Caribbean in/security and creativity: A working paper

This working paper exists as part of a Leverhulme funded network that attempts to re-theorise the everyday negotiation between security and insecurity (in/security) in the Caribbean, connecting it with the forms of everyday creativity that are so much a feature of Caribbean life. The project conceives of in/security in a broad interdisciplinary sense, including everyday experiences of violence, conflict and criminality at a range of scales (in the home, neighbourhood, nation and region), but also including environmental, livelihood and, most broadly, human security

Quantum Black creative geographies:embodiment, coherence and transcendence in a time of climate crisis†

This paper brings together three parallel strands of work—Black Geographies, geographies of Caribbean creative practice, and quantum geographies. The paper begins by considering static linear spacetimes as colonial spacetimes, and draws on Michelle Wright's critique of Middle Passage epistemologies, from Black Studies, to elaborate on this. It then moves through a number of ways in which, over the last couple of decades, I have drawn together insights from Wilson Harris and Karen Barad to explore how quantum mechanics can facilitate a conversation about uncertainty, connectedness, entanglement and the liveliness of always already climate‐changed landscapes in relation to Black embodiment. In pushing briefly into string theory, the paper ends with the possibility of connecting spirituality with materialities, to push towards more politically attuned forms of emancipation

Locating Caribbean Studies in Unending Conversation

This essay works through how seeing Caribbean Studies from my singular location – a Caribbean diaspora human geographer based in the UK but interested in the Caribbean as an area of study – leads to ‘conversations’ with a range of differently located academics, and locates Caribbean Studies in very particular ways. The particular concept of conversation comes through Hall’s (1993) Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture, published as ‘Negotiating Caribbean Identities’ in New Left Review. This routing leads to two critiques of defining one’s own cultural and disciplinary identity through Caribbean Studies, and also points to a renewal of Caribbean Studies, through unending conversations in and with the region. </jats:p

A shape which represents an eternity of riddles:fractals and scale in the work of Wilson Harris

This article undertakes a geographical investigation of the potential application of the concept of fractals to Wilson Harris’ understanding of the relationships between language and landscape. Alan Riach, briefly describing a fractal as ‘an irregular action or shape, such as a cloud or a coastline . . .’, has famously argued that Harris’ poetry and prose (his work notoriously blurs this boundary) ‘. . . is caught up by the shifting fractals of political energy on a global stage . . .’ Retracing this essentially metaphorical use of the term fractal back through its physical geography routes, the article begins by briefly exploring the complex meanings of the term as it is used to describe dynamic geomorphological processes, particularly the changing shapes of coastlines and rivers. Bringing this into relationship with Wilson Harris’ most recent work The Ghost of Memory, as well as his own commentaries on his work as a whole, the article argues that the application of the adjective ‘fractal’ specifically to landscape as it is described in Harris’ work is not purely metaphorical, but usefully describes the conditions for the relationships between language and landscape that Harris has spent a lifetime expressing. This tentative and contested geographical understanding of natural features of the environment as in this way not static but ‘in constant motion and unfinished’ can therefore form the beginning of an understanding of Harris’ critique of environmental degradation as disconnection. The article will end by briefly exploring the potential value of Harris’ work in relation to literature and spatiality. </jats:p

Sustainability reporting as a reflection of sustainability performance

The major themes of the research are how well sustainability reporting reflects sustainability performance and 13 companies were assessed over three years on their sustainability reporting as reflected in their sustainability reports as well as 10 in-depth interviews. For both positive and negative reasons the reports are not always a fare reflection of sustainability performance and those companies well-endowed with accolades in sustainability reporting are not necessarily leaders in performance.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte