From the Culture of Matter to the Matter of Culture: Feminist                     Explorations of Nature and Science

Hird, Myra J.

doi:10.5153/sro.780

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Much of human engineering, whether industrial or genetic, is borrowed, not invented: bacteria long ago cornered the market on 'trans', whether transduction or transfection. For a more detailed discussion see Hird (2003a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Hird

2004

Sexualities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article introduces chimerism and mosaicism as two recent scientific ‘discoveries’ that present challenges to western heteronormative notions of kinship. Chimerism, in the form of xenotransplantation, already demands a rethinking of traditional boundaries between what is considered ‘kin’ and ‘non-kin’. Recent biological studies describing chimerism as two genetically distinct cell lines in one organism not caused by transplantation, invites further questions regarding the stability of kinship ideology. The aim of the article is to argue, with anthropologists and feminist science studies scholars, that the western understanding of kinship relies upon a problematic use of ‘nature’, and that this dependence necessarily produces shifting and contradictory definitions of kinship.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Hird

2004

Sexualities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Um zu untersuchen, wie sich Betreuende zum Subjekt 24-Stunden-Betreuerinnen werden und sich als solches materialisieren, bezieht sich die hier präsentierte Abhandlung auf Erkenntnisse aus feministischer und post-strukturalistischer Forschung zu Körper, Materialität und Geschlecht (Barad, 2003;Hird, 2003). Diese zeigen, wie sich Sprache, Diskurs und Aspekte des Körperlichen, der Materialität und Praxis gegenseitig ergänzen (Shepherd, 2006;Van der Tuin, 2010).…”

Section: Theoretische Ausführungen: Körper Materialisierung Und Machtunclassified

Bodies That Work, Discourses That Care: powerful narratives of elder care on the move

Pelzelmayer

2018

Gender, Place & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This thesis explores questions of work and power in 24-hour care in German-speaking Switzerland. 24-hour care refers to individual paid care of an elderly person at their private household. While on duty, care-givers live at the household in which they work. 24-hour care is therefore a form of live-in care. Employment or staffing agencies offer and organise 24-hour care arrangements in German-speaking Switzerland. These agencies market around-the-clock care services that promise a care-giver's presence at all hours of the day. They employ or place women from European Union member states as 24-hour care workers, in particular from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The workers spend set periods of time working and living in elderly persons' households. After two to twelve weeks of duty, there is a change of shift. The first care worker is off duty and another care worker looks after the elderly person. This system of rotation allows care workers to leave Switzerland to see family and friends when they are off duty. Thus many care workers commute in and out of Switzerland at regular intervals. Labour rights activists, care workers, regulators, journalists, and academics have identified considerable limitations of 24-hour care, in particular problematic conditions of work. The thesis investigates central questions of work and power in Swiss live-in care through an analysis of the discourse on 24-hour care in German-speaking Switzerland between September 2013 and 2015. The primary data consists of around forty care agencies' descriptions of 24-hour care on their websites. Agency websites are the platforms on which all parties involved in 24-hour care meet-where they receive information and where live-in care arrangements are ultimately initiated. Therefore these websites have been the pivot of the emerging market in 24-hour care. Agency websites are also of analytical significance since they are the spaces where 24-hour care has been most directly outlined and described during the period of enquiry. The secondary set of data treated in this dissertation consists of the discursive contributions by the media, public bodies, scholarship, individual care workers and live-in care workers' associations. Drawing on sustained feminist engagements with work and care, I approached Swiss 24-hour care from a feminist perspective with a particular focus on notions of work, gender, and bodies. This approach has facilitated critical analysis of the complex relations of power which are at the heart of 24-hour care. The thesis investigates the complexity of these power relations in five research papers. The papers analyse discussions of difference and questions of pay, care-givers' becoming of an embodied subjects, workers' political and social participation, as well as the power and limitations of discursive construction in the media. The research papers explore these questions through analyses of central discursive narratives. The narratives include discussions of care workers' so-called heartfelt warmth, reference to care workers as 'f...

show abstract

“…Dystopičtí kritici spojují biologické argumenty s determinismem, esencialismem a naturalizací rozdílnosti, ale nové biologické poznání může nabývat a také nabývá naprosto odlišných forem, jež zpochybňují konformistické předpoklady a existující rozdělení výkladem o fyzické heterogenitě a nahodilosti (Hird 2002(Hird , 2003a. Argumenty nové biologie čerpají svou sílu zčásti z toho, že obvykle odmítají jazyk primitivního determinismu ("jeden gen odpovídá za").…”

Section: Nové Uspořádání Nová Vědaunclassified

Rasializované budoucnosti: Biologismus a měnící se politika identity

Skinner

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper explores the changing role of science in public discourse on "race" and racism, examining the contention that new biological accounts of human life ('biologism') are transforming how differences are lived and understood. The paper argues that recent developments must be interpreted in the context of two earlier periods during which science was integral to, first racism and then anti-racism. The growing ascendancy of biologism has prompted both utopian and dystopian accounts of the future: one in which scientific racism is revived, the other in which science finally abolishes race thinking. These futures resonate socially and politically, but lack plausibility when held up against either the historical experience of racism or detailed examination of the apparent direction of biologism. The paper argues, however, that there are significant changes taking place. The new biology challenges existing notions of relatedness, personhood and the nature/culture distinction, and is altering the terrain over which race is discussed. The paper highlights some the features of this new setting by exploring the emergence of novel expressions of racialized politics that both utilize biology in the construction of identity and see biology itself as a site of struggle.

show abstract

From the Culture of Matter to the Matter of Culture: Feminist Explorations of Nature and Science

Cited by 10 publications

References 39 publications

Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Bodies That Work, Discourses That Care: powerful narratives of elder care on the move

Rasializované budoucnosti: Biologismus a měnící se politika identity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About