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Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective

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... Following Haraway's (1988) concept of 'situated knowledge', which challenges traditional notions of objectivity and universalism in knowledge production, arguing that knowledge is always situated within specific social, historical, and cultural contexts (Haraway 1988), I describe my own epistemological position. I identify myself as a heterosexual cis-woman, born and raised in a German White middle-class family. ...
... Following Haraway's (1988) concept of 'situated knowledge', which challenges traditional notions of objectivity and universalism in knowledge production, arguing that knowledge is always situated within specific social, historical, and cultural contexts (Haraway 1988), I describe my own epistemological position. I identify myself as a heterosexual cis-woman, born and raised in a German White middle-class family. ...
... Also, thematic content analysis, while offering a systematic approach to analyse textual data, always brings in the interpretation and subjectivity of the researcher (Boréus & Bergström 2017). Here I agree with Haraway (1988), who argues that knowledge is always situated within a specific context and shaped by the perspectives and experiences of those producing it. By acknowledging and embracing the partial, situated, and embodied nature of knowledge, the absence of objectivity in research becomes an advantage to better understand the actual lived realities of people (Haraway 1988), not a limitation. ...
Thesis
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This thesis navigates the intricate landscape of decolonizing yoga within the Western yoga community by synthesising decolonial feminist theories, ancient Indian wisdom, and contemporary activist perspectives. Starting with a critical examination of the power dynamics, exclusionary practices, and commodification within the global yoga community as results of cultural appropriation, the subsequent analysis explores strategies for transforming appropriation into appreciation. Therefore, a multi-dimensional methodology, including thematic content analysis, semi-structured interviews, and the application of 'Two-Eyed Seeing'-a holistic approach bridging Indigenous and Western viewpoints-is employed, and results are analysed through the lens of intersectionality and decolonial feminist theories. By combining fundamental principles of yoga with strategies of present-day activists, the findings highlight the need for self-reflection, compassionate communication, and collective action to dismantle oppressive structures, amplify marginalised voices, and cultivate more authenticity, inclusivity, and equity within the Western yoga community.
... There can be no understanding without interpretation. We are always embedded in the lifeworld of language and sociohistorical understanding without recourse to some outside point of view, or Archimedean standpoint, from which to gain objectivity on a world that is external to us (Haraway, 1988;Johnson, 1987). ...
... As philosophers of science began to consider seriously the interpretive nature of all scientific endeavors and the normative issues raised by research in general, the notion of validity also began to change. Some authors (Haraway, 1988;Unger, 1992) have argued that an interpretive perspective requires a reformulation of the present scientific understandings of rationality, objectivity, and validity into understandings that are more appropriate to how we live our lives and how we conduct research. Rationality, from a human science perspective, becomes the logic of intelligible human experience and action based in our "thoughtful and conversational relation with the world" ( van Manen, 1990, p. 10). ...
... Haslanger (1993) contends that the pretense of neutrality in positivism has legitimized a morally irresponsible position that, especially when applied in the social sciences, denies our humanity. It is now generally conceded that neutrality and impartiality are impossible standards to attain and that all knowing is perspectival knowing and therefore partial and open to reinterpretation (Haraway, 1988). Does this mean that we are left with no help in distinguishing between a good piece of research and a compelling statement from an ideologue? ...
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Designing and carrying out effective and valid research are the desired goals of all researchers, and demonstrating the trustworthiness of one’s dissertation research is a requirement for all doctoral candidates. For qualitative researchers, reaching the desired goal and meeting the requirement of trustworthiness become particularly problematic due to the considerable debate about what it means to do valid research in the field of qualitative inquiry. This article reviews the various approaches to the validity problem in the hope of turning this debate into a dialogue. Validity is traced from its origins in the realist ontology and foundational epistemology of quantitative inquiry to its reformulations within the lifeworld ontology and non-foundationalism of interpretive human inquiry. Various recent qualitative approaches to validity are considered, and interpretive reconfigurations of validity are reviewed. Interpretive approaches to validity are synthesized as ethical and substantive procedures of validation.
... To apply quantitative notions of rigor to qualitative research provides a poor instrument for evaluating qualitative research (for a discussion of this and related issues see Dreher, 1994). Hence, we take up Haraway's (1988) argument that, if we reconceptualize what we often understand as weaknesses within qualitative research, we can begin to see them as the real strengths and rigor of qualitative research. ...
... One crucial point is the interface between the researcher and the researched and, as such, distance between the researcher and the object/subject of research is lauded as important in maintaining objectivity, often involving the obfuscation of the researcher from the research process and in the writing up of research. It has by now been well argued that the elimination of subjectivity in quantitative or qualitative research is impossible (Haraway, 1988;Harding, 1991;Smith, 1987). It could, in fact, be argued that it is even detrimental to research and ethical research practice, and therefore it is an important issue in terms of rethinking the concept of rigor. ...
... It is accepted that accounts received from interviews are necessarily partial understandings from situated positions, but that does not mean they are all isolated stories. As Haraway (1988) explained, "partial, locatable, critical knowledges" sustain the "possibility of webs of connections called solidarity in politics and shared conversations in epistemology" (p. 584). ...
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In this article, the authors discuss the issue of rigor in relation to qualitative social research. It takes a critical focus on the inadequacy of applying a quantitative concept of rigor to evaluate qualitative research. Informed through the researchers’own experience, suggestions are made for a concept of rigor that meets the needs of qualitative research more adequately. Incorporating a notion of ethics, the authors develop a cluster of terms around which they argue that qualitative research can meaningfully speak about rigor: attentiveness, empathy, carefulness, sensitivity, respect, reflection, conscientiousness, engagement,awareness, and openness.
... Concisely, epistemic injustice is the systemic stripping of one's due right to be a knower. Popularized by Miranda Fricker [53], epistemic injustice is a synthesis of feminist work on how knowledge-oriented processes are value-laden (e.g., Haraway [67]'s theory of situated knowledge, Harding [70]'s standpoint epistemology, and Suchman [125]'s politics of categories). Epistemic injustice comes in two forms: (1) testimonial injustice and (2) hermeneutical injustice. ...
... Epistemic questions are often relational between the researcher (i.e., knower) and information (i.e., would-be known). For example, feminist scholar Donna Haraway [67] proposed the epistemic theory of "situated knowledge, " it is impossible to separate knowledge from the context in which it was created, including who the knower is. ...
... Most relevant to epistemic autonomy, participatory action research approaches rely heavily on community and participant voices. Participatory action research rests on the epistemology of situated knowledge [67]; knowledge is contextual based on lived experiences. Especially within these participatory paradigms, HCI methods often center on giving voice to participants. ...
