Encontres glacials: una geopolítica feminista sobre el canvi climàtic

El canvi climàtic exigeix que repensem l'ordre polític global desenvolupant una formulació i una pràctica de la geopolítica que prengui seriosament el dinamisme dels sistemes de la Terra i els seus efectes diferencials. Es tracta d'una geopolítica que no només requereix que repensem el que constitueix el geo sinó que repensem també què es fa i en què consisteix la política. Mitjançant estudis de cas extrets de l'organització artística britànica sobre el canvi climàtic, Cape Farewell, i en concret dels seus viatges per l'Àrtic, analitzem la manera com les pràctiques geoestètiques ofereixen una via per experimentar amb la manera de pensar sobre una reformulació geopolítica com aquesta. Per tal d'aprofundir en aquest argument, acostem la recerca contemporània sobre la geopolítica dels elements a una obra més àmplia l'objectiu de la qual és re-formular el geo com a força política. Si ens prenem seriosament els reptes múltiples que aquesta proposta planteja pel que fa als mètodes, a les concepcions de la política d'allò que és intra i inhumà, i a les composicions de les relacions corporals, anem cap als estudis geopolítics feministes en què els cossos –humans i no humans– són un indret geopolític important. Experimentant amb la geoestètica com a eina per pensar i sentir, no argumentem que la geopolítica feminista del canvi climàtic que proposem sigui l'única geopolítica feminista possible; ni tampoc tenim totes les respostes als problemes que planteja el fet de prendre's seriosament el geo dins de la formulació de la geopolítica. No obstant això, sí que ofereix un punt de partida productiu i provocatiu per començar a crear una geopolítica adient als reptes del canvi climàtic.Climate change requires that we rethink the global order of politics by developing a formulation and practice of geopolitics that takes seriously the dynamism of earth's systems and their differential effects. This is a geopolitics that not only demands we rethink what constitutes the ‘geo' but also that we rethink how we understand what ‘politics' is, does and consists of. Using case studies drawn from the UK climate change arts organization Cape Farewell, and in particular their Arctic voyages, I explore how geoaesthetic practices offer a way to experiment with thinking such a geopolitical reformulation. In order to advance this contention, I draw contemporary scholarship on elemental geopolitics together with broader work that aims to reframe the ‘geo' as a political force. Taking seriously the manifold challenges that such a proposition poses to methods, to understandings of the politics of the intra and inhuman, and to compositions of bodily relations, I turn to feminist geopolitical scholarship where bodies –human and non-human– are an important geopolitical site. Experimenting with geoaesthetics as tools to think and feel with, I don't claim that the feminist ‘geo'politics of climate change proposed is the only possible feminist geopolitics, nor does it have all the answers to the problems posed by taking seriously the ‘geo' within formulations of geopolitics. It does however; offer a productive and provocative place from which to begin to create geopolitics adequate to the challenges of climate change.El cambio climático exige repensar el orden político global desarrollando una formulación y una práctica de la geopolítica que tome en serio el dinamismo de los sistemas de la Tierra y sus efectos diferenciales. Se trata de una geopolítica que no sólo requiere repensar lo que constituye el geo sino repensar también que se hace y en qué consiste la política. Mediante estudios de caso extraídos de la organización artística británica sobre el cambio climático, Cape Farewell, y en concreto de sus viajes por el Ártico, analizamos la forma en que las prácticas geoestètiques ofrecen una vía para experimentar con la forma de pensar sobre una reformulación geopolítica como ésta. Para profundizar en este argumento, acercamos la investigación contemporánea sobre la geopolítica de los elementos a una obra más amplia el objetivo es re-formular el geo como fuerza política. Si nos tomamos en serio los retos múltiples que esta propuesta plantea en cuanto a los métodos, a las concepciones de la política de lo intra e inhumano, y en las composiciones de las relaciones corporales, vamos hacia los estudios geopolíticos feministas en que los cuerpos –humanos y no humanos– son un lugar geopolítico importante. Experimentando con la geoestètica como herramienta para pensar y sentir, no argumentamos que la geopolítica feminista del cambio climático que proponemos sea la única geopolítica feminista posible; ni tampoco tenemos todas las respuestas a los problemas que plantea el hecho de tomar en serio el geo dentro de la formulación de la geopolítica. Sin embargo, sí que ofrece un punto de partida productivo y provocativo para empezar a crear una geopolítica adecuada a los retos del cambio climático

Increasing frailty is associated with higher prevalence and reduced recognition of delirium in older hospitalised inpatients: results of a multi-centre study

