “Simplexity: Sensemaking, Organizing and Storytelling for our Time” Human Relations, 65(1): 5-15.
Cooren, F., Brummans, B.H., and Charrieras, D. (2008), “The Coproduction of Organizational Presence: A Study of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Action” Human Relations, 61(10): 1339-1370.
Dick, P. (2005), “Dirty Work Designations: How Police Officers Account for their Use of Coercive Force” Human Relations, 58(11): 1363-1390.
Dixon, D.P., Weeks, M., Boland, J.R. and Perelli, S. (2017), “Making Sense when it Matters most: An Exploratory Study of Leadership in Extremis” Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(3): 294-317.
Downer, J. (2010), Anatomy of a Disaster: Why Some Accidents are Unavoidable, Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Drury, J., Novelli, D., and Stott, C. (2013), “Representing Crowd Behaviour in Emergency Planning Guidance: ‘Mass Panic’ or Collective Resilience?” Resilience, 1(1): 18-37.
Gherardi, S. (1998), “A Cultural Approach to Disasters” Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 6(2): 80-83.
Gherardi, S. (2006), Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning, Oxford: Blackwell.
Gherardi, S. and Nicolini, D. (2002), “Learning the Trade: A Culture of Safety in Practice” Organization, 9(2): 191–223.
Gould, K.P. and Macrae, C. (eds) (2021), Inside Hazardous Technological Systems, Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Gregg, M. and Seigworth, G.J. (eds) (2010), The Affect Theory Reader, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Hällgren, M., Rouleau, L. and De Rond, M. (2018), “A Matter of Life or Death: How Extreme Context Research Matters for Management and Organization Studies” Academy of Management Annals, 12(1): 111-153.
Hannah, S.T., Uhl-Bien, M., Avolio, B.J. and Cavarretta, F.L. (2009), “A Framework for Examining Leadership in Extreme Contexts” The Leadership Quarterly, 20(6): 897–919.
Heath, C. and Luff, P. (1992), “Collaboration and Control: Crisis Management and Multimedia Technology in London Underground Line Control Rooms” Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 1(1-2): 69-94.
Joseph, I., Boullier, D., Guillaudeux, V., Lévy, E., Lacoste, M., Bayart, D. and Borzeix, A. (1995), Gare du Nord. Mode d’emploi, Paris: RATP Editions Recherches.
Kayes, C.D. (2004), “The 1996 Mount Everest Climbing Disaster: The Breakdown of Learning in Teams” Human Relations, 57(10): 1263-1284.
Kech, C. (2015), “Heysel and its Symbolic Value in Europe’s Collective Memory”, In European Football and Collective Memory, Pyta, W. and
Havemann, N. (eds.), pp. 152-170, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Klauser, F. R. (2008), “Spatial Articulations of Surveillance at the FIFA World Cup 2006TM in Germany”, In Technologies of Insecurity: The Surveillance of Everyday Life”, Aas, K. F., Gundhus, H. O., and Lomell, H. M. (eds.), (pp. 75-94), London: Routledge-Cavendish.
Le Bon, G. (1960), The Crowd (original 1895), New York: Viking.
Massumi, B. (2002) Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, Duke: Duke University Press.
McDougall, W. (1920), The Group Mind: A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology with Some Attempt to Apply Them to the Interpretation of National Life and Character, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Orlikowski, W.J. (2007), “Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work” Organization Studies, 28(9):1435-1448.
Pavoni, A. (2017), Controlling Urban Events: Law, Ethics and the Material, London: Routledge.
Pidgeon, N.F. (1991), “Safety Culture and Risk Management in Organizations” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22(1): 129-140.
Potthast, J. (2011) “Sense and Security: A Comparative View on Access Control at Airports” Science, Technology & Innovation Studies, 7(1): 87-106.
Purdy, J., Ansari, S. and Gray, B. (2017), “Are Logics Enough? Framing as an Alternative Tool for Understanding Institutional Meaning Making” Journal of Management Inquiry, 28(4): 409-419.
Reicher, S. D. (2008), “The Psychology of Crowd Dynamics”, In Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Group Processes, Hogg, M. A., and
Tindale, S. (eds.), (pp. 182-208), Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Richards, A., Fussey, P., and Silke, A. (eds.). (2010), Terrorism and the Olympics: Major Event Security and Lessons for the Future, London: Routledge.
Tarlow, P. E. (2002), Event Risk Management and Safety, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Tempest, S., Starkey, K. and Ennew, C. (2007), “In the Death Zone: A Study of Limits in the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster” Human Relations, 60(7): 1039-1064.
Trotter, W. (1916), Instincts of the Herd in War and Peace, New York: Macmillan Company.
Turner, B.A. (1978), Man-Made Disasters, London: Wykeham.
Turner, B.A. and Pidgeon, N.F. (1997), Man-Made Disasters, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Turner, N. and Gray, G.C. (2009), “Socially Constructing Safety” Human Relations, 62(9): 1259-1266.
Turner, N. and Tennant, S.J. (2010), “As far as is Reasonably Practicable”: Socially Constructing Risk, Safety, and Accidents in Military Operations” Journal of Business Ethics, 91(1): 21-33.
Wall, I. R. (2019), “Policing Atmospheres: Crowds, Protest and ‘Atmotechnics’” Theory, Culture & Society, 36(4): 143-162.
Wijermans, N., Conrado, C., van Steen, M., Martella, C., and Li, J. (2016), “A Landscape of Crowd-Management Support: An Integrative Approach” Safety Science, 86: 142-164.
Williams, T., Gruber, D., Sutcliffe, K., Shepherd, D. and Zhao, E.Y. (2017), “Organizational Response to Adversity: Fusing Crisis Management and Resilience Research Streams” Academy of Management Annals, 11(2): 733–769.
Wolbers, J., Boersma, K. and Groenewegen, P. (2018), “Introducing a Fragmentation Perspective on Coordination in Crisis Management” Organization Studies, 39(11): 1521-1546.
