Fears yesterday, today, tomorrow
Mireille Delmas-Marty and Jean Delumeau
Environmental disasters, urban violence, job insecurity, epidemiological risks: at the start of the 21st century, everything seems to be reinforcing our sense of fear. Or should we say our fears? These fears remind us of the uncertainty inherent in our human condition, and make us react to any form of intrusion or strangeness. Fear of the other, fear of the stranger, fear of difference... fear of the human? In an attempt to alleviate this feeling, most Western societies have chosen to reinforce their control tools through the law. But don't these forms of security policy paradoxically heighten our fears? Don't they in turn produce new forms of fear? Or at the very least, do they not instrumentalize the latter to ensure the continuity of their power? These are just some of the issues to which Mireille Delmas-Marty and Jean Delumeau will attempt to provide answers...
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- Delmas-Marty M., Vers une communauté de valeurs ?, tome 4 : Les forces imaginantes du droit, Seuil, 2011.
- Delumeau J., La Peur en Occident, Hachette, 1978.