Purpose: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder delineated by an acute change in cognition, attention, and consciousness. It is common, particularly in older adults, but poorly recognised. Frailty is the accumulation of deficits conferring an increased risk of adverse outcomes. We set out to determine how severity of frailty, as measured using the CFS, affected delirium rates, and recognition in hospitalised older people in the United Kingdom. Methods: Adults over 65 years were included in an observational multi-centre audit across UK hospitals, two prospective rounds, and one retrospective note review. Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), delirium status, and 30-day outcomes were recorded. Results: The overall prevalence of delirium was 16.3% (483). Patients with delirium were more frail than patients without delirium (median CFS 6 vs 4). The risk of delirium was greater with increasing frailty [OR 2.9 (1.8–4.6) in CFS 4 vs 1–3; OR 12.4 (6.2–24.5) in CFS 8 vs 1–3]. Higher CFS was associated with reduced recognition of delirium (OR of 0.7 (0.3–1.9) in CFS 4 compared to 0.2 (0.1–0.7) in CFS 8). These risks were both independent of age and dementia. Conclusion: We have demonstrated an incremental increase in risk of delirium with increasing frailty. This has important clinical implications, suggesting that frailty may provide a more nuanced measure of vulnerability to delirium and poor outcomes. However, the most frail patients are least likely to have their delirium diagnosed and there is a significant lack of research into the underlying pathophysiology of both of these common geriatric syndromes

Nano-art, dynamic matter and the sight/sound of touch

This paper offers an auto-ethnographic account of Midas, an immersive bio-media installation created by artist Paul Thomas. The experiences of the installation provide a stepping-off point for a discussion of the corporeal geographies and the nano-imaginaries that the work develops. Understanding the senses as a principle means whereby the body mingles with the world and with itself, we begin from a focus on Midas’s presentation of the inter-relations of touch, vision and hearing, thereby extending geographical thinking on aurality, but also reworking the immersive geographies that are implicated within ontologies of touch. We draw out these geographies by way of the depths and passages of Irigaray’s (1993) fluid ontology of touch. From here we explore the ‘creative rethinking’ of matter that the installation develops, exploring the organismic topographies that it develops which stand against nano-imaginaries of matter that are focused either on the corporeal violence of nano-splatter, or the understanding of nanotechnologies through the mastery and control of matter

The power of lament: Reckoning with loss in an urban forest

This paper explores the lamenting for a street tree to better understand reactions to ecological loss. It responds to calls for social studies research into how ecological loss is felt and expressed, particularly when that loss and its emotional impact is unrecognised. Drawing on a unique dataset of emails to trees in Melbourne, we consider the most emailed tree, a tree felled despite collective action. Lamenting for this tree is explored as an individual and collective process that includes but extends beyond grief. A lament, we argue, involves shaping and expressing an account of loss that holds others to account. Understood as an embodied and emplaced process, we develop the case for the concept of lament through detailing the feeling, narrating, sharing and placing of loss. We argue that examining lament in this way reveals new insights into lived experiences and expressions related to facing the damage and destruction of nonhuman life and landscapes

Gratitude for and to nature: insights from emails to urban trees

Gratitude goes to the heart of discussions about ethics, care, and responsibility in a more-than-human world. Surprisingly, gratitude remains peripheral to geographical considerations of human-environment interrelations and sustainability. Moving beyond questions about whether gratitude to nature is sensible, we develop an understanding of gratitude that is relational, emotional, and practical (or enacted). We argue that focus on gratitude draws attention to a kind of attachment thus far neglected in geography, as well as enabling a new lens for what people value about their everyday lives, the labour of nonhuman-others in fostering a ‘good life’, and efforts to recognise and reinforce human-nonhuman interconnection. Drawing on emails written to trees in Naarm/Melbourne, we illustrate gratitude to trees for: support of life, aesthetic pleasures, moments of distraction, and solace in difficult times. Whether tantalisingly short or in-depth narration, individually and collectively, the emails demonstrate how people conceptualise and practice gratitude to nature in their everyday lives. Through attending to the power of small, embodied, emplaced gestures of thanks to trees, our analysis also suggests new ways of understanding people’s commitments to nature and possibilities for securing better futures for urban forests

Finding comfort and conviviality with urban trees

This paper develops cultural geographic understandings of more-than-human comfort and conviviality by analysing emails sent to trees living in the City of Melbourne, Australia. The emails arrive from near and far, sharing personal dilemmas, jokes, poetry, confessions, political concerns, and more. These messages provide a unique opportunity to consider how trees become foregrounded in people’s everyday lives. Working through the geographies of comfort expressed in these emails, the paper develops understanding about the politics of dis/comfort by examining how it is generative of conviviality. In doing so, the paper builds on a small body of work exploring more-than-human conviviality by bringing comfort into these discussions. The paper argues this sensibility provides insights into: how and why attachments between humans and other-than-humans are fostered and maintained; how trees shape and are shaped by urban places; and, how comfort, as an overlooked element of more-than-human conviviality, can be politically generative, assisting in the re-imagining of human and tree togetherness

Geographies of Touch/Touched by Geography

Considerable attention within geography has been paid to the physiologies, knowledges and practices that give substance and import to the senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch – and the manner in which these work alone, or in concert, to facilitate particular forms of relations between and amongst people, other life forms and objects. This article takes stock of the manner in which touch has entered into these debates and in particular of recent efforts to place touch, touching and being touched within non-essentialist, human geographic analyses. In doing so it draws attention, first, to studies that have used ‘non’ or ‘more than’ representational theory to emphasise the role of pathic, or precognitive, experiences of place in the production of proximal forms of knowledge and second, to work that explores the inter-play between the ‘interior’ psychologies of intimacy and indifference, acceptance and alienation (i.e. feelings of being in/losing/being out of touch) and the ‘exterior,’ corporeal work of texture and friction, push and feel. We conclude by calling for more critical attention to the work of touch in constructing scaled geographies and the recognition of legal and jurisdictional geographies in determining where, when and how touching takes place, the designation of touching as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and the imposition of penalties in response to touch

