Publication of the book Signaux d’alerte, Desclée de Brouwer Editions

AUTHORS / RESEARCHERS: FRÉDÉRIC KECK

Warning signals are multiplying on ecological disasters. The value of these signals is not governed by the criterion of true or false alarm, nor by the principle of good or bad government, but by the attractiveness of the signal, that is to say its capacity to arouse the attention and interest of those who receive it. Based on a study of the sentinels of pandemics in Asian societies, Frédéric Keck shows that the territories which emit warning signals, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore, have relations of competition and collaboration similar to those of birds that compete to warn of the presence of a predator. In this emulation, where countries exchange information to take the fastest measures, a new form of global solidarity and social justice is displayed. To describe this phenomenon, Keck offers a reading of some thinkers of warning signals (Claude Lévi-Strauss, Amotz Zahavi, Anna Tsing); then a history of major health crises for twenty years; finally, an approach to artworks (novels, films, exhibitions), which prepare us for the next crises by making our imaginations work.

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