global-politics-and-anarchy
The absence of a global captain symbolizes the anarchic nature of international relations, where the global 'ship' is constantly reconstructed without a central hegemon.
1 chapter across 1 book
Identify and Sort: How Digital Power Changed World Politics (2016)Josef Teboho Ansorge
The chapter explores the metaphor of the ship as a symbol of political organization, authority, and technical expertise throughout history, from Plato's technocratic captain to democratic and emancipatory interpretations. It highlights how the ship metaphor embodies themes of authority, expertise, automation, and global relations, while emphasizing the undetermined relationship between technology and politics. The chapter concludes by proposing the ship of state as an interface of technology and politics, focusing on identifying and sorting practices, and introduces the concept of the ear as a stable yet evolving element in political and legal identification.