The way of the flesh: life, geopolitics and the weight of the future

How can a feminist materialism problematise the knowledges and practices of geopolitics, and locate new objects for critical analysis? In the following, I acknowledge how geopolitics as a form of statecraft has been preoccupied with the unruly nature of flesh. I also note how an accounting for flesh as a socio-spatial material has helped to animate both a critical geopolitical inquiry concerned with the inscription of bodies alongside other texts and a feminist concern with embodiment. My response to these developments is twofold. First, I want to query the devolving of the flesh into an ideologically saturated matter that can be examined using corporeal bodies as entry points for analysis. Second, and via recourse to work founded on feminist material philosophies, I want to reclaim the excessive, lively character of flesh. To do so, I outline how the geo- in geopolitics can be understood as an ‘earthiness’ that is concerned, at the broadest level, with differential orderings of and access to life, and especially the matters of sex, sexuality and reproduction, and, more specifically, with a concern for differential renderings of a corporeal vulnerability and obduracy, and the articulation of these alongside the building of a practice-based ethics. Using the example of stem cells, I go on to demonstrate how an emphasis upon flesh as an object of analysis allows for a reworking of geopolitics' traditional foci – such as borders – away from questions of the ‘where’ of social relations and toward the inexhaustible becoming of materials and forces that makes and unmakes such <i>foci</i>

Análisis desde el modelo deductivo de la fragilidad del relleno sanitario ‘Doña Juana’ y la resistencia de sus habitantes

Artículo de InvestigaciónEl denominado Relleno Sanitario ‘Doña Juana’ cuya ubicación es en la localidad de Usme de la ciudad de Bogotá, ha ocasionado graves impactos ambientales y en la salud de los habitantes de la Vereda Mochuelo Alto, que afecta en gran medida la calidad de vida y la garantía de sus derechos. El inadecuado uso de los residuos sólidos y la ausencia de vertederos que sean impermeabilizados, convierte a este relleno sanitario en una amenaza de contaminación. El objetivo del presente artículo es demostrar la ausencia de inclusión y participación de la ciudadanía en la toma de decisiones, adoptadas para mitigar los impactos, así como la poca interacción entre los actores involucrados.INTRODUCCIÓN I. Panorama y manejo de los Rellenos Sanitarios. II. Implicaciones del derecho internacional ambiental en los rellenos sanitarios. III. Contextualización del Relleno. IV. Impacto del Relleno Sanitario ‘Doña Juana’ en la comunidad de Mochuelo Alto. V. Visión prospectiva del Plan de Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos 2016-2027. VI. Conclusiones. VII. BibliografíaPregradoAbogad

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

'The body' has come to represent a key signifier both within, and beyond, cultural studies. Analyzing and challenging the underlying cultural assumptions of scientific discourses of nature have keenly involved feminist theory in the project of uncovering the culture of matter. The aim of this paper is to review the important insights feminists have brought to bear on the cultural constructions of materiality. I then go on to suggest that considering the matter of culture might be both interesting and useful for feminist theory, especially in opening up new sites of analysis of sexual difference. I explore four areas of materiality that might assist feminist analyses in this area: paradigm shifts, boundaries, technology and the evolution of sexual difference.Bodies; Culture; Materiality; Nature; Science; Sexual Difference

Adolescent dating violence and the negotiation of gender

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate psychological, physical and sexual violence in adolescent, heterosexual, intimate relationships. Questionnaires were administered to 487 pupils at two secondary comprehensive schools in Oxford. Data from the questionnaire reveal that a minority of adolescents regularly employ violence in intimate relationships and suggest no significant differences in levels of violence between adolescents of different gender, religious affiliation, household composition or social class. A review of the literature on the use of this standardised questionnaire highlights serious methodological and epistemological problems and questions the use of such questionnaires in future research on the phenomenon of intimate violence. The primary focus of the thesis concerns transcript data from seventeen single-sex focus groups and thirteen individual interviews. Transcript data reveals that girls and boys recount different experiences of reality. The discourse used by girls and boys represents an active negotiation of personal experience and cultural prescriptions of meaning. Peers, parents, siblings, teachers, school administrators and media inform adolescents about dominant definitions and boundaries of gender. These definitions are discussed as 'hegemonic masculinity' and 'emphasised femininity' in which gender is structured as distinct, separate, hierarchical and biologically determined. Girls and boys who employed discourses of biological determinism described intimate violence as inevitable and largely a function of female responsibility. Conflict results from the negotiation of this culturally dominant discourse and personal experience. A minority of girls and boys employed other discourses such as those of socialisation and feminism. These discourses provide alternative understandings of personal experience and social identity which some adolescents may find empowering and represent a crucial resistance to the ascendancy of culturally practiced gender.</p

Coevolution, Symbiosis and Sociology

Most sociological analyses adhere to the Western bifurcation of nature and culture, hampering analyses of ecology. Pressing ecological crises invite sociologists to engage with ecology in new ways. This commentary explores how sociologists might utilize coevolutionary theory to explore the complex intra-actions of matter, culture and sociality. My research suggests that bacteria are a superb example of coevolutionary processes within the biosphere. Through symbiosis, bacteria effectively challenge the conception of autonomous individual organisms interacting with their environment, the salience of humans in biospheric regulation, and collapse the distinction between nature and culture.Coevolution Sociology Symbiosis Bacteria

The early effects of CETA on energy and waste issues: socio-spatial insights across Canada

International audienceIn Canada, the federal, provincial including Nunavut and municipal governments are involved in the implementation of CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) which directly addresses local economic development under the market access and procurement provisions. This project examines the potential effects of CETA on environmental matters, with a special focus on waste and energy services. These are considered key targets in a complex and growing environment-trade nexus. Drawing on an original geographical approach, the study explores the effects of CETA on the definition of energy and waste as services and trade commodities. It questions the early spatial effects of the agreement at sub-central government scales and aims at understanding the potential formation of conflictual arenas around land-based resources sovereignty and governance, environmental justice and responsibility, especially when involving indigenous communities. A mixed quantitative and qualitative approach is currently used to assess the research objectives: text analysis on the CETA document and interviews with main stakeholders involved in the construction, study, and implementation of CETA across Canada as well as local communities. The research objectives are twofold: to map out the visibility, awareness, and perception of CETA across society in Canada regarding energy and waste issues, as well as evaluating the potential effects of CETA on energy and waste services. Our results will help us in constructing an analytical model to understand how trade and legal agreements affect strategic energy and waste flows between developed countries. This project is a Franco-Canadian research study led by the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon (France) and the School of Environmental Studies of Queen’s University (Ontario). Started in 2018, it aims to inform decision-making leaders and main community stakeholders of the tensions raised by the intertwinement of environmental concerns, legislation and policies and the economic goals described in the CETA