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Rethinking Localism in the Global Risk Society: The Ethics of Care and Coalitions of Anxiety Confronting Gas Fracking in Lithuania
Focusing on the global dimension of risk society, Ulrich Beck has made a case that earlier social and economic formations are increasingly replaced by the world risk society where risks and uncertainties are no longer bound by particular locales, but are distributed globally. To conceptualize this new political organization, Beck and others have developed the notion of cosmopolitization that refers to the emergence of new alliances and social movements that challenge and transform the nation state and its institutions. At the same time, scholars have also underscored the growing significance of localist movements that are actively promoting regional and national sovereignty agendas, while working to unplug from global economies and political infrastructures. The purpose of this paper is to articulate the connection between these two contradictory processes by employing conceptual tools developed in the scholarship focusing on care politics and ethics. Building on the work by N. Noddings, E. Kittay, and J. Tronto, we argue that care as a justification for political action links particular constellations of actors to coalitions organized through anxiety concerning particular issues or emphasis on particular aspects of discourse (see “coalitions of anxiety” by J.Zinn and “discourse coalitions” by M.Hajer). As a case study, we focus on the case of resistance against gas fracking in Zygaiciai’ community in western Lithuania, to highlight the ways in which the groups frame their civic and environmental anxiety under conditions of uncertainty “in-between” of calculable risks and incalculable social anxiety translated into bioethical care and specific sub-politics pertaining to local economic, political and environmental context. This case study and theoretical accounts connect local and national sub-politics with similar cases in Europe and elsewhere around the world.