Short Abstract

The imperative to prepare for uncertain futures — cast as a moral obligation and expression of responsible citizenship — has become a defining concern in contemporary societies. What can we learn from an examination of prepping across national contexts and political expressions?

Long Abstract

Once seen as a marginal pursuit, forms of “prepping” now permeate public policy, popular culture and everyday life, revealing shifting configurations of fear and expectations of (self)governance. Authorities urge citizens to maintain emergency packs; survivalist media attract vast audiences; retailers profit from a booming market in preparedness gear; and courses in crisis response and self-sufficiency proliferate. As ecological crises intensify and liberal democratic institutions fray, the appeal of prepping broadens across the political spectrum: once emblematic of libertarian survivalism, prepping now animates projects of community resilience, ecological adaptation, and degrowth in the face of collapse.

This panel takes prepping as a lens through which to theorize how deepening polarizations and dystopian outlooks are reshaping everyday life across the world. What can we learn by attending to practices that seek to navigate or endure social and ecological breakdown, rather than avoid it? What forms of solidarity or belonging are articulated through the aesthetics and discourse of doom, or the figure of the ‘doomer’ itself? At the same time, the panel uses prepping to reconsider the role of anthropology and allied disciplines within social attempts to imagine and sustain futures under duress. If the contested figure of the doomer serves as a diagnostic of the contemporary, what might it offer to social theory? What could it mean to ‘prep’ anthropology itself — to ready the discipline for dystopian conditions — and what might a dystopia-ready, public or activist anthropology afford?

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