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Justice, epistemology, and marginalization are rich areas of study in HCI. And yet, we repeatedly find platforms and algorithms that push communities further into the margins. In this paper, we propose epistemic autonomy -- one's ability to govern knowledge about themselves -- as a necessary HCI paradigm for working with marginalized communities. We establish epistemic autonomy by applying the transfeminine principle of autonomy to the problem of epistemic injustice. To articulate the harm of violating one's epistemic autonomy, we present six stories from two trans women: (1) a transfem online administrator and (2) a transfem researcher. We then synthesize our definition of epistemic autonomy in research into a research paradigm. Finally, we present two variants of common HCI methods, autoethnography and asynchronous remote communities, that stem from these beliefs. We discuss how CHI is uniquely situated to champion this paradigm and, thereby, the epistemic autonomy of our research participants.
... 109). By loosening the binding to social media, research also highlights how instapoetry goes beyond social media (Grubnic, 2023;Leetsch, 2022;Obbard, 2021;Trajković & Anđelković, 2023 (Haraway, 1988). This is particularly true for those who define instapoetry in terms of clear-cut definitions in form and style. ...
... Similarly, all researchers produce knowledge from a specific position, situation, and standpoint (Haraway, 1988). My approaches and methods are situated in a methodological framework which in turn is entangled with, and grows out of, my theoretical framework. ...
... of something and what we see it as. The complex ecosystems of platforms contribute to our situated knowledges (Haraway, 1988 We conclude that doing instapoetry research, as well as research in general on cultural phenomena dependent on-or specific to-platforms, means facing problems of algorithmic interference. However, new methodologies developed to bypass these interferences can also face limitations put in play by other actors in the greater ecosystem of cultural production, thus creating missed possibilities and hindering the production of knowledge about our world. ...
Thesis
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This article-based dissertation investigates the cultural phenomenon of instapoetry as platformized pop poetry. This involves investigating exactly how and in what way instapoetry is bound to the digital social media platform Instagram by approaching the platform as a media ecology for instapoetry, as well as how it is interlocking, overlapping, and interacting with other media ecologies. This provides an opportunity to study both the effects of the platform’s infrastructure and the platform as infrastructure. The study applies a mixed methods digital humanities approach to answer the main research question: How can we understand instapoetry as a post-digital cultural phenomenon? Instapoetry is situated in the post-digital. Platformization is a particular articulation of the postdigital, and much research has gone into investigating the platformization of contemporary cultural production. At the same time, the distributional turn in the humanities, an infrastructuralist and materialist re-orientation in the study of the storage, transmission, and interpretation of culture, has shown the need to account for the effects which media infrastructures, as they are what position and shape agents, objects and processes in media ecosystems of cultural production. Supported by an extensive data collection of Scandinavian instapoetry in the form of ca. 35 000 Instagram posts and their metadata, the dissertation provides a new entry point into the phenomenon. The first article of the dissertation analyses the materials found in the tagged platform archives of the well-known Norwegian instapoet Trygve Skaug. In accounting for how instapoetry is bound to Instagram, the article contributes with a conceptualization of the post-digital distribution process of instapoetry as a defining trait of how instapoetry moves on, off, and through the platform. The article contributes by outlining a particular genre of instapoetry: the instalyric. This is a lyric made for the type of repetition activated by the distributional processes of Instagram. The second article, co-written with Dr. Eleonora Ravizza, concerns curation, canonization, and access to data. We argue that algorithmic curation on social media platforms makes specific works more visible than others by a different selection process than what is the case for literature and other types of art in other cultural ecosystems. This influences the choice of objects to study. We argue that a fruitful way to bypass this is to collect and investigate large data sets. However, when this is stopped by the platform companies, this has severe implications for studying phenomena that exist digitally on these platforms. The third article is an exploration of the phenomenon through the extensive collected data collection scraped from Instagram. Here, aggregated patterns are made manifest, and a visual network analysis of a hashtag co-occurrence network provides knowledge on topics and themes, as well as where instapoetry exists on Instagram. The findings from this article provide a basis for the selection of the instapoet accounts examined in the fourth article. The fourth article investigates the platformed practices related to instapoetry by asking when a poet is an instapoet. Socio-technical processes are investigated to provide a basis for understanding what platformed relations exist between the poet, platform, and audience. The article argues for understanding the instapoet as a specific role a poet can have that goes beyond using Instagram as a marketing tool and instead place it in closer connection with platformed participatory culture. Combined, the articles demonstrate that instapoetry is a particular articulation of the post-digital in the form of platformized poetry. The different articulations of platform dependency and platform specificity that come with being platformized are used to develop a theorization of instapoetry as pop poetry, which relies on Instagram for distribution and circulation. This dissertation contributes to the study of contemporary pop poetry and to the important field of culture organization, where the study of how something is organized also means accounting for how it shapes what it organizes.
... While conducting our research, we are attentive to transparency with our informants (Etherington, 2007) and the complexity and ambiguity of the OSS context (Clarke, 2003). We deploy strategies for ensuring that the perspective presented in our research is more resonant than dichotomous (Haraway, 1988), and reports from our engagements are not as though it's an outside place (Taylor, 2011), but instead ensuring we are reporting as authentic a view in the research that we produce (Haraway, 1988;Barad, 2007). ...
... While conducting our research, we are attentive to transparency with our informants (Etherington, 2007) and the complexity and ambiguity of the OSS context (Clarke, 2003). We deploy strategies for ensuring that the perspective presented in our research is more resonant than dichotomous (Haraway, 1988), and reports from our engagements are not as though it's an outside place (Taylor, 2011), but instead ensuring we are reporting as authentic a view in the research that we produce (Haraway, 1988;Barad, 2007). ...
Article
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Sociotechnical research increasingly includes the social sub-networks that emerge from large-scale sociotechnical infrastructure, including the infrastructure for building open source software. This paper addresses these numerous sub-networks as advantageous for researchers. It provides a methodological synthesis focusing on how researchers can best span adjacent social sub-networks during engaged field research. Specifically, we describe practices and artifacts that aid movement from one social subsystem within a more extensive technical infrastructure to another. To surface the importance of spanning sub-networks, we incorporate a discussion of social capital and the role of technical infrastructure in its development for sociotechnical researchers. We then characterize a five-step process for spanning social sub-networks during engaged field research: commitment, context mapping, jargon competence, returning value, and bridging. We then present our experience studying corporate open source software projects and the role of that experience in accelerating our work in open source scientific software research as described through the lens of bridging social capital. Based on our analysis, we offer recommendations for engaging in fieldwork in adjacent social sub-networks that share a technical context and discussion of how the relationship between social and technically acquired social capital is a missing but critical methodological dimension for research on large-scale sociotechnical research.
... This epistemological imperialism has dominated mainstream research practice resulting in the privileging in research of masculine traits, such as reason, rationality, autonomy, objectivity, and the production of value-free knowledge (Ryder, 1991). This White, androcentric bias has been a central point of critique and challenge for many scholars (Crenshaw, 1989;Haraway, 1988;Moreton-Robinson, 2020;Oakley, 1981;Smith, 1974). It was these androcentric principles that I wished to challenge and undermine in my own research. ...
... Central to an ethical and reflexive approach is the rejection of the subject/object dualistic binary that underpins positivist research. Contemporary feminist methodologists reject the notion that the researcher can ever be wholly separate from what they research (Doucet & Mauthner, 2006;Haraway, 1988;Hekman, 2007). The positioning of the researcher in a particular social, cultural, and historical moment, in fact their very subjectivity, has a drastic effect on the production of knowledge, including both what is researched and what is supposedly objectively "found" (Fausto-Sterling, 1987;Fonow & Cook, 1991;Harding, 1987Harding, , 1991. ...
Article
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This paper explores how ableist assumptions can unintentionally create barriers to participation in research by those of non-normative bodies or minds. In traditional epistemology, bodies are considered “universal” rather than “specific,” and the universal body is coded as fully able-bodied and independent with brain and body adhering to normative standards of the White heterosexual English-speaking male. In this article, I present a story of “enabling participation” for those of diverse body capacity in my work with young women living with chronic illness.[1]Specifically, I explore the accommodations and adaptions I made to my research design to account for the non-normative form and function of my participants’ bodies and my own. Using the method of participant action research, the research participants became research co-collaborators as we collectively developed resources based on insider knowledge. Through sharing the story of my research, I invite other researchers to consider ways of enabling participation for a diverse array of bodies and minds in their own research.
... BJSE British Journal of Special Education 49(3), 327-349. 42Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.Feminist Studies 14(3),575-599, 589. ...
... Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.Feminist Studies 14(3), 575-599, 589. ...
Chapter
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This chapter explores the concept of positionality as one of the main themes of the OIN Ocean Literacy Toolkit. It draws on positionality theory and anti-oppressive, decolonial research methodologies that incorporate positionality as a reflexivity tool in social research. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s seminal essay on “Situated Knowledges”, the chapter elaborates on questions that researchers might ask themselves to understand the ways in which their positionality influences how they come to know the Ocean and how they may edge towards epistemic justice. Thus, linking positionality to epistemology, the chapter charts how multiple ways of knowing the Ocean is surfacing in both academic scholarship and policy. Finally, the authors connect and translate the main dimensions to the two pathways “connecting with each other” and “connecting with the ocean” and introduce the positionality activities included in the OIN Toolkit.
... However, our aim was not to draw up a predefined list of concepts. In order to overcome our own subjective (Longino, 2013) and situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988;Genat, 2009) on contemporary migration, we listened to proposals for change, for the inclusion of alternative concepts and projects, and for adjusting the content of the entries proposed directly by the authors. It is for this reason that we can conceive the Encyclopedia as a collective work: not only because a large number of researchers, artists and activists have contributed to it, but above all because it represents an adaptive community of critical reflection on contemporary migration. ...
... The epistemological dimension refers to the co-production of epistemologies that contributed to the development of original perspectives by researchers, artists and civil society together (Piemontese, 2021). This collective production of concepts, methods and approaches was possible thanks to the engagement of different forms of knowledge: not only academic but also practical (Shani and Coghlan, 2014) and situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988;Genat, 2009). However, it is not our intention to support an ontological separation or opposition between various forms of knowledge. ...
... Beyond conventional data collection, community scientists can diversify knowledge by sharing their Local Ecological Knowledge and place-based expertise 20,34 . By blending these different ways of knowing about the world, multiple voices are elevated, collective knowledge is diversified, and a more comprehensive understanding of SES can be achieved 35,36 . Many scholars have argued that approaches centering these kinds of diverse perspectives, incorporating multiple ways of knowing, and leveraging the strengths of a variety of methodologies should be incorporated more frequently into environmental research [37][38][39][40] . ...
Article
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Community scientists provide essential support for understanding social-ecological systems. Here we analyze how community scientists work alongside institutions to study, manage, and protect these systems. Through interviews conducted in 2023 and 2024 in a coastal community in California, USA, we developed a conceptual framework showing how community scientists contribute to three main social-ecological processes: generating new knowledge, providing education to the community, and supporting enforcement of conservation regulations. Our analysis reveals that community scientists serve as boundary spanners, stepping in to help when government agencies and other institutions lack sufficient staff or resources. While community scientists effectively support environmental research and management by serving as additional observers in the field, their dynamic role raises important questions about relying on volunteers to fill institutional capacity gaps. These findings offer practical insights for improving how researchers and government agencies can work with community scientists to address environmental challenges in social-ecological systems.
... Nell'ultimo decennio, inoltre, c'è stato un progressivo aumento della divulgazione online dedicata a diverse patologie invisibili con una forte dimensione di genere, soprattutto sulla piattaforma Instagram. Come evidenziano Buonaguidi e Perin Situandomi all'interno della riflessione femminista sulla non-neutralità dello sguardo di chi fa ricerca (Rich, 1986;Haraway, 1988), mi prendo questo spazio per dichiarare il mio posizionamento epistemologico e socio-politico come base da cui sono partite le riflessioni che stanno alla base di questo contributo. Innanzitutto, il mio sguardo è influenzato dalle prospettive della teoria critica e dall'approccio costruzionista. ...
Conference Paper
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Endometriosis is among the conditions that have been referred to as "invisible", in that they present highly subjective clinical manifestations and are characterized by the absence of a known aetiology, subjective variability in the solutions proposed to control the symptoms and by the lack of medical knowledge. These characteristics, combined with a delegitimization of patients’ suffering by medical practitioners, have fostered the creation of self-help groups based on the sharing of experiences and knowledge, sometimes explicitly challenging medical authority. Recently, these pathologies have attracted increased media attention, thanks to the mobilizations of groups and associations calling for their recognition. The paper focuses on the first results of a research that adopts an intersectional perspective, highlighting the role played by individual characteristics (and their combinations) in the experience of endometriosis, in the relationship with expert knowledge and medical institutions, and in the possibilities of access to services. In particular, it investigates the medical construction of the “typical patient” and how this construction may affect access to health care for patients that do not have those characteristics. Finally, the article delves into the difficulties trans and non-binary people face in accessing the diagnosis of a condition with a strong gender connotation.
