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Politics, science and institutions in the glyphosate saga
No full textEMBARGOED – expected end date 10.12.2027</p
Glissant, Deleuze and the Radical Ontopolitics of Opacity
No full textThis chapter engages Édouard Glissant’s decolonial thought via the interlocutor Gilles Deleuze to unpack Glissant’s idea of opacity as a form of negativity that can be productively harnessed by critique. Opacity, I argue, renders possible new modes of thinking, being and acting that centre the dark legacy of colonial modernity but do not remain bound by its epistemic and political constraints. Glissant’s opacity offers an avenue for a critique that strives to both do justice to past and present, and to create a radically different future. To draw out the transformative workings of Glissant’s opacity, the chapter places his philosophy in conversation with that of Gilles Deleuze, who influenced especially Glissant’s later writings. Existing scholarly accounts maintain either that his reading of Deleuze depoliticised Glissant, or that this later work operates in tandem with his continued decolonial commitment. Departing from both, I argue that Deleuze and Glissant developed fundamentally kin ontopolitical projects, which both focus on the primacy of disruptive creativity. The chapter draws out how Glissant’s conceptual pairing of Relation and opacity, which echoes not only Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizome, but also Deleuze’s work on the immanently creative folds of Baroque art and philosophy, undercuts modernity’s boundaries, binaries and lines of filiation from the inside. Doing so, opacity opens a fundamentally different view on identity, otherness and global politics. In the mode of opacity, collaboration and recognition take place without stability, specificity or complete knowledge, offering no point of contact for lineages and hierarchies.</p
Why We Need Working-Class Academics Now More Than Ever
No full textThis chapter emphasises the critical need for working-class academics (WCAs) in contemporary academia, particularly in the United Kingdom. Drawing from personal experiences, it argues that WCAs are essential for understanding and representing the struggles of the working-class, especially in the context of the ongoing cost of living crisis. This chapter advocates for collaborative research between working-class (WC) and middle-class academics (MCA) to foster cultural competency and equitable representation. It also stresses the importance of WCAs in supporting WC students, providing relatable role models and ensuring that academic content is accessible and relevant to their experiences. This chapter concludes with a call for humility and openness in academia to create a more just and inclusive future.</p
‘Restoring’ museum collections to decolonial ends: constraints and opportunities for disrupting racialized marginalization in Southern Africa
No full textThis article discusses the challenges and possibilities of transnational collaborations to ‘restore’
African historic collections to their places of origin. It uses the case of a C19th Botswana collection
donated to Brighton Museum by the missionary Rev Willam Charles Willoughby. Taking forward
debates over ‘decolonization’ in practice, it asks what critical insights emerge through such initiatives,
particularly from the perspectives of African museums in places where collections originated. We
discuss collaborative provenance research and a display in Khama III Memorial Museum based on the
new historical understanding, curated by Lekhutile and Kediseng. ‘Restoration’ is defined here
(following AFFORD 2020) as re-historicizing, re-contextualising and revaluing African historic
collections as part of the material archive of places of origin to enable claims for return. Calls for
repatriation of such collections can assume that in places of origin, people will automatically identify
with historic objects. But in Botswana, the initial reaction to the ‘restored’ collection was surprise – is
this really Batswana heritage? The objects were often seen, not as pertaining to Batswana, but to
marginalized minorities labelled Basarwa/San. To explain this reaction – and the value of restoration
to disrupt it - we discuss how essentialized notions of ethnic and temporal difference persist as an
enduring transnational colonial legacy, perpetuated in museum discourses on ‘source communities’,
in some strands of decolonial writing, as well as in Southern African public spheres and teaching on
culture. Nineteenth century collections, in contrast, can materialize mobile, changing, hierarchical
and differentiated, cosmopolitan, transnationally linked nineteenth century African politico-social
orders such as that of Khama the Great’s capital, Old Palapye. The new understandings of ordinary
life and cultural cross-fusion at Old Palapye materialized in the re-historicized collection showed the
political value of ‘restoring’ digitized object images, as they could evidence inclusive place-based
public histories to challenge racialized marginalization. At the same time, the collaboration revealed
the restrictive institutional realities of African community museums, frustrated from taking forward
their own dreams for decolonizing.</p
Design and fashion: Procrustean metaphors in intellectual property law
No full textThe call for a definition of the regulation of fashion design develops from multiple influences and theories which interpret expressions and contributions communicated by designers, investors, trend-setters, observers, consumers and many others. For each participant, there could be a different definition of fashion design. Conversely, legal metaphors for fashion often do not reflect its variety, diversity and evolution as conveyed through the experience of apparel and accessories by stakeholders. This chapter challenges the current justifications and paradigms that apply to design law for fashion. It does so by way of an analysis of legal disputes emerging from disruptive societal and technological changes affecting the market and value of goods and services within the relevant industry. The chapter questions and rephrases the notions of scarcity and authenticity associated with exclusive intellectual property rights systems. It proposes that any legal recognition of fashion design should effectively accommodate a rigorous understanding of non-conscious design as experienced by creators, audiences and consumers.</p
From belief to speech and back again
