Politics as encounter and response-ability. Learning to converse with enigmatic others

Abstract

ResumenPartiendo de la pregunta de cuál podría ser la política de los nuevos materialismos feministas, este artículo contempla las posibilidades de (re)plantearla en términos de encuentros e implicación, de manera que ya no se basa en elegir y decidir, sino que es «el único modo en que crees que puedes seguir con vida» (Reagon, 1983). En nuestra época de dominio hegemónico antropocéntrico de lo político (Scott, 1999), veo aportaciones importantes de los nuevos materialismos (feministas) al desafío de replantearnos nuestros modos de relacionarnos con los «otros» (humanos y más que humanos), los cuales, sin necesariamente seguir las reglas, constituyen no obstante fuerzas agentivas. Reconocer nuestra dependencia fundamental como seres vivos enredados en mundos humanos y más que humanos ofrece la base ética para trabajar en modos de relacionarse con «otros» que aceptan e incluso adoptan el hecho de que nuestras certezas no permanecerán estables en tal proceso. Propongo interpretar el replanteamiento antifundacionalista que elabora Judith Butler (2011) de las nociones de intencionalidad y agencia política a través de la crítica de Karen Barad (2007), según la cual Butler solamente atribuye dinamismo e historicidad de la materia a la agencia del lenguaje o la cultura. Sugiero reanimar y perfilar el replanteamiento de la subjetividad política de Butler a través de la crítica de Barad (2007), cuando revisa la afirmación de Butler de que la materia es «aquello que provoca y ocasiona». Argumento que esta afirmación impide distinguir claramente entre pasividad y actividad, por lo que permite modificar nuestra comprensión de la subjetividad y agencia en términos de «estar con» y responder al tratamiento enigmático del otro (Basile, 2005 (Reagon, 1983). In our times of hegemonic anthropocentric rule of the political (Scott, 1999), I see important contributions of new (feminist) materialisms to the challenge of reconsidering our modes of encountering "others" (human and more-than-human) (Basile, 2005).

Public Engagement Practices in EC-Funded RRI Projects: Fostering Socio-Scientific Collaborations

“…Based on the theme of social impact, it is verified that the inclusive implementation (and results) of PE practices reach broader communities when the latter ones acquire the capacity to be response-able (Meissner 2017) by adopting a more sustainable way of living (individual level) and contributing to addressing major goals, including the SDGs (collective level). The integration of a socially oriented narrative in R&I both verifies and strengthens the adoption of a human-centric approach; it further results in a relevant social impact that affects both (a) the experts and citizen communities, and (b) the fields of innovation and technology.…”

Goŋ Gurtha: Enacting response-abilities as situated co-becoming

“…This promulgation of responsibility to/for others may be well-meaning, but, as TallBear (2014) notes, it is nonetheless problematic as it targets the symptoms rather than the disease of unequal and inequitable processes and practices. As such, through this article, we develop the argument that ‘responsibility to/for’ Others is an insufficient response to the ethical dilemmas of research in that it invokes and embeds colonial logics that position researchers as capable of agency and systematically excludes Others (Chiew, 2014; Meissner, 2017). It is, we suggest, an example of how good intentions fail to displace power imbalances between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples (Snelgrove et al., 2014).…”

“…Therefore, contemplating academic responsibility as a multidirectional and more-than-human concern – rather than as an action to be taken by settler-academics – is an important task. It challenges this settler colonial political order that systematically positions some humans as capable of political agency and action, and ‘other’ humans and non-humans as invisible, too different, or simply ‘not human enough,’ to participate, act, or speak – or to bear responsibility (Ahenakew et al., 2014; Chiew, 2014; Meissner, 2017).…”

‘Feel what I feel’: making da(r)ta with teen girls for creative activisms on how sexual violence matters

“…Of course, many scholars researching the field of youth and sexual violence work at the threshold of research and activism. Rarely, however, are these practices slowed down and opened up in ways that illuminate and theorize the micro-processes of how change and transformation might occur, or expose and theorize the more-than-human 'politics of affect' (Massumi, 2015) in our research-activisms (De Cauter, De Roo, & Vanhaesebrouck, 2012;Meissner, 2014).…”