Feeling ontologically (in)secure: States, traumas and the governing of gendered space
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836716641137 |
| Author | Catarina Kinnvall |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
641137CAC0010.1177/0010836716641137Cooperation and ConflictKinnvall
research-article2016
Article
Cooperation and Conflict
2017, Vol. 52(1) 90 –108
Feeling ontologically
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and the governing of
gendered space
Catarina Kinnvall
Abstract
This article proceeds from a conceptual analysis of how ontological (in)security is constructed
in terms of ‘security-of-being’ in which identity dynamics are explicated in socio-psychological
terms. Of particular interest is how such dynamics transcend the boundaries of individual self/
other constructions to define communities and states, and how these dynamics are transformed
in times of trauma and crises. Narratives of everyday traumas are especially significant in creating
notions of gendered space and (in)security, and for securitising subjectivities. This article thus
investigates a number of theoretical propositions and developments involved in recent debates on
the emotional dimension of ontological (in)security and its relationship to states, traumas and the
securitisation of subjectivity. A gendered perspective of these debates allows us to analyse, and
perhaps move beyond, some of the problematic aspects of the ontological security literature as
originally developed by Laing and Giddens, and later on by sociologists and international relations
scholars. Using the case of India as an example, the article shows how narrative reconstructions
of traumas and collective memory shape gendered space and the search for ontological security,
and how attempts to govern these events and practices impact on notions of gendered space and
ontological insecurity.
Keywords
Emotional governance, gendered space, India, ontological security, trauma
Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But
such crimes won’t happen in Bharat or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages
and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes.
(RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat, spoken after the much-publicized gang rape in Delhi
in December 2012, Hindustan Times, 2013)
Corresponding author:
Catarina Kinnvall, Department of Political Science, Lund University, Box 52, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Email: Catarina.Kinnvall@svet.lu.se
Kinnvall
91
Indian cities are often described as being polluted by the West, as unsafe places where
women are frequently to blame if they are out late and/or in the company of men who are
not family members. It is a pollution that has emerged (some say) as India has adopted
Western values and lifestyles in which the countryside, the villages – the real ‘Bharat’
(India) – appears as a golden age free from oppression and imperial influence. In these
views, expressed by established politicians, conservative spokespersons and religious
leaders, village women are pure and devoid of cultural infection. ‘She should have
pleaded with her attackers, chanted God’s name, calling them brothers and fallen at their
feet’ argued the spiritual Guru, Asaram Bapu, joining a number of voices blaming the
victim for her tragic fate. These voices were strongly criticised from right to left, locally
and globally. However, much of this criticism has been couched in a discourse of revenge
and quick solutions, rather than a deep-founded analytical evaluation of the narratives
and norms that underlie patriarchal relations in India and elsewhere. From such a per-
spective gender becomes not only an important dimension for understanding such rela-
tions, but also a crucial position from which to launch a critical analysis of how
ontological (in)security works in practice, and how it brings together narratives of states,
traumas and what I have previously called the ‘securitisation of subjectivity’ (Kinnvall,
2004, 2006). The securitisation of subjectivity is a process that seeks to build walls of
ontological security around an idea of the self through the refusal to permit ambiguity or
problematisation in cultures or social structures.
The incident in Delhi refers to the gang rape of a 23-year old medical student on
December 16, 2012. She was referred to in the press as ‘Nirbhaya’ (‘without fear’) as she
had stood up to her attackers. For long her name was not released but more recently it has
been revealed as that of Jyoti Singh, a young woman from a rural background who was
the first in her family to attend university. The woman was returning home from the cin-
ema with a male friend at nine o’clock in the evening. They boarded a bus in the belief
that it would take them closer to home. Instead her companion was badly beaten and she
was subjected to an extended period of rape and violence that left her brutalised and
unconscious. The woman survived to give testimony but succumbed to her injuries. The
sheer brutality of the rape brought thousands of horrified and grieving protestors, espe-
cially youth, onto the streets across the country (Hindustan Times, 2013; Kabeer, 2014;
Outlook, 2013; Times of India, 2013).
Following the rape there was an emotional outburst calling for immediate public exe-
cutions, withdrawal of lawyers from the accused, more restrictions on women’s wherea-
bouts, and an intensification of far-right activity. There was also an increase in reported
violence and sexual harassment of women, more accurately reflecting the alarming sex-
crime rates in the country. The outcry and continued protests against sexual violence, the
violent response by the police and the promises of swift retributions from the politicians,
are all emotional and structural responses to an emerging crisis, a trauma, unfolding
throughout the Indian society. As in other traumatic instances, the response is often
focused on returning to normality, by restoring and re-imposing the political order that
has been violated, as if the incidence was an abnormal occurrence. Quick punishments
and more police presence become ways to reinstate political stability and social control.
Here I argue that these developments can be better understood if we conceptualise
them in terms of ‘gendered space’ in which the local is theorised in constitutive terms,
92
Cooperation and Conflict 52(1)
rather than as pure consequences of macro-political events. In theoretical terms it means
exploring the global, socio-cultural, political, and economic forms through which onto-
logical (in)security works as a gendered practice at the local level. This involves a focus
on how collective affect and trauma generate linkages between the local, national and
global levels. Here collective affect can be seen as an inherent feature of global and
national narratives in which violence against women is not only widespread, not only
condoned, but is frequently blamed on women themselves. Based on this focus on gen-
dered space, global and local linkages, trauma and narrative, the analysis is guided by
two main questions: (1) How can an ontological (in)security perspective that takes seri-
ously the notion of gendered space problematise the relationship between self, identity,
states and traumas? (2) To what extent are narratives about daily experiences of gendered
vulnerability, insecurity, and risk related to the institutionalisation of larger narratives
about the nation-state, ideology, religion, and norms?
To explore these questions I proceed from the Delhi rape-case in the context of India.
Here the rape-case can be interpreted as a gendered traumatic event that is symptomatic
of a patriarchal order, but it must also be understood in relation to narratives about India’s
role in the world and the rise of Indian far-right movements and their anti-Muslim, anti-
Islam and anti-lower-caste politics. The latter consists of the so called Sangh Parivar, the
family of Hindu organisations including the elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in
2014 under the leadership of Narendra Modi, the militant Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), the transnational organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad, and Hindu nationalist
groups like Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. Through an illustrative analysis of this particular
case, my intention is to critically discuss a number of theoretical propositions and devel-
opments involved in recent debates on the emotional dimension of ontological (in)secu-
rity and their relationship to states, traumas and the securitisation of subjectivity. A
gendered perspective of these debates allows us to analyse and perhaps move beyond
some of the problematic aspects of the ontological security literature as originally devel-
oped by Laing and Giddens, and later on by sociologists and international relations
scholars. By addressing the case of India from a gendered perspective, we are able to
theorise around at least four important themes of the ontological security debate while
also offering a novel gender-informed ontological security perspective. These four
themes also constitute the structure of the article.
Hence, I start the analysis by looking at the relationship between globalisation,
modernity and ontological (in)security, where I see a need to conceive of this relation-
ship in terms of a gendered space in which the local and the global play constitutive
roles rather than being sole outcomes of global events. In the case of India I discuss how
this local–global dimension of gendered space has worked to...
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