... Tuttavia, l'analisi postmodernista e femminista ha già avanzato scetticismo rispetto alla presunta oggettività dello sguardo di chi fa ricerca (Spiro 1996). Lo sguardo di chi fa ricerca è sempre soggettivo e la differenza sta nel modo in cui questa soggettività viene svelata e di come si rende conto di essa (Fabian 1983;Clifford e Marcus 1986;Haraway 1988). Per questo trovo particolarmente importante posizionarmi, svelando il più precisamente possibile qual è la posizione da cui parlo. ...
Article
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The article aims to address the questions: Can theories and practices of Consensual Affective Non-Monogamies (particularly polyamory) contribute to social change and challenge the status quo? What are the different political positions of individuals who engage in these relational forms and are active within the polyamorous community networks? After introducing the terms CANM (Consensual Affective Non-Monogamies) and polyamory, as well as the research conducted in Italy between 2016 and 2020, the article highlights some results that demonstrate the interviewees' inclination to question certain norms, including those related to gender identities and gender roles. Furthermore, the polyamorous community appears to adhere to anti-patriarchal values and place a central focus on the theme of consent. However, within the community, there are diverse political positions, and no strong common political demands seem to exist. The article concludes that the subversive potential of CANMs is mitigated by the polyamorous community’s adherence to generally liberal and middle-class principles, as well as its substantial depoliticization.
... Our approach to the use of story in this case study recognized the following story structures: storytelling as a reflexive tool wherein we as learners and other invited guests could share our lived knowledges and experiences [42], and stories as narratives, which we define as socially constructed recordings of history and contemporary interactions that can serve to privilege one account of events over another [43]. Both story forms supported our shared position on the critical importance of honoring multiple perspectives and situated knowledges [44] and our efforts to position Indigenous science [45,46] and other epistemologies as legitimate and equitable ways of knowing compared to Western positivist teachings. Inviting our students to share their stories and listen to others was an attempt to foster relationality. ...
Article
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The transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources is shifting the landscape of energy projects and associated mining for critical minerals. New solar farms, wind farms, lithium mines, and the like have been proposed, permitted, or constructed around the world. How these projects intersect with environmental justice creates new spaces for contestation and collaboration. This case study focuses on a National Science Foundation-supported project for which we created a series of courses to immerse students in critical reflection on energy transitions and environmental justice. Our project seeks ways to disrupt the historical pattern of environmental injustices inflicted on marginalized communities during earth resource development, by identifying approaches to responsibly secure the domestic supply of critical elements. These courses, which included both semester-long and field-based summer experiences, focused on critical topics such as Indigenous sovereignty and responsible minerals acquisition. Field courses offered hands-on learning, such as visiting coal mines and solar farms on the Navajo Nation, fostering a deeper understanding of energy sovereignty. We promoted equity and transformative learning experiences by emphasizing storytelling, reflexive teaching, and incorporating Indigenous knowledge through invited guest speakers and collaborative content. We assessed courses through student surveys and projects, revealing an increased understanding of energy transitions, mining, and environmental justice. Relational teaching, involving trust-building with peers, teachers, and guest speakers, proved essential to learning. This case study demonstrates how relational practices can foster empathetic learning around contentious topics.
... Para investigar y escribir sobre poblaciones afrodescendientes es imprescindible hacerlo desde un lugar antirracista, lo cual implica el compromiso político, académico y la acción cotidiana de trabajar para desmantelar este sistema de opresión. Dentro de los elementos fundamentales de este compromiso se encuentran el reconocimiento, la constante revisión de nuestro lugar de enunciación o conocimiento situado (Haraway 1988) y el uso de nuestro privilegio para escuchar, aportar, dialogar y debatir sin la pretensión de hacer ejercicios de "ventriloquía" o de "salvación" que terminen silenciando aquellas voces que queremos visibilizar. Siguiendo este hilo de pensamiento, tomo unas líneas para 3 Retomando la propuesta de Marisol de la Cadena (2007) y Eduardo Restrepo (2013), utilizo los conceptos de indianidad y negridad para desprenderme de categorías raciales esencializantes y enfatizar en los discursos y las prácticas de lo indio y lo negro. ...
... All the recorded interviews have been transcribed verbatim, with the exclusion of potentially identifying information. During the analysis process, however, it was not lost on me that these interviews necessarily represent partial truths capable of capturing only some facets of the complex realities they sought to address (Haraway, 1988). The data collected, however, have not been evaluated in terms of "truth" or "credibility" but, rather, have been embraced as a source of information on a social reality that is multifaceted, varied, and ambivalent, continuously subject to revisions and reinterpretations (Abbatecola, 2018). ...
Thesis
Since its early configurations human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation has undergone constant transformations, evolving into an increasingly complex and diverse phenomenon. Due to its illegal nature, in fact, it is a phenomenon that is forced to continuously shift in order to survive and that, at the same time, has in recent years been traversed by an event of a pandemic nature that has inevitably undermined its modes of operation. Likewise, the changes that have occurred in migration flows, and especially in a framework of “humanitarian migrations”, have contributed to change the subjects involved, their degree of involvement, their capacity to negotiate within the exploitative relationship, and the modes of offering sexual services, including an increasingly sharp shift towards the indoor and ICT-mediated markets. Within this new landscape, anti-trafficking organizations have had to change their long-established practices and are now trying to adapt to this new reality. Through the adoption of a constructivist and intersectional view on intercultural and gender relations and the use of qualitative methodologies, this research intends to focus on and deepen our understanding of the main transformations that trafficking underwent in light of the structural changes that have taken place in the sex markets, as well as on some of its more under-researched aspects such as the exploitation of trans* women and young men. In doing so, it will explore how anti-trafficking organizations have been trying to adapt their practices to the changed trafficking landscape and how Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Immigration has lost its prominence as the primary tool for the protection of trafficking victims. Finally, the thesis will provide some reflections on how Article 18 and the social protection programs connected to it can be revised to make them once again attractive and advantageous for all trafficking victims.
... A fundamental source of inspiration for this study has also been the relentless contribution of feminist studies towards a criticism of the alleged neutrality of science, starting from Haraway's contestation of an objective knowledge that is actually dependent on more or less self-aware interests and desires of control derived from specific positions of observation (Haraway, 1988 I also derive from these contributions a reminder of how pathologization, criminalization and other forms of othering have often gone hand in hand. Traits and characteristics of bodies and behaviours have been produced as moral faults, or as dangerous tendencies even outside the intentions of the individuals, and have been naturalized through supposedly objective categorizations of human nature. ...
Thesis
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This thesis is located within the emerging intersections between feminist critique and algorithmic injustice, with a specific focus on predictive policing. By employing feminist theoretical perspectives on governmentality, the non-neutrality of science and statistics, phenomenology and structural injustice, it problematizes Top600 and Top400 (AKA Veilig Alternatief), two algorithmic tools that Amsterdam police and institutions use for the identification and risk assessment of potential perpetrators and repeat offenders of high impact crimes. These tools are marked by a known over-representation of Dutch-Moroccan men and minors, with a lower socioeconomic status, mild-to-borderline intellectual disabilities, and from segregated neighbourhoods. Through a reading, inspired by critical law studies, of the official regulations of personal data usage by Top600 and Top400, and through a review of literature concerning them, the thesis problematizes the gap between their promised and factual outcomes, questioning the fairness of their targeting. It asks what practices and structures specific to algorithmic usage and policing are involved and potentially aggravating, how the relations between the tools and human actors are articulated and what biases and distortions they entail. The thesis concludes with considerations about the legal frameworks in which they function, especially in light of the new AI Act in the EU.
... pursuits of infrastructure development and the "partial perspectives" (Haraway, 1988) that parochialize infrastructure development in the global South and elsewhere. It transcends the teleological narrative of the emergence and evolution of modernism, allowing for a less teleological approach and a more productive and realistic outlook on everyday infrastructures as multiple, diverse, and plural. ...
Article
Infrastructure is commonly perceived through the interpretive monopoly of hegemonic frames of modernity, leading to the frequent oversight of everyday infrastructures. Extensive capital-intensive infrastructures that are fully integrated and have paled into the background of everyday life are commonly dismissed, criticized, or misconstrued as deteriorating, incongruous, and in need of repair and reinforcement to "measure up." Similarly, ordinary and hybrid techno-popular infrastructures are frequently demeaned as alternative, informal, secondary, less modern, and not belonging. In an era where preference and priority are given to shiny new things and innovations, everyday infrastructures are seldom acknowledged as substantive modes of operation in their own right. This article advocates a shift in perspective. Drawing illustrative cases from eastern Africa, I examine everyday infrastructures as critical sites of reference for analyzing, theorizing, and organizing the urban. Rather than starting from a preconceived notion of modernity, I examine everyday infrastructures on their own terms. I propose a series of registers-incomplete relationalities, mundane temporalities, and heterogeneous modernities-to stimulate a reappraisal of how we view, read, and think about infrastructure. Accordingly, I reiterate the need to reorient the foundational parameters of infrastructure, advocating for a decentered and heterodox perspective that emphasizes infrastructural plurality, multiplicity, and inherent incompleteness.
... Global Southern academics have long emphasized the 'coloniality of knowledge.' By coloniality of knowledge, they mean that knowledge is not only situated in specific locations within hierarchies of gender, class, race, and sex (Haraway 1988), but also within the global power structures that are remnants of colonialism and are being maintained and re-inscribed by contemporary global inequalities (Mignolo 2002;Grosfoguel 2002;Santos 2014). The concept 'coloniality' is part of the Latin American Modernity/Coloniality school of thought. ...
... Readdressing my research and design processes, this paper explores how design practice contributes to the production of knowledge. Building on the framework of »The Hybrid Practitioner« (Voet/Schreurs/Thomas 2022), which overcomes the artificial divide between academia and architectural practice and is reinforced by the idea of »Situated Knowledges« (Haraway 1988), which embraces subjectivity in academic research, I argue that designbased inquiry could shed light on overlooked contemporary urban and architectural conditions. The project's development within the design studio is anchored in an »operative attitude« that is »geared towards making history and theory productive by transferring knowledge from the confinement of the academic library to the reality of the office« (Voet/Schreurs/Thomas 2022: 20). ...
... However, an interviewee added that it was 'institutional work that has to behave as non-racist, non-classist and consider the gender dimension' (PM2W). This proposition intends the transversalisation of an intersectional perspective within state agencies and with that, recognises the subjectivity of 'situated knowledges' (Haraway, 1998), also among different types of migrants (Lara & Stang, 2021). ...
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In recent decades, South American migration within and towards Latin America has grown substantially. In Chile, per of icial data over 1,6 million foreign nationals were residing in the country in 2023, almost equally divided between genders and mainly located in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile, with Venezuelans edominating. The present study consists of a qualitative analysis of policy narratives based on interviews to migration-related policymakers, representatives of international rganizations and migrant collectivity spokesmen in Chile. It aims at analysing their convergent or divergent understandings of the progress of present migration policies and associated state capacities. Three main framings are identified. The first could be defined as technocratic, centered on producing evidence and implementing the objectives of general or specific policies. The second takes into account migrants’ subjective experience and shows the concrete problems they face daily. The last emphasises the contemporary humanitarian crisis migrants are experiencing and the discriminatory reactions of the host country. It entails a radical change in national security. These visions do not necessarily exclude each other; they are sometimes interconnected and complementary. However, the predominance of one or other framing shows the extent of migrants' social integration in any society. Maybe, some of these patterns are useful to analyse migration policy in other Latinamerican countries
... identities, yet the absence of race in their reflections underscores a deeper issue: they do not see race because, for them, it is not an active concern (Bonilla-Silva 2003; Brown et al. 2023). They are not only unaware of the racial dynamics at play but are also blind to how their own Whiteness operates as the default, the norm, in these spaces (Haraway 1988; Giwa Onaiwu 2020 (Brown et al. 2023). It is one thing to acknowledge the need for change, but another to engage in the difficult, ongoing work of dismantling the very systems that perpetuate racial privilege. ...
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This study critically examines the concept of neuroqueering as a counterforce to cisnormativity, heteronormativity, and neuronormativity, drawing insights from Critical Autism Studies, Critical Race Studies, Queer Theory, and Whiteness Studies. Through a brief genealogy of gendered biological constructs-hormones and chromosomes-I first reveal how these constructs have historically been weaponized to reinforce binary gender norms and perpetuate White supremacy. In the second phase of the study, I utilized in-depth surveys to explore how individuals engaging in neuroqueering navigate the intersection of neurodivergence and queerness, with the expectation of observing an integrated, anti-binary self-experience. However, the results revealed that White participants demonstrated a fragmented identity, separating their neurodivergence from their queerness rather than unifying these aspects. This fragmentation underscores the neutrality often ascribed to Whiteness, which enables White individuals to challenge neuronormativity and cisnormativity without critically interrogating their positionality within Whiteness itself. I argue that for neuroqueering to serve as a transformative and decolonial praxis, it must explicitly engage with Whiteness as a racialized identity and challenge its presumed neutrality. By addressing Whiteness alongside cisnormativity and neuronormativity as interlocking systems of oppression, neuroqueering can better realize its potential as a liberatory tool, fostering self-experiences that resist assimilation and dismantle binary norms.
... Haraway's work is a reaction Shapin and Schaffer's witness, who was a wealthy, privileged gentleman. Haraway argues that the scientific observer is not an objective, neutral observer of the world, but rather a situated, partial, and embodied participant in the process of knowledge production (Haraway 1988). Haraway critiques the modest of the gentleman observer and asks who gets to be modest and whose presence in science can count as modest. ...
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DIY biology, or Do-It-Yourself biology, refers to a movement where individuals and communities establish laboratories outside traditional academic and industrial settings—such as in garages, kitchens, or community spaces. DIY biologists experiment with gene-editing technologies like CRISPR, cultivate glow-in-the-dark plants, and engineering colorful fungi. This practice challenges established norms in research, advocating for decentralized and community-driven approaches to scientific inquiry and innovation. DIY biologists are often trained scientists who choose to conduct their research in community or home laboratories. The DIY biology movement highlights that science’s boundaries are flexible and sometimes ambiguous (Gieryn in Am Sociol Rev 48:781–795, 1983). By operating outside traditional research institutions, DIY biologists challenge established authority, hierarchies, funding structures, and proprietary regimes. They create a distinct identity beyond the increasingly neoliberalized institutional spheres of modern knowledge production, showcasing alternative ways to pursue science. I theorize DIY biology as ‘extra-institutional science’ due to its emergence outside conventional laboratories of industry and academia. This research draws on empirical data from interviews with DIY biologists and the 2021 DIY Biology Community Survey.
... The very idea of metrics may not have a space in activism. Rather, it is to invite a major rethinking of what 11 See the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway 1988 andPatricia Hill Collins 1990. counts as knowledge-making: how it is practiced, spoken, and embodied, where, and by whom. ...
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Should it feel good to get an award for scholar activism? As well-intentioned the recognition of my activism is, it misses the point of what activism is by singling out one person, especially a scholar. The danger with claiming scholar activism as heroic is twofold. First, it makes activists exceptional, implying that society may rely on exceptional individuals instead of valuing the collective work. Second, it glorifies the activism of scholars, as if it were more valuable than that of others while ignoring the hierarchies that empower and protect academia. Instead, we must normalize scholar activism, sharing the load and using our bodies as shields. We’ll join the work of activism in constellation and value the power of emotions, embodying our ideas as we grow into activist scholars.
... Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.Feminist Studies 14(3), 575-599, 589. ...
... Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.Feminist Studies 14(3), 575-599, 589. ...
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This chapter showcases over 20 examples of ocean literacy activities developed during the Ocean Incubator Network Living Laboratory and beyond (the Foraminifera Box contains more than six activities that can be downloaded freely). The authors of these activities include students, scientists, researchers, educators, linguists, legal scholars, and experts in accessibility. Each activity has been scrutinized through the educational and pedagogical lens of Marcelle Dabbah to ensure its efficacy and relevance. Both teachers and learners can find inspiration in these activities, which are available for download and can be tailored to meet specific learning objectives and classroom needs. Each activity is structured according to an outline developed by Laura Vita, and includes details such as the contributors, activity name, target audience, focus of the activity, learning objectives, and guidance or instructions.
... In this framework, the concept of hybridity thus emphasises the role of agency in the creation of novel combinations and arrangements. Also, in STS studies, particularly in the thought of Donna Haraway (1985Haraway ( , 1991, the concept of hybridity is associated with the ability to challenge and disrupt established norms and binaries. In particular, the cyborg metaphor proposes a vision of agency that also transcends the traditional boundaries between human, animal, and machine. ...
... To address the fundamental epistemological aspects of risk, safety, and the ideals of sustainable futures, we work through a supradisciplinary project, which goes beyond a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, by recognizing and empowering nonacademic knowledge. This implies engaging with situated knowledge and partial perspectives (Haraway, 1988(Haraway, , 1991 and what's the problem approach (Bacchi, 1999) that provides an opportunity to place the focus on values and attitudes behind a decision to identify something as a political problem or avoid doing so. To this we add aspects of food security and food sovereignty, as discussed by several Sa mi individuals, representatives, organisations, and the Sa mi parliament (Nilsson, 2021). ...
Article
The impact of wildfires in Sweden, commonly claimed to be caused by climate change, has recently become a national and international concern. The overall aim of the inter- and supradisciplinary research project presented in this article is to analyse, document and draw attention to the local and Indigenous/Sámi stewardship of land, with specific regard to fire management, drought, and other aspects of climate change. The project situated within the growing field of Indigenous Land Based Education and Knowledge (Wildcat et al., 2014). It is run by an experienced artist and researcher in collaboration with Indigenous Sámi communities and Indigenous Sámi academic scholars. The project brings together the disciplines of artistic research and visual documentation with the history of technology and science, environmental history, feminist technoscience, gender research and Indigenous methodologies as well as Sámi knowledge. Based on the methods available within these research disciplines, the project uses extensive fieldwork, archival research, and audio-visual documentation, including interviews, documents, drone images, photographs, writings, and workshops, as a source of research, communication, and dissemination. We investigate local and Sámi ecological knowledge available. Furthermore, we evaluate how artistic research and visual documentation -with a critical approach and developed collaboratively- can be used to document, analyse, discuss and provide a basis for promoting Indigenous knowledges in the nation state and climate change debate.
... Unfortunately, a deficit-based framework for understanding marginalized communities dominates, including in research, which this special issue speaks back to. The "joy deficit" in sociological research on queer and trans people's lives (Shuster and Westbrook, 2022: p. 1) means that there are few studies on the positive aspects of being queer and trans and few studies on the counter-hegemonic knowledges that emerge from the "subjugated standpoints" (Haraway, 2013) of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities which may reveal resistance and thriving in spite of the status quo. This absence mirrors the lack of joyful representation in mainstream media. ...
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Our introduction to the special issue “Mobilising Queer Joy” reflects an urgent need for queer joy studies amidst a sociopolitical climate that feels increasingly ruinous. We reject the ‘joy deficit’ in sociological research that fixates on homogenous, misery-filled visions of 2SLGBTQIA+ existence, and which is severed from the profound beauty of queer love, queer and trans joy, gender euphoria, and the strength and depth of 2SLGBTQIA+ community care and chosen families. In addition to introducing the six articles in the special issue from authors in Canada, the Philippines, Australia, and the US, we aim to establish queer joy studies by articulating the affective power of queer joy for collective resistance and social transformation. Queer joy is more than a kitschy slogan on a tote bag or splashed on the side of a big bank’s Pride float; it is a collective experience that allows us to feel more alive and connected to our personal capacities and power. The queer joy we are interested in is dangerous to empire and colonial powers. It does not deny the relationship with ambivalence, rage, and grief, and instead mobilises these affects to confront injustices in our existing social order. Some of the questions we ask include: How does queer joy act as world-making and dream mapping of new, more sustainable futures? How might we further theorize and mobilise queer joy as a disruption to settler colonial, carceral logics? How might the transformative power of queer joy be amplified to fragment and challenge the rise of fascism and populism that seeks to exterminate it?
