An Eventful Critique of Crisis Language in Historical Sociology

Abstract

What work does the term “ crisis ” do for historical sociologists and historically oriented social science in general? And how does “ crisis ” relate to contingencies and conjunctures – the twin poles of socio-historical analysis? I begin with a concern that the term “ crisis ” is deployed with such casual frequency that, despite its apparent ability to capture something urgent about the turbulent and bleak times we live in, it ironically risks loss of the meaning it is intended to convey. Indeed, as several skeptics have asked, if everything is crisis, then what is outside it (Freeden 2017; Holton 1987)? Later in this essay I will debunk the “ crisis – non-crisis ” dichotomy raised by several authors