We begin with the assertion that epistemological standpoints shape – and are shaped by – ethical principles and that epistemologies of action are constantly evolving. Yet, while many contemporary planning theories are influenced by post-structural and postcolonial epistemologies that recognise the value of subjective and situated knowledge, work on planning ethics tends to retain a focus on normative ethical theories. This focus precludes further explorations of the nature and meaning of adopted ethical values. By means of a case example, we suggest that some engagement with meta-ethical questions might offer scholars of the global South-East an alternative basis for developing knowledge.

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Borna disease virus (BDV) causes acute and persistent infections in various vertebrates. During recent years, BDV-specific serum antibodies, BDV antigen, and BDV-specific nucleic acid were found in humans suffering from psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, viral antigen was detected in human autopsy brain tissue by immunohistochemical staining. Whether BDV infection can be associated with psychiatric disorders is still a matter of debate; no direct evidence has ever been presented. In the present study we report on (i) the detection of BDV-specific nucleic acid in human granulocyte cell fraction from three different psychiatric patients and (ii) the isolation of infectious BDV from these cells obtained from a patient with multiple psychiatric disorders. In leukocyte preparations other than granulocytes, either no BDV RNA was detected or positive PCR results were obtained only if there was at least 20% contamination with granulocytes. Parts of the antigenome of the isolated virus were sequenced, demonstrating the close relationship to the prototype BDV strains (He/80 and strain V) as well as to other human virus sequences. Our data provide strong evidence that cells in the granulocyte fraction represent the major if not the sole cell type harboring BDV-specific nucleic acid in human blood and contain infectious virus. In contrast to most other reports of putative human isolates, where sequences are virtually identical to those of the established laboratory strains, this isolate shows divergence in the region previously defined as variable in BDV from naturally infected animals.

Her scholarship focuses on housing and community development policy and planning, attending to the legacies of discrimination in urban policy-making. She engages in research and practice with the aim of dismantling institutional racism, and in 2016 she was awarded the Dale Prize for scholarship on urban planning for community self-determination and racial justice from Cal Poly-Pomona.

I recently attended an international conference on planning in Africa. Here, it was suggested that the colonial era was over and that planners are already well-versed in decolonising theories and practices. Such suggestions came from Northern and Southern scholars alike. By means of this article, I hope to disrupt this privileged position by introducing the idea of resistant texts which are most often found in endogenous systems of knowledge production. I then explain how decoloniality – which calls for an epistemic de-linking from Western knowledges – might assists planners in seeing resistant texts before attempting to arrive at anti-colonial interventions.