... A ello añaden una "vocación transformadora" (González-Marcén & Sánchez-Romero, 2018, p. 27) mediante una representación inclusiva del pasado, una valoración de las experiencias históricas, y la incorporación del género como una variable definitoria de la memoria colectiva y del patrimonio. Para conseguir una vocación transformadora colectiva, debemos modificar los puntos de partida y los puntos de vista (sensu Haraway, 1988), que para los casos que aquí presentaré será entender el patrimonio del trauma cultural, no ya como un objeto tangible o intangible, sino como una acción mediada por las relaciones interpersonales (Hernando, 2012) para así cuidarlas, en el sentido de cubrir sus necesidades psicológicas y simbólicas básicas después de una vivencia traumática. ...
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Las Jornadas se desarrollaron en dos sesiones en las que pudimos es�cuchar a un total de 15 investigadoras. La primera sesión Museos, patri�monio y educación: propuestas y herramientas desde el feminismo estuvo centrada en la transferencia de conocimiento, cómo comunicar a la ciudadanía el resultado de las investigaciones que el equipo desarrolla y que otras investigadoras o equipos están realizando en relación con la puesta en valor de la agencia femenina en el pasado. La segunda sesión Investiga�ción feminista en acción aportó experiencias de investigación concretas que comparten el interés común de dar visibilidad a las líneas de trabajo realizadas desde una perspectiva feminista y que abarcan desde el análisis de yacimientos concretos a propuestas de patrimonialización. A partir de aquella reunión se decidió editar un volumen monográfico con las temáticas más relevantes de las allí tratadas
... Thinking about outer spaces, many scholars have highlighted the difficulties posed by studying a spatial domain that remains, for most of us, physically unattainable. Acknowledging this tension and drawing from a breadth of work that critically assesses how we produce our fields of enquiry (see Haraway 1988;Berry et al. 2017), Valerie Olson (2023) writes against the notion that to research extraterrestriality one needs to be physically located above the Earth's atmosphere. Rather, referencing emerging literature in the social sciences of outer spaces, she highlights how researchers have 're-fielded' the terrain of their investigations by analysing the processes, infrastructures, and networks that cut across and connect a range of social practices and geographical locations, including the cosmos. ...
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... The worldview implied in complexity science, discussed more fully in Chapter 2, in some ways reincarnates the view of the scientist as neutral and objective. It implies the re-introduction of a form of "view from nowhere" -a perspective that in the social sciences tends to instead imply an unacknowledged view from the center of power (Haraway, 1988;Hayles, 1999). By ignoring both meaning-making and power dynamics, an unrevised complexity perspective -sometimes referred to as "social physics" -resuscitates a separation between the subject and object of scientific inquiry, with the scientist distilling through observation -sometimes from afar, at other times up-close, but always from outside -the fundamental dynamics and principles of the system under study, be they ant hills, brains, or social relations. ...
... Over the course of these three visits, I spent around 15 days at Expo City doing participant observation, which included attending a vast array of events, conducting informal interviews with attendees, staff and businesspeople, as well as documenting the site's built infrastructure and semiotic landscapes. Ethnography offers an inherently partial perspective-its value being precisely this (Clifford, 1986;Haraway, 1988). But where possible, I cite representative texts that are publicly accessible for all readers. ...
Article
Sustainability has a unique symbolic power in the contemporary political landscape, as ordinary people, governments and institutions grapple with the effects of the climate crisis. Proponents of megaprojects have tapped into the symbolic power by framing their initiatives as “green,” however resource-intensive they might really be. This article illustrates how this works in the UAE through a case study of Expo City Dubai, the greenfield site developed for the World’s Fair, Expo 2020, and then used to host the UN’s COP28 climate negotiations in late 2023. At both events, sustainability’s symbolic power was used to advertise the UAE’s supposedly pro-environment credentials on a world stage, as well as to recruit investments in the Expo site’s redevelopment as a new green technopole in Dubai—and in so doing legitimate Emirati leaders’ ongoing commitment to megaprojects that are ultimately designed to continue and intensify the country’s resource-intensive political economy.
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Understanding the interactions between law, technology and society writ large is a very important task for legal analysis. However, the relationship between these areas can be very complex, resulting in a complex web of interactions and feedbacks. Fortunately, Science and Technology Studies (‘STS’) offers a varied toolkit which can help us to understand how these fields overlap. In this article, I first providing a brief primer regarding STS and its core ideas. The article then considers some high-level legal discussions (particularly those relating to the concept of technology neutral law, and of Lawrence Lessig’s four modalities of regulation) and considers how STS may help to compliment or expand upon those debates. The article then examines how STS may assist with some current legal discussions, focusing on issues that arise from certain types of automated decision-making, as governed by the GDPR, Article 22. Finally, I provide some starting points for those wishing to incorporate STS into their own work, including some of STS’s limitations for law. I conclude that STS can be a very powerful tool for legal scholars, which can help to reinforce existing approaches and to produce analyses which reflect a fuller range of legal, technical and social nuances.
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Drawing upon critical social theory and fine-grained empirical observations, political ecologists have long argued against hegemonic stories of the environment, development and capitalism. This commitment is held across the wide range of approaches in political ecology. In a world haunted by increasing social inequalities and ecological degradations, there are strong reasons to pursue this critical agenda. In this article however, I coin the concept of "narrative predictability" to offer a critical analysis of a narrative tendency in political ecology towards a plot featuring the State and/or the Corporation as villains, the environment and indigenous peoples as victims, and activists as heroes. My engagement is not a reactionary attack, but rather an application of political ecology's main tool – empirical scrutiny – on itself. Empirically, the article draws upon recent fieldwork among indigenous Shuar people engaged in gold mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Theoretically, the article problematizes romanticism and essentialism within resistance studies. A key observation is that there seems to be a neglect of empirical complexity challenging the recurrent plot. What are the implications of avoiding discomforting observations when producing narratives aimed at progressive change? This article argues that political ecology needs to counter its own narrative predictability by strengthening its attentiveness to the heterogeneity and ambiguities of marginalized people in a world of capitalist ruins.
