Emergence vs. emergency. Governing the boundary between the exceptional and the normal
This article takes up the question of whether emergencies are altogether
extraordinary events that occur in unforeseeable circumstances or whether they are
more ordinary dynamics, which also characterize times of normal politics. In facing this
issue, the article sets forth an alternative reading of Schmitt’s conception of the state of
exception, interpreted in the light of his work of the 1930s. Based on this analysis, the
exception is portrayed not as the foundational moment of a political community, but as a