Bøker av David Keen

The uses of shame (and shamelessness) in spheres that range from social media and consumerism to polarized politics and mass violence Today, we are caught in a shame spiral--a vortex of mutual shaming that pervades everything from politics to social media. We are shamed for our looks, our culture, our ethnicity, our sexuality, our poverty, our wrongdoings, our politics. But what is the point of all this shaming and countershaming? Does it work? And if so, for whom? In Shame, David Keen explores the function of modern shaming, paying particular attention to how shame is instrumentalized and weaponized. Keen points out that there is usually someone who offers an escape from shame--and that many of those who make this offer have been piling on shame in the first place. Self-interested manipulations of shame, Keen argues, are central to understanding phenomena as wide-ranging as consumerism, violent crime, populist politics, and even war and genocide. Shame is political as well as personal. To break out of our current cycle of shame and shaming, and to understand the harm that shame can do, we must recognize the ways that shame is being made to serve political and economic purposes. Keen also traces the rise of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic who possess a dangerous shamelessness, and he asks how shame and shamelessness can both be damaging. Answering this question means understanding the different types of shame. And it means understanding how shame and shamelessness interact--not least when shame is instrumentalized by those who are selling shamelessness. Keen points to a perverse and inequitable distribution of shame, with the victims of poverty and violence frequently being shamed, while those who benefit tend to exhibit shamelessness and even pride.

Examines the political, economic and psychological functions of the 'war on terror' -- arguing that war is often an end in itself.

First paperback edition with a new and updated author's introduction, and a Foreword by Douglas H. Johnson..

Was the Iraq war really an act of goodwill to liberate people from injustice? Or was it a strategic move to maintain US dominance globally? *BR**BR*This book casts a critical light on the real motives behind war and conflict. David Keen explores how winning war is rarely an end in itself; rather, war tends to be part of a wider political and economic game that is consistent with strengthening the enemy. Keen devises a radical framework for analysing an unending war project, where the 'war on terror' is an extension of the Cold War.*BR**BR*The book draws on the author's detailed study of wars in Sudan, Sierra Leone, as well as in a range of other conflicts.

There are currently between twenty and thirty civil wars worldwide, while at a global level the Cold War has been succeeded by a "e;war on drugs"e; and a "e;war on terror"e; that continues to rage a decade after 9/11. Why is this, when we know how destructive war is in both human and economic terms? Why do the efforts of aid organizations and international diplomats founder so often?In this important book David Keen investigates why conflicts are so prevalent and so intractable, even when one side has much greater military resources. Could it be that endemic disorder and a "e;state of emergency"e; are more useful than bringing conflict to a close? Keen asks who benefits from wars--whether economically, politically, or psychologicallyand argues that in order to bring them successfully to an end we need to understand the complex vested interests on all sides.