La racialización del afecto: una propuesta teórica

Despite the recent boom in scholarly works on affect from a range of disciplines, scant attention has been paid to the intersection of affect and racialization processes, either historically or in contemporary contexts. This paper situates the diachronic articulation of race and affect–particularly in terms of the historical everyday lives and the political, economic, and material contexts of populations from Latin American and Caribbean backgrounds–in anthropological studies of “racialization” and the “affective turn.” Drawing on a broad reading of both scientific and popular constructions of affect among Latin American and US Latino populations, we propose the concept of “racialized affect” to account for the contradictions embedded in the study of race and affect, both separately and at their intersections. We highlight what we see as the two cornerstones of our theoretical intervention: on the one hand, a conception of “liable affect” results in a simplified, undermined subjectivity of populations racialized as Other, and, on the other hand, a conception of “empowering affect” perpetuates the privileged and nuanced affective subjectivity frequently reserved for whites in the United States and for self-styled “whitened” elites in Latin America.No obstante el reciente auge de trabajos académicos acerca del afecto desde una variedad de disciplinas, se ha prestado escasa atención a la intersección del afecto y los procesos de racialización, ya sea en términos históricos o en contextos contemporáneos. Este artículo sitúa la articulación diacrónica entre raza y afecto –particularmente en términos de las vidas cotidianas y los contextos materiales político-económicos de las poblaciones con herencia latinoamericanos y caribeños– en los estudios antropológicos acerca de la “racialización” y trabajos académicos contemporaneos sobre el afecto. Basándonos en una amplia lectura de las construcciones científicas y populares del afecto entre las poblaciones latinoamericanas y de latinos en Estados Unidos, proponemos el concepto de “afecto racializado” para dar cuenta de las contradicciones inscritas en el estudio de raza y afecto, tanto por separado como en sus intersecciones. Resaltamos lo que percibimos como los dos principios básicos de nuestra intervención teórica: por un lado, un concepto de “afecto vulnerador” (liable affect) da como resultado una subjetividad simplificada, menoscabada, de las poblaciones racializadas y, por otro lado, un concepto de “afecto empoderante” (empowering affect) perpetúa la subjetividad afectiva privilegiada y matizada reservada frecuentemente para los blancos en los Estados Unidos y para las élites “blanqueadas” de Latinoamérica.

The Impact of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Patients Undergoing Oncological Microvascular Head and Neck Reconstruction: A Prospective Multicentre Study

(1) Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) after head and neck free-flap reconstruction are a common postoperative complication. Risk factors for HAIs in this context and their consequences have not been adequately described. (2) Methods: Ongoing prospective multicentre study between 02/2019 and 12/2020. Demographic characteristics and outcomes were analysed, focusing on infections. (3) Results: Forty out of 65 patients (61.54%) suffered HAIs (surgical site infection: 52.18%, nosocomial pneumonia: 23.20%, bloodstream infection: 13% and urinary tract infection: 5.80%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae were the most frequently implicated. The significant risk factors for infection were: previous radiotherapy (Odds ratio (OR): 5.42; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.39–21.10), anaemia (OR: 8.00; 95% CI, 0.96–66.95), salvage surgery (eight out of eight patients), tracheostomy (OR: 2.86; 95% CI, 1.01–8.14), surgery duration (OR: 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00–1.02), microvascular reoperation <72 h (eight/eight) and flap loss (eight/eight). The major surgical complications were: a need to reoperate (OR: 6.89; 95% CI, 1.42–33.51), prolonged hospital admission (OR: 1.16; 95% CI, 1.06–1.27) and delay in the initiation of postoperative radiotherapy (OR: 9.07; 95% CI, 1.72–47.67). The sixth month mortality rate in patients with HAIs was 7.69% vs. 0% in patients without HAIs (p = 0.50). (4) Conclusions: HAIs were common after this type of surgery, many of them caused by resistant microorganisms. Some modifiable risk factors were identified. Infections played a role in cancer prognosis by delaying adjuvant therapy

A research agenda to support the development and implementation of genomics-based clinical informatics tools and resources.