Icy Encounterings: A feminist geopolitics of climate change

El canvi climàtic exigeix que repensem l’ordre polític global desenvolupant una formulació i una pràctica de la geopolítica que prengui seriosament el dinamisme del sistemes de la Terra i els seus efectes diferencials. Es tracta d’una geopolítica que no només requereix que repensem el que constitueix el geo sinó que repensem també què es fa i en què consisteix la política. Mitjançant estudis de cas extrets de l’organització artística britànica sobre el canvi climàtic, Cape Farewell, i en concret dels seus viatges per l’Àrtic, analitzem la manera com les pràctiques geoestètiques ofereixen una via per experimentar amb la manera de pensar sobre una reformulació geopolítica com aquesta. Per tal d’aprofundir en aquest argument, acostem la recerca contemporània sobre la geopolítica dels elements a una obra més àmplia l’objectiu de la qual és re-formular el geo com a força política. Si ens prenem seriosament els reptes múltiples que aquesta proposta planteja pel que fa als mètodes, a les concepcions de la política d’allò que és intra i inhumà, i a les composicions de les relacions corporals, anem cap als estudis geopolítics feministes en què els cossos –humans i no humans– són un indret geopolític important. Experimentant amb la geoestètica com a eina per pensar i sentir, no argumentem que la geopolítica feminista del canvi climàtic que proposem sigui l’única geopolítica feminista possible; ni tampoc tenim totes les respostes als problemes que planteja el fet de prendre’s seriosament el geo dins de la formulació de la geopolítica. No obstant això, sí que ofereixun punt de partida productiu i provocatiu per començar a crear una geopolítica adient als reptes del canvi climàtic.Paraules clau: canvi climàtic, feminista, (geo) estètica, art, Àrtic.El cambio climático exige repensar el orden político global desarrollando una formulación y una práctica de la geopolítica que tome en serio el dinamismo de los sistemas de la Tierra y sus efectos diferenciales. Se trata de una geopolítica que no sólo requiere repensar lo que constituye el geo sino repensar también que se hace y en qué consiste la política. Mediante estudios de caso extraídos de la organización artística británica sobre el cambio climático, Cape Farewell, y en concreto de sus viajes por el Ártico, analizamos la forma en que las prácticas geoestètiques ofrecen una vía para experimentar con la forma de pensar sobre una reformulación geopolítica como ésta. Para profundizar en este argumento, acercamos la investigación contemporánea sobre la geopolítica de los elementos a una obra más amplia el objetivo es re-formular el geo como fuerza política. Si nos tomamos en serio los retos múltiples que esta propuesta plantea en cuanto a los métodos, a las concepciones de la política de lo intra e inhumano, y en las composiciones  de las relaciones corporales, vamos hacia los estudios geopolíticos feministas en que los cuerpos –humanos y no humanos– son un lugar geopolítico importante. Experimentando con la geoestètica como herramienta para pensar y sentir, no argumentamos que la geopolítica feminista del cambio climático que proponemos sea la única geopolítica feminista posible; ni tampoco tenemos todas las respuestas a los problemas que plantea el hecho de tomar en serio el geo dentro de la formulación de la geopolítica. Sin embargo, sí que ofrece un punto de partida productivo y provocativo para empezar a crear una geopolítica adecuada a los retos del cambio climático.Palabras clave: cambio climático, feminista, (geo) estética, arte, Ártico.Climate change requires that we rethink the global order of politics by developing a formulation and practice of geopolitics that takes seriously the dynamism of earth’s systems and their differential effects. This is a geopolitics that not only demands we rethink what constitutes the ‘geo’ but also that we rethink how we understand what ‘politics’ is, does and consists of. Using case studies drawn from the UK climate change arts organization Cape Farewell, and in particular their Arctic voyages, I explore how geoaesthetic practicesoffer a way to experiment with thinking such a geopolitical reformulation. In order to advance this contention, I draw contemporary scholarship on elemental geopolitics together with broader work that aims to reframe the ‘geo’ as a political force. Taking seriously the manifold challenges that such a proposition poses to methods, to understandings of the politics of the intra and inhuman, and to compositions of bodily relations, I turn to feminist geopolitical scholarship where bodies –human and non-human– are an important geopolitical site. Experimenting with geoaesthetics as tools to think and feel with, I don’t claim that the feminist ‘geo’politics of climate change proposed is the only possible feminist geopolitics, nor does it have all the answers to the problems posed by taking seriously the ‘geo’ within formulations of geopolitics. It does however; offer a productive and provocative place from which to begin to create geopolitics adequate to the challenges of climate change.Keywords: Climate change, feminist, (geo) aesthetics, art, Artic