The Passion for Survival, New Impulse of Politics
Moving backwards from a tradition that places harmoniously living together (convivance) as the highest aim of social beings, the political field finds itself overrun by a gnawing interrogation concerning the uncertainty and threats that the future possesses. This uncertainty awakes the anthropological anxiety over the durability of a humanity perceived as precarious because of its self-produced dangers, as much for nature as for culture. It is now the idea of survival (survivance) that orients our concerns and choices through the reshaping of the public sphere. In this article that focuses on the non governmental organizations and on the humanitarian practices, I argue that the passion for survival has become an essential component of our political representations.