Worrier state

<p>Risk anxiety and moral panic are endemic to contemporary societies and media forms. How do these phenomena manifest in a place like South Africa which features heightened insecurity deep inequality and accelerated social change? What happens when cultures of fear intersect with pervasive systems of gender race and class?<br><br><i>Worrier state</i> investigates four case studies in which fear and anxiety appear in radically different ways: the far right myth of 'white genocide'; so-called 'Satanist' murders of young women; an urban legend about township crime; and social theories about safety and goodness in the suburbs. Falkof foregrounds the significance of emotion as a socio-political force emphasising South Africa's imbrication within globalised conditions of anxiety and thus its fundamental and often-ignored hypermodernity. The book offers a bold and creative perspective on the social roles of fear and emotion in South Africa and thus on everyday life in this complex place.</p>