From paradox to pattern shift: Conceptualising liminal hotspots and their affective dynamics

This article introduces the concept of liminal hotspots as a specifically psychosocial and sociopsychological type of wicked problem, best addressed in a process-theoretical framework. A liminal hotspot is defined as an occasion characterised by the experience of being trapped in the interstitial dimension between different forms-of-process. The paper has two main aims. First, to articulate a nexus of concepts associated with liminal hotspots that together provide general analytic purchase on a wide range of problems concerning “troubled” becoming. Second, to provide concrete illustrations through examples drawn from the health domain. In the conclusion, we briefly indicate the sense in which liminal hotspots are part of broader and deeper historical processes associated with changing modes for the management and navigation of liminality

Minimizing the Dangers of Air Pollution Using Alternative Facts: A Science Museum Case Study

A science museum exhibition about human health contains an exhibit that minimizes health impacts of air pollution. Relevant details, such as the full range of health risks; fossil fuel combustion; air quality statutes (and the local electrical utility’s violations of these statues), are omitted, while end users of electricity are blamed. The exhibit accomplishes this, not through outright falsification, but through selected “alternative facts” that change the focus and imply misleading alternate explanations. Using two classical rhetorical concepts (the practical syllogism and the enthymeme) allows for the surfacing of missing evidence and unstated directives underlying multimodal rhetoric. By stating multimedia arguments syllogistically, a technique is proposed for revealing hidden political sub-texts from beneath a putatively disinterested presentation of facts. The piece should be of interest to researchers, message designers and policy makers interested in the rhetoric of science, ecology, health and museums

L'invention de la réalité : comment savons-nous ce que nous croyons savoir? : contributions au constructivisme /

Traduction de: Die erfundene wirklichkeitComprend des références bibliographqiues et des inde