No full textOver the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the impact of human rights discourse on the employment relationship and employment rights. In particular, in light of the increased opportunity, or risk, of the public exposure of an individual's life outside of work, more attention has been drawn to the implications of employees’ private life to their place of employment. The purpose of this article is to highlight, advocate for, and insist on a number of principles and issues that seem to be a matter of consensus in general, and amongst lawyers in particular, but which get diluted and even ignored within the context of freedom of expression in the employment realm. Principally, these include, first, a reminder of the strong importance awarded to political speech, or to speech on live issues of public importance; second, that the right to freedom of belief that does not have concrete, objectionable manifestations is a rare right that enjoys absolute, unqualified protection; third, that the distinction between the protection of expression of belief and that of speech is muddled, to an extent inherently, but clearly divisions may be drawn; fourth, that provisions that restrict freedom of speech in employment contracts and handbooks should be viewed critically; fifth, and finally, the possible practical limits of the above principles, by reference to concrete situations, such as close, or even hierarchical, relationships; positions of authority and responsibility (e.g., on probation or promotion committees); and true reputational damage to the institution.</p
Exquisite, golden, fragrant, flaunting: Judith Butler on Nella Larsen
No full textNo description supplied</p
“Emptiness verging on boredom butting up against wanting to die”: negativity, precarity, and affect in Imogen Binnie’s Nevada
No full textThis essay focuses on Imogen Binnie's trans-centric road novel Nevada (2013), exploring it as an archive of queer and trans negative affect. Nevada, this essay proposes, offers an occasion to excavate the nuances, losses, and possibilities of queer and trans negative affectivity. Binnie's novel maps queer and trans negative affects in relation to economic history, revealing how these affects intertwine with those of precarity. It thus registers the impact of global forces in some queer- and trans-centered worlds, highlighting the historicity of queer and trans affects. Further, Nevada is written in opposition to hegemonic narratives of transition, rejecting the ideals of positivity and self-actualization embedded in such stories. In this sense, Nevada plumbs queer and trans negativity, but in so doing, it generates a more open-ended form for trans narrative, inviting the trans subject into spaciousness and porosity. Nevada thus practices a reparative negativity, presenting a paradoxically downbeat paradigm for queer and trans survival and possibility. It offers a resource for scholars seeking to grapple with queer and trans negative affectivity and to map some resources of queer and trans oppositional consciousness in the precarious present.</p
Cannabis use regimens in trauma-exposed individuals: associations with cannabis use quantity and frequency
No full textPeople with trauma histories have an increased odds of cannabis use. Little is known about the frequency or consequences of different cannabis use regimens in cannabis users with trauma histories. Individuals with anxiety disorders tend to administer benzodiazepines in a pro re nata (PRN; i.e., as needed) as opposed to regularly scheduled (RS, e.g., twice daily [BID], three times daily [TID]) manner. Although physicians tend to prescribe benzodiazepines on a PRN regimen to minimize use, this regimen is paradoxically associated with greater use levels. Indeed, PRN administration regimens may increase use via negative reinforcement processes. We extended this older benzodiazepine literature to cannabis by examining regimen of cannabis use among 94 trauma-exposed cannabis users (mean age = 35.1 years; 52.1 % male; 23.4 % with cannabis prescription). Participants reported their initial and current cannabis use regimen (PRN vs. RS vs. both [‘PRN+’]) and their past month cannabis use frequency (use occasions in last month) and quantity (grams/use occasion). Consistent with patterns in benzodiazepine research, PRN (47.1 % of sample) and PRN+ (43.5 % of sample) were more common than RS regimens (9.4 % of sample). Also consistent with patterns seen with benzodiazepines, our sample moved toward PRN regimens from initial to current use: e.g., 100 % of initial RS users switched to a regimen that included PRN use. Consistent with predictions emerging from learning theory, PRN and PRN+ cannabis users reported significantly higher cannabis use frequencies compared to RS users (p's </p
Homecoming or last resort? Exploring children’s wellbeing in situations of displacement and return.
No full text This thesis investigates the wellbeing experiences of Syrian Armenian children and their families who relocated to Armenia, their historic and imagined “homeland”, following the Syrian war's onset in 2011. Around 100 years after the Armenian Genocide, the move has been described as both homecoming and renewed diaspora. Numerous organisations target Syrian Armenians with service provision, many with an explicit interest in their wellbeing. Yet, the notion of wellbeing is often undefined, or its meanings are not shared by all participants.While individual studies on Syrian Armenians exist, children's wellbeing remains largely unexplored. This gap reflects the underrepresentation of children's perspectives in family return mobilities and their mixed experiences of homecoming and renewed diaspora. Additionally, little is known about the role of family support services for these families, particularly the children. In this thesis, I bring the concepts of wellbeing, childhood, and im/mobility together in novel ways, by exploring how a) children, family members, and professionals conceptualise child wellbeing, b) Syrian Armenian children shape and construct their wellbeing, c) wellbeing relates to im/mobility, and d) support services shape children and their families’ wellbeing experiences. Using child-centred qualitative research with ethnographic and participatory methods, I engaged with a core group of 28 children and young people (aged 3-21), supplemented by interactions with 56 adult family members and professionals. Fieldwork was conducted in Yerevan, Armenia, from October 2021 to June 2022.My findings show that understandings of child wellbeing are relational, multidimensional, and shaped by gendered, generational, and contextual constructions of childhood. Children actively shape, navigate, or reject these wellbeing frameworks. Syrian Armenian children encounter various assumptions of unproblematic belonging to Armenia, Syria, or the diaspora. This has repercussions for their wellbeing experiences and im/mobility aspirations and the framing and delivery of support services, which largely focus on adults and their material needs.</p