Of Crises and Conjunctures: The Problem of the Present

Abstract

In this article I reflect on the ‘present crisis’, using it as a entry to questions about how we understand crisis, and how we understand the present. In trying to avoid the speedy movement from crisis to political economy, I return to an older source- Policing the Crisis (1978)-to ask what it might have to say to us in this new moment. I also consider what it might not tell us in relation to the present crisis and the present conjuncture. In the process, I raise some questions: how many crises are there? Are there crises of legitimation, social authority or hegemony? What are the sites and forms of politics in an era of ‘anti-politics’?