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Desde la praxis de la psicología social comunitaria y los feminismos, el objetivo deeste trabajo es reflexionar sobre las experiencias de problematización y cogestiónde dispositivos colectivo-comunitarios en la exigibilidad de derechos con mujeresparticipantes en movimientos sociales y sindicales, desarrolladas en diferentesmomentos históricos del proyecto de extensión universitaria en el Observatorio dePromoción y Prevención de la Salud Comunitaria de la Facultad de Psicología de laUniversidad de Buenos Aires. El trabajo aborda las tensiones de la participación socialy política de mujeres pertenecientes al movimiento piquetero, a asambleas barriales ya una organización sindical a partir del trabajo de Investigación Acción Participativacomo estrategia metodológica. En los diferentes procesos se implementó una pluralidadde técnicas como entrevistas en profundidad, encuestas, observaciones participantes,relatos de vida, grupos focales, talleres y evaluaciones participativas en/con lasorganizaciones, fundadas en la ética relacional, la dialogicidad, la justicia y la equidaden el acceso a los derechos humanos. En este marco, el artículo reflexiona sobre lasposibilidades y los límites de las intervenciones psicosociales propuestas desde el campode la psicología social comunitaria, en un escenario social con políticas neoliberales deprecarización de la vida y devastación de los territorios, pero también, de surgimientode nuevas actoras sociales que resisten y producen nuevos modos de organización,sociabilidad y subjetividad. En un escenario actual crítico, se propone la recuperaciónde la memoria histórica y los saberes producidos desde las experiencias analizadas.
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A world of academic discourse that shares knowledge through word and image frames this Phd thesis in which I explore the relationship between stone lithography and language - ‘language’ being understood here in its widest sense as written text, embodied, vocal and tacit communication, symbolic and excess information, visual image, and the means through which thought becomes manifest and subjectivity is expressed. At the core of the inquiry is the artisanal practice of stone lithography: a technology that led the development of printed communications in the nineteenth century as both a method of mass communication, and an emerging artists’ technique. Invented by the Bavarian playwright Alois Senefelder (1771-1834), stone lithography had a significant impact on the world of music publishing, and I draw on this lyrical inheritance of song, dance and spoken word. I also draw on the dark legacies of colonialism that laid the ground for the development of lithography in the Age of Empire. In the light of these historic contexts, my own studio practice, and a transdisciplinary field of knowledge, this collection of texts explores the multi-modal breadth of lithographic language making and demonstrates the heterogenous nature of the languages engendered by the practices of stone lithography.
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Semiotic indeterminacy describes the basic observation that signs are always unstable and open to interpretation. As such, semiotic indeterminacy can become a resource for the strategic pursuit and exploitation of political goals. In this article, I examine the role and multiple dimensions of semiotic indeterminacy in nuclear nonproliferation, the global governance project to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Taking as an illustrative example the controversy around the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I demonstrate that when the transparency practices implemented to close down on the semiotic indeterminacy of nuclear materials fail, nuclear verification turns from a techno-rational project into a moral-evaluative one with the aim of uncovering the hidden intentions of a state. This transduction of one semiotic register into another derives from transparency’s dual tradition as both a rationalizing imperative as well as a moralized norm of sincerity. Attending to the semiotic dimensions of liberal forms of governance offers a new perspective on its contradictions.
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The present study aims to highlight the socio-economic implications of severe storms in a changing climate scenario in South Asia. To explore these impacts, the study first outlined the vulnerability of South Asia to climate change and severe storms. The study further investigated the socio-economic consequences of severe storms and discussed loss in human and infrastructure, implications on water, agriculture, and livestock sector, and issues of migration, resettlement, and rehabilitation. The socio-economic consequences highlighted that countries like Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic are facing an average annual loss of 5–7% of their Gross Domestic Product. Several billion people in countries like India and China live in danger every year due to severe storms like tropical cyclones. Some implications of severe storms are being seen in forest areas and mangrove growth. In countries such as Bhutan, India, China, and Vietnam, forest cover has increased over time, while in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, it has declined. Due to severe storms, the highest number of newly displaced people was seen in South Asia, in which India and Bangladesh had the highest migration. The study also attempts to bring relevance to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to Asian indigenous communities to respond to climate change and severe storms. Although many solutions for disaster management are available in India's ancient historical Maurya period and Kautilya's Arthashastra, present-day India became fully involved in disaster mitigation through the Yokohoma Plan, the Hyogo Framework, and the ongoing Sendai Framework. The final part of the study discussed the Disaster Management Act, of 2005, whose last mile of disaster preparedness and management is a product of defined planning, coordination, and implementation, and actual rescue and rehabilitation operations during disaster situations. The study recommends that local communities should consider practicing their indigenous knowledge in disaster risk reduction activities, including prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery with support from international, national, and state-level mitigation and preparation strategies.
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In this thought leadership roundtable, the editors of the special issue, convened a critical dialogue between leading scholars in the fields of Sociology, Critical Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Management Studies, and Sustainability Studies to explore the challenges that Global South navigates in its adoption of AI. The conversation probes the power disparities between the Global North and the Global South narratives of AI and look forward to alternative forms of AI and AI Management in the Global South scenario. Highly critical and cautious of enthusiastic adaptations of AI in the Global South, the discussants prioritize the issues of Human Rights, ethics, equity, inclusivity, and resilience for the historically marginalized communities of the region.
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The concluding chapter summarises and links together the most important theoretical and ethical-political issues laid out in the previous chapters of the book. It revisits the crucial aspects of (maternal) subjectivity and addresses the particularities of its embodied, mediated and embedded nature. Rather than viewing pregnant and birthing subjectivity as a special case or deviation, it argues for recognising it as a model that challenges modernist representations of the subject—as whole, stable, bounded and clearly differentiated from others. The often dramatic process of the early transition to motherhood and the visible ruptures in ordinary functioning and experience reveal the processual, (technologically) mediated and distributed character of subjectivity that is not so readily apparent in other, more stable and regular circumstances. The analysis in this book therefore calls for a revision of a psychological theory of subjectivity and offers some important resources for this endeavour.
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The mass influx of Rohingyas to Cox’s Bazaar refugee camps in 2017 blocked the only migratory corridor used by the critically endangered Asian Elephants to travel between their habitats in Bangladesh and Myanmar. In an unforeseen collision between Rohingya refugees and Asian elephants, humanitarian and conservation actors have found themselves at an impasse—protecting one group threatens the existence of another. Temporary interventions were executed to mitigate the conflict and save human lives, but without extensive, long-term solutions, the elephants risk losing genetic diversity and even extinction. Analyzed with posthumanist ethics, on the ground realities of inadequate conservation measures and a deficient legislative landscape, it becomes apparent that a new stakeholder framework must be proposed, inclusive of all populations that are directly or indirectly impacted, tracing the conflict back to a central actant.
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