OBJECTIVE: The Genomic Medicine Working Group of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research virtually hosted its 13th genomic medicine meeting titled Developing a Clinical Genomic Informatics Research Agenda . The meeting\u27s goal was to articulate a research strategy to develop Genomics-based Clinical Informatics Tools and Resources (GCIT) to improve the detection, treatment, and reporting of genetic disorders in clinical settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Experts from government agencies, the private sector, and academia in genomic medicine and clinical informatics were invited to address the meeting\u27s goals. Invitees were also asked to complete a survey to assess important considerations needed to develop a genomic-based clinical informatics research strategy. RESULTS: Outcomes from the meeting included identifying short-term research needs, such as designing and implementing standards-based interfaces between laboratory information systems and electronic health records, as well as long-term projects, such as identifying and addressing barriers related to the establishment and implementation of genomic data exchange systems that, in turn, the research community could help address. DISCUSSION: Discussions centered on identifying gaps and barriers that impede the use of GCIT in genomic medicine. Emergent themes from the meeting included developing an implementation science framework, defining a value proposition for all stakeholders, fostering engagement with patients and partners to develop applications under patient control, promoting the use of relevant clinical workflows in research, and lowering related barriers to regulatory processes. Another key theme was recognizing pervasive biases in data and information systems, algorithms, access, value, and knowledge repositories and identifying ways to resolve them

Therapeutic cultures in elite families in Brazil: Life coaching, sociality, and the moral economy of privilege

Studies of wealth and the family have provided important insights into how financial and legal institutions allow the long-term perpetuation of fortunes, such as inheritance and trust laws, as well as examining the role of family offices and philanthropy as practices that upper-class families use to preserve their wealth across generations. Such scholarship has noticed that a flip side of this is that the family, as a unit involved in the preservation of inter-generational wealth, can also be a site of conflict that ultimately destroys great fortunes. Focusing on life coaching as a growing therapeutic cultural form among the wealthy in Brazil, I expand on these important financial and legal practices to include an often-ignored gendered site of elite reproduction: processes of self-cultivation to accrue interiority currency, as practiced by wealthy parents (especially mothers) in the socialization of family heirs. In this article, I analyze the intersection of wealth, gender, and therapeutic cultures, as they contour sociability and social reproduction in Ipanema, a well-known Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood. I draw from the experience of Vera Ferreira de Oliveira, a Brazilian woman from a working-class family in Niteroi who married into a very wealthy Ipanema family in the early 2000s. Through Vera’s life coaching experience with Katia Coutinho, I investigate the material repercussions (imagined or real) of therapeutic projects designed to alter the inner linings of the self and affective dispositions and to shape elite family sociability. Resumen: Culturas terapéuticas en familias de élite en Brasil: Coaching vital, socialidad y economía moral del privilegioLos estudios sobre la riqueza y la familia han aportado importantes conocimientos sobre cómo las instituciones financieras y jurídicas permiten la perpetuación de las fortunas a largo plazo, como las leyes de sucesión y fideicomiso, además de examinar el papel de las oficinas familiares y la filantropía como prácticas que las familias de clase alta utilizan para preservar su riqueza a través de generaciones. Estos estudios han observado que la otra cara de la moneda es que la familia, como unidad implicada en la preservación de la riqueza intergeneracional, también puede ser un lugar de conflicto que acaba destruyendo grandes fortunas. Centrándome en el coaching vital como forma cultural terapéutica creciente entre los ricos de Brasil, amplío estas importantes prácticas financieras y legales para incluir un lugar de reproducción de la élite a menudo ignorado: los procesos de autocultivo para acumular divisas de interioridad, practicados por progenitores ricos (especialmente las madres) en la socialización de los herederos familiares. En este artículo, analizo la intersección entre riqueza, género y culturas terapéuticas, tal y como conforman la sociabilidad y la reproducción social en Ipanema, un conocido barrio de Río de Janeiro. Me baso en la experiencia de Vera Ferreira de Oliveira, una brasileña de clase trabajadora de Niteroi que se casó con una acaudalada familia de Ipanema a principios de la década de 2000. A través de la experiencia de coaching vital de Vera con Katia Coutinho, investigo las repercusiones materiales (imaginarias o reales) de los proyectos terapéuticos diseñados para alterar los revestimientos internos del yo y las disposiciones afectivas, y para dar forma a la sociabilidad familiar de élite.

