USB Journals (Univ. Köln)
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Power and the Gender Binary: Between Disruption and Reaffirmation
No full textThis paper presents an analysis of the implications of gendered language within the narrative world of the fantasy book Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Mass (2015). Gendered language reflects the expectations set upon the normative ideals of the gender binary, which itself is a system of power that is based on normalization and exclusion. This system is destabilized through disruptions. However, the disruption of gender expectations is not sufficient for the deconstruction of the gender binary itself. The analysis of the book’s central female heroine will uncover how power negotiations are inherently linked to a binary gender system. Building an awareness towards gendered language presents the first step towards moving beyond the binary
Review: Lane, Jennifer. “Using Queer Phenomenology to Disrupt Heteronormativity and Deconstruct Homosexuality.” Journal of Homosexuality, 2020, pp. 1-20.
No full textIn lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review:
In her article ‘Using Queer Phenomenology to Disrupt Heteronormativity and Deconstruct Homosexuality’ (2020), Jennifer Lane traces the legacy of the pathologization of “homosexuality” as a “mental disorder” (6). Until 1973, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) contained homosexuality, contributing to the equation of non-heterosexual identities with “abnormality” (6). Lane calls attention to mental health disparities between 2SLGBTQ-identifying persons and heterosexual persons and argues that this is perpetuated by the legacy of pathologizing homosexuality. Although homosexuality has been removed from the DSM, stigma pervades. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology, Lane uncovers the continued ubiquity of heteronormativity as it works in tandem with stigma and its effects on those with 2SLGBTQ identities. Queer phenomenology and its surrounding discourse attends to embodied realities in a heteronormative world and how deviation from these norms can result in violence (Ahmed 160). Lane extends this discussion by situating queer phenomenological frameworks within the health care institution. Furthermore, she argues that the “closet” is a heteronormative tool used to police and punish non-normative identities, ensuring that 2SLGBTQ-identified persons are “kept in line” through violence and stigma upon coming “out of the closet” (8). Thus, Lane is attending to how individuals who may not be ‘out’ also feel the embodied effects of stigma surrounding 2SLGBTQ identities including internalized queerphobia. Experiences of witnessing harm to other 2SLGBTQ-identified persons, the reality of what she terms “a priori homophobia,” can result in the need to hide nonnormative sexual and gender identities as an adaptive response (10). Lane calls for health care providers to acknowledge that most health care settings are institutions that continue to perpetuate heteronormativity and stigma surrounding 2SLGBTQ identities. She suggests that health care providers should use “strategies that center the experiences of patients” (15) and recognize that all 2SLGBTQ patients have a history of accumulated harms
Review: Exploring the Unexplored and the Unexplorable in Lisa Baraitser’s Maternal Encounters. The Ethics of Interruption
No full textIn lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review:
In this book I seek to articulate the potential within maternity for new experiences, sensations, moods, sensibilities, intensities, kinetics, tinglings, janglings, emotions, thoughts, perceptions; new coagulations of embodied and relational modes. I try to pay attention to the ways that motherhood may allow the generation of new ‘raw materials’ for experiencing ourselves, others and our worlds. [...]. I take as my starting point some rather mundane and usually overlooked moments of maternal experience that appear to trip us up, or throw us ‘off the subject’. It is to moments of undoing, I argue, that we need to apply ourselves theoretically, if we are to try to glimpse something we may term maternal subjectivity (p. 3)
Automation and its Discontents: Leveraging Automation to Safeguard Humanity
No full textThis paper examines strategies for establishing a long-lasting ban on advanced AI research to mitigate existential risks from artificial intelligence. We evaluate Cappelen, Goldstein, and Hawthorne’s proposal to leverage AI accidents as warning shots and find it faces substantial ethical and practical challenges. As an alternative, we propose leveraging social unrest from rapid AI-driven automation. We argue that widespread job displacement could mobilise global labour movements against AI advancement, creating sufficient political pressure for an enforceable international ban on frontier AI research, and that this offers a more viable path to human survial in the face of advanced AI than current alternatives
What is growth? A plural-economic approach
No full textWirtschaftswachstum ist nicht nur ein zentrales Konzept der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, sondern auch ein dominierendes Element im politischen und gesellschaftlichen Diskurs. Trotz seiner allgegenwärtigen Präsenz bleiben die genaue Bedeutung, die historische Genese sowie die Implikationen unterschiedlicher Auffassungen von Wachstum oft unklar. Dieser Beitrag nähert sich der Frage „Was ist Wachstum?” aus einer pluralen Perspektive und zeigt auf, wie verschiedene ökonomische Paradigmen das Konzept unterschiedlich verstehen und bewerten.
Dazu wird zunächst der Aufstieg des sogenannten „Wachstumsparadigmas” seit Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts beschrieben. Anschließend werden vier zentrale wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Denkschulen hinsichtlich ihrer Analyse und Bewertung des Wachstumsbegriffs kontrastiert: die Mainstream-Ökonomik, die postkeynesianische Ökonomik, die ökologische Ökonomik und die feministische Ökonomik. Dabei wird deutlich, dass sich diese Paradigmen sowohl in ihrem grundlegenden Wachstumsverständnis als auch in der Erklärung von Wachstumsmechanismen teilweise fundamental unterscheiden.
Während die Mainstream-Ökonomik und die postkeynesianische Ökonomik das Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) als zentrale Messgröße verwenden und Wachstum überwiegend positiv bewerten, stellen die ökologische und die feministische Ökonomik diese BIP-Fokussierung grundsätzlich infrage. Sie kritisieren die Nicht-Berücksichtigung von Sorgearbeit, Umweltschäden und sozialer Reproduktion und entwickeln alternative Wohlstandsmaße.
Die vergleichende Analyse der vier Paradigmen mündet in eine Diskussion der aktuellen Kontroverse zwischen „Green Growth“- und „Degrowth“-Ansätzen im Kontext der sozial-ökologischen Vielfachkrise. Das Kapitel zeigt, dass ein pluralistisches Verständnis von Wachstum notwendig ist, um reflektierte Entscheidungen über die Rolle des Wachstums in einer nachhaltigen Zukunft treffen zu können.Economic growth is not only a key idea in economics but also a prominent theme in political and social discourses. Despite its ubiquitous presence, the exact meaning, history, and effects of different ideas of growth often remain unclear. This article takes a pluralistic approach to answer the question "What is growth?" Thereby, it explains how various economic paradigms understand and assess the concept differently.
First, it discusses the rise of the "growth paradigm" since the mid-20th century. Then, it compares four main schools of economic thought—mainstream economics, post-Keynesian economics, ecological economics, and feminist economics—in how they analyze and evaluate the idea of growth. It becomes clear that these paradigms fundamentally differ in their basic understanding of growth and how they explain growth mechanisms.
While mainstream and post-Keynesian economists rely on gross domestic product (GDP) as the main measure and see growth as mostly positive, ecological and feminist economists fundamentally challenge this focus on GDP. These perspectives criticize the neglect of care work, environmental harm, and social reproduction, and they advocate alternative ways to measure prosperity.
A comparative analysis of these four paradigms leads to a discussion of the ongoing debate between "green growth" and "degrowth" approaches amid various social and ecological crises. Thereby, this chapter emphasizes the need for a pluralistic view of growth to enable informed and self-reflective decisions about its role in a sustainable future
