Animating the Sacred, Sentient and Spiritual in Post‐Humanist and Material Geographies

Gergan, Mabel Denzin

doi:10.1111/gec3.12210

Cited by 36 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Contrary to Bennett, I would argue that the 'risks' of anthropomorphization should not be measured against the standards of a new materialist theory that juxtaposes 'naïve' forms of knowledge with the greater canon of modern science and western political thought, all while remaining largely silent about the epistemic, ethical, and civilizational privilege that it claims for itself. In this regard I agree with a growing body of scholarship that criticizes tendencies within new materialist theory to potentially reify colonial ways of knowing and being; to obscure the geo-historical embeddedness of knowledge by conflating being and our knowledge of it; and to underestimate the depoliticizing effects of distributing intentionality and responsibility across more-than-human "assemblages" (Gergan 2015;Rekret 2016;Sundberg 2014).…”

Section: Journal Of Political Ecologysupporting

confidence: 52%

Decolonizing political ecology: ontology, technology and 'critical' enchantment

Schulz

2017

Journal of Political Ecology

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Current debates about the Anthropocene have sparked renewed interest in the relationship between ecology, technology, and coloniality. How do humans relate to one another, to the living environment, and to their material or technological artifacts; and how are these relations structured by coloniality, defined not only as a material process of appropriation and subjugation, but also as an exclusionary hierarchy of knowing and being that still pervades contemporary life? While these questions have of course received attention in decolonial theory, they have also captured the interest of scholars who self-identify with the field of political ecology. However, it can be argued that political ecology still primarily adheres to research practices and paradigms that have been developed in the West, regardless of its diversity and dynamism as a field of research. It is therefore suggested that a rapprochement between decolonial theory and political ecology can open up new perspectives on current debates that are emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene. In particular, the article takes the recent interest in the ontological implications of the Anthropocene as a point of departure to bring the decolonial notion of 'border thinking' into a conversation with the so-called 'new materialism' in political ecology. While both approaches are not necessarily opposed to values grounded in rationality, they can be seen as attempts to rethink ontological divisions such as human/nature or subject/object based on 'enchanted' ways of knowing and being-in-the-world. Yet, although enchantment has the potential to counter inherently colonial practices of appropriation, commodification and objectification, it is argued that keeping a moderately critical distance to enchanted narratives is still recommended, not because of the alleged naïveté of such narratives, but rather because enchantments may also function as and through technologies of power. Key words: Anthropocene; political ecology; decoloniality; new materialism; border thinking; ontology; enchantment RésuméLes débats récents sur l'anthropocène soulignent un nouveau intérêt scientifique pour les relations complexes entre la écologie, la technologie, et le colonialisme. Comment est-ce que l'humanité se rapportent les uns envers les autres, à leur milieu de vie et à leurs objets physiques et techniques, et comment ces relations sont-ils structurées par le colonialisme, non seulement définies comme un processus matériel de l'appropriation et de l'assujettissement, mais aussi comme une hiérarchie d'exclusion de la connaissance et de l'être, qui imprègne encore la vie contemporaine? Bien que ces questions étaient naturellement traitées dans la théorie de la décolonialisme, ils ont également suscité l'intérêt des scientifiques, qui se disent les écologistes politiques. Néanmoins, on peut affirmer que l'écologie politique suivie encore des pratiques et paradigmes de recherche occidentaux, mais il est un domaine diversifié de la recherche. Il est donc proposé qu'un rappro...

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Section: Journal Of Political Ecologysupporting

confidence: 52%

Decolonizing political ecology: ontology, technology and 'critical' enchantment

Schulz

2017

Journal of Political Ecology

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“…More recently, geographers working with postcolonial theory have extended decolonization to an ethical imperative (Gilmartin & Berg, ). Working especially in areas of more‐than‐human or animal geographies, geographers voice a need to decolonize both our discipline and postcolonial theory by placing and engaging Indigenous worldviews (Gergan, ; Thomas, ). Decolonization thus conceptualized has seen some uptake by geographers working on geopolitics of ecology and the Anthropocene (Sundberg, ; Collard, Dempsey, & Sundberg, ).…”