Therapeutic cultures in elite families in Brazil: Life coaching, sociality, and the moral economy of privilege

Studies of wealth and the family have provided important insights into how financial and legal institutions allow the long-term perpetuation of fortunes, such as inheritance and trust laws, as well as examining the role of family offices and philanthropy as practices that upper-class families use to preserve their wealth across generations. Such scholarship has noticed that a flip side of this is that the family, as a unit involved in the preservation of inter-generational wealth, can also be a site of conflict that ultimately destroys great fortunes. Focusing on life coaching as a growing therapeutic cultural form among the wealthy in Brazil, I expand on these important financial and legal practices to include an often-ignored gendered site of elite reproduction: processes of self-cultivation to accrue interiority currency, as practiced by wealthy parents (especially mothers) in the socialization of family heirs. In this article, I analyze the intersection of wealth, gender, and therapeutic cultures, as they contour sociability and social reproduction in Ipanema, a well-known Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood. I draw from the experience of Vera Ferreira de Oliveira, a Brazilian woman from a working-class family in Niteroi who married into a very wealthy Ipanema family in the early 2000s. Through Vera’s life coaching experience with Katia Coutinho, I investigate the material repercussions (imagined or real) of therapeutic projects designed to alter the inner linings of the self and affective dispositions and to shape elite family sociability. Resumen: Culturas terapéuticas en familias de élite en Brasil: 'Coaching' vital, socialidad y economía moral del privilegio Los estudios sobre la riqueza y la familia han aportado importantes conocimientos sobre cómo las instituciones financieras y jurídicas permiten la perpetuación de las fortunas a largo plazo, como las leyes de sucesión y fideicomiso, además de examinar el papel de las oficinas familiares y la filantropía como prácticas que las familias de clase alta utilizan para preservar su riqueza a través de generaciones. Estos estudios han observado que la otra cara de la moneda es que la familia, como unidad implicada en la preservación de la riqueza intergeneracional, también puede ser un lugar de conflicto que acaba destruyendo grandes fortunas. Centrándome en el coaching vital como forma cultural terapéutica creciente entre los ricos de Brasil, amplío estas importantes prácticas financieras y legales para incluir un lugar de reproducción de la élite a menudo ignorado: los procesos de autocultivo para acumular divisas de interioridad, practicados por progenitores ricos (especialmente las madres) en la socialización de los herederos familiares. En este artículo, analizo la intersección entre riqueza, género y culturas terapéuticas, tal y como conforman la sociabilidad y la reproducción social en Ipanema, un conocido barrio de Río de Janeiro. Me baso en la experiencia de Vera Ferreira de Oliveira, una brasileña de clase trabajadora de Niteroi que se casó con una acaudalada familia de Ipanema a principios de la década de 2000. A través de la experiencia de coaching vital de Vera con Katia Coutinho, investigo las repercusiones materiales (imaginarias o reales) de los proyectos terapéuticos diseñados para alterar los revestimientos internos del yo y las disposiciones afectivas, y para dar forma a la sociabilidad familiar de élite

"Parentalidade Soberana” em Bairros Afluentes da América Latina: raça e as geopolíticas dos cuidados de crianças em Ipanema (Brasil) e El Condado (Porto Rico)

In this ethnographic study with parents living in the affluent areas of Ipanema, Brazil, and El Condado, Puerto Rico, I examine how urban Latin American elites reformulate their understandings of race and classs in relationship to their parenting practices. In particular I consider how these upperclass parents interpreted their relationship with the poor, darkskin women hired to care for their children; those women were largely immigrants from the Dominican Republic, in El Condado, and migrants from the Brazilian Northeast, in Ipanema. I demonstrate how the genuinely positive feelings these elite parents harbored toward domestic workers, in fact, sustained power inequalities inherent in the parent-nanny relationship. I introduce the concept of “sovereign parenting,” as a unique characteristic of this parent-nanny relationship in Ipanema and El Condado.A partir de estudo etnográfico com países residentes nos bairros afluentes de Ipanema, no Brasil, e El Condado, em Porto Rico, examino como as elites urbanas latino-americanas reformulam suas compreensões sobre raça e classe em relação às práticas parentais, `a auto-representação quanto liberais e aos objetivos de socialização. Meu principal foco é como os pais consideravam seu relacionamento com as mulheres pobres, de pele mais escura, as quais eles contratavam para cuidar de seus filhos; essas mulheres eram geralmente imigrantes da República Dominicana, em El Condado, e migrantes do Nordeste brasileiro, em Ipanema. Apresento como os sentimentos genuinamente positivos que esses pais de elite expressavam em relação ao trabalhador doméstico, de fato, sustentavam as desigualdades de poder inerentes ao relacionamento entre pais-babá. Em seguida, apresento o conceito de "parentalidade soberana", como uma característica distinta da relação babá-pais em Ipanema e em El Condado.