Lifeboats and their problems: on the downsides of an influential metaphor in political theory
Lifeboats and their problems: on the downsides of an influential metaphor in political theory
Boat-based metaphors, which portray individual societies or even humanity as a whole as cast adrift on a sea of challenges, have resonated within political theory since the time of Plato, and they continue to frame how we understand and respond to key political choices. However, unless handled very carefully, they can facilitate mis-framings of our contemporary predicament. To date, these metaphors have often done a poor job of capturing the ecological challenges we face. They also risk downplaying the messy pluralism that enduringly characterises political life. If this is true, we should be suspicious of the conclusions their authors seek to draw about our collective future. Lifeboat metaphors, I will suggest, are prone to the same general problems but also add some distinctively their own. As a consequence they should be deployed with especial caution.
Armstrong, Chris
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2
25 July 2025
Armstrong, Chris
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2
Armstrong, Chris
(2025)
Lifeboats and their problems: on the downsides of an influential metaphor in political theory.
Global Constitutionalism.
(doi:10.1017/S2045381725100087).
Abstract
Boat-based metaphors, which portray individual societies or even humanity as a whole as cast adrift on a sea of challenges, have resonated within political theory since the time of Plato, and they continue to frame how we understand and respond to key political choices. However, unless handled very carefully, they can facilitate mis-framings of our contemporary predicament. To date, these metaphors have often done a poor job of capturing the ecological challenges we face. They also risk downplaying the messy pluralism that enduringly characterises political life. If this is true, we should be suspicious of the conclusions their authors seek to draw about our collective future. Lifeboat metaphors, I will suggest, are prone to the same general problems but also add some distinctively their own. As a consequence they should be deployed with especial caution.
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lifeboats-and-their-problems-on-the-downsides-of-an-influential-metaphor-in-political-theory
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 July 2025
Published date: 25 July 2025
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Local EPrints ID: 504158
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/504158
ISSN: 2045-3817
PURE UUID: 9647a4a3-615f-4ebc-a1d3-9a307753d11e
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Date deposited: 28 Aug 2025 16:35
Last modified: 29 Aug 2025 01:41
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