Section: The Movement Of Decolonization As a Concept In Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Decolonization thus conceptualized has seen some uptake by geographers working on geopolitics of ecology and the Anthropocene (Sundberg, ; Collard, Dempsey, & Sundberg, ). Decolonization in these postcolonial contexts references something more than an imperial power exiting from a colonized space or cultural context: Still, the concept dwells mostly in theoretical terrains, in efforts to decolonize knowledge as opposed to decolonizing present‐day peoples and places (see, for instance, Jackson, ; Gergan, ). Decolonization associated with postcolonial theory, in other words, dwells predominantly in semiotic conceptual realms of rhetoric: It thus risks being little more than a metaphor (Tuck & Yang, ).…”

Section: The Movement Of Decolonization As a Concept In Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsettling decolonizing geographies

2018

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Geographers have long reflected on our discipline's colonial history. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous geographers have discussed ways of engaging Indigenous geographies and sought new ways of opening and expanding spaces for Indigenous peoples and Indigenous ways of knowing and being in our discipline. Like many social scientists, geographers name and frame this work in different ways; of late, decolonizing concepts and practices are increasingly deployed. As documented by especially Indigenous scholars, however, the discipline has yet to achieve much semblance of decolonization. This paper takes as a starting point that, despite good intentions, efforts at decolonizing geography are inherently limited because colonization continues to structure the field of geography and the academy more broadly. We begin by placing ourselves in conversations about Indigenous geographies and colonial violence, using this placement as a jumping off point for discussing ways geographers past and present approach decolonization. We pay particular attention to ways theories and articulations about decolonization may be falling short. Second, we offer a critical analysis of decolonization in relation to settler colonial power, including theories and praxes of engaging Indigeneity and Indigenous peoples and places. We discuss Indigenous geographies, what they mean, and to whom they have those meanings. We then turn to Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous ways of being and living in the world, problematizing how within more purely conceptual realms and often by non-Indigenous peoples and geographers, This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…For us, however, Spiritualism challenges the distinction between sacred or extraordinary experience and profane or ordinary experience (see Gergan, ; Holloway, ); a view that chimes with Jean‐Luc Nancy's () observation that the ordinary supplies an access point to the sacred because the sacred is already enfolded into the ordinary. We wish to emphasise the ordinariness of Spiritualist religious practices and sites.…”

Section: Introduction: On Séances Affect and The Ordinariness Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Talking with the dead: Spirit mediumship, affect and embodiment in Stoke‐on‐Trent

Bartolini

MacKian

Pile

2017

Trans Inst British Geog

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While Spiritualism has attracted much attention in other disciplines, geographers have largely ignored it. However, we agree with Holloway (2006 Enchanted spaces: the s eance, affect, and geographies of religion Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96, pp. 182-7) that Spiritualism presents conceptual challenges that make it worthy of more attention. As Holloway suggests, the themes of affect, embodiment and materiality are particularly helpful in exploring religious experiences. The focus of this paper is on the practice and experience of spirit mediumship in a Spiritualist setting. In mediumship, a specific challenge is to materialise and embody spirit such that spirit communication feels personal and rings true. For us, this suggests that mediumship is routinely successful both because it can produce accurate messages, which are judged empirically, and also because it produces what we call affectual truths, which are judged tacitly on whether they feel right or not. To account for this, we introduce the idea of intermediumship to describe interactions in the space in-between the medium and the congregation. It is through this space in-between that the affects associated with mediumship emerge, are experienced and are verified. Rather than seeing spirit communication as somehow enchanted or extraordinary, we assert that talking with the dead is predicated on the ordinariness of the experience: that is, that talking with the dead is emblematic of affect and embodiment in everyday life.

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Animating the Sacred, Sentient and Spiritual in Post‐Humanist and Material Geographies

Cited by 36 publications

References 84 publications

Decolonizing political ecology: ontology, technology and 'critical' enchantment

Decolonizing political ecology: ontology, technology and 'critical' enchantment

Unsettling decolonizing geographies

Talking with the dead: Spirit mediumship, affect and embodiment in Stoke‐on‐Trent

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