Moral Panic as a Form of the Cultural Field

Abstract

Moral panic is one of the important concepts used to explain social processes and cultural orientations, especially today. First theorized by Stanley Cohen in 1972, moral panic has built up an expanding literature today, with its advocates and opponents in much research and debate. Moral panic is the perception of an event, situation, person or phenomenon as a threat by the society or a part of the society. The primary driver of moral panic is the media. However, moral panic continues to operate in various aspects at all levels of social forms. In particular, the cultural field is both the creator of moral panic and the form of social structure that is most affected by the current situation. Fear, anxiety and risk-centered forms of action have taken a form that characterizes the social and the individual. In today's societies characterized by risk and fear and glorified security, panic has become the defining form of cultural structure. The 'panic' risk culture/risk society in the term moral panic has been the central concept of fear culture theories and has placed moral panic theories in a broader ontological context. In this study, the factual, theoretical and empirical orientations of the concept of moral panic will be discussed. The main claim of the study will be based on the shift of the theoretical positions of moral panic to a wider social context together with the theories of risk society and culture of fear, in which the social prevalence of panic is tried to be explained.

Keywords

• Moral Panic
• Culture of Fear
• Risk Society
• Social Anxiety

Kültürel Alanın Bir Formu Olarak Ahlaki Panik

Abstract

Ahlaki panik, özellikle günümüzde toplumsal süreçleri ve kültürel yönelimleri açıklamak için ele alınan önemli kavramlardan biridir. İlk olarak Stanley Cohen tarafından 1972 yılında teorileştirilen ahlaki panik, bugün pek çok araştırma ve tartışmada savunucuları ve muhalifleriyle birlikte genişleyen bir literatür inşa etmiştir. Ahlaki panik, bir olay, durum, kişi ya da olgunun toplum ya da toplumun bir kesimi tarafından tehdit olarak algılanmasıdır. Ahlaki paniğin itici gücü birincil düzeyde medyadır. Ancak toplumsal formların her kademesinde ahlaki panik çeşitli yönleriyle işlemeye devam eder. Özellikle kültürel alan ahlaki paniğin hem yaratıcısıdır ve hem de mevcut durumdan en çok etkilenen toplumsal yapı formudur. Korku, endişe ve risk merkezli eylemlilik biçimleri toplumsalı ve bireyi karakterize eden bir biçim almıştır. Risk ve korkunun karakterize ettiği ve güvenliğin yüceltildiği günümüz toplumlarında panik, kültürel yapının belirleyici formu haline gelmiştir. Ahlaki panik terimindeki ‘panik’ risk kültürü/risk toplumu, korku kültürü teorilerinin merkezi kavramı olmuş ve ahlaki panik teorilerini daha geniş bir ontolojik bağlama yerleştirmiştir. Bu çalışmada ahlaki panik kavramının olgusal, teorik ve ampirik yönelimleri üzerinden hareket edilecektir. Çalışmanın temel iddiası ise, panik’in toplumsal yaygınlığının açıklanmaya çalışıldığı risk toplumu ve korku kültürü teorileriyle birlikte ahlaki paniğin teorik konumlarının daha geniş bir toplumsal bağlama kaydığı üzerine kurulacaktır.

Keywords

• Ahlaki Panik
• Korku Kültürü
• Risk Toplumu
• Toplumsal Kaygı

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