Working across difference: theory, practice and experience

Back in October 2015 I had the opportunity to chair the book launch for all three works discussed in this review essay. At the event, Shirley Anne Tate said, “Black feminist theory is the theory”. The comment referred to how it is not ‘just’ that Black feminist theory is typically marginalised within institutional contexts and academic scholarship, ‘even’ within critical, feminist and poststructural work, but also to highlight the capacity of Black feminist scholarship to unpick and destabilise the known and knowable in ways that are profoundly ontological, and which offer potential routes to meaningful social change through the hard task of working across difference. The three books reviewed here by Shirley Anne Tate, Suryia Nayak and Shona Hunter are theoretically rich and complex in breadth, scope and range, drawing on extensive Black feminist scholarship, as well as critical race, critical feminist, psychosocial, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, decolonial and poststructural approaches. Each book is embedded in everyday practices and social processes, offering multi-layered movement across different spatial-social and affective scales in ways that allow ‘big’ insights to emerge from the locatedness and particularity of human experience. They are reviewed in turn and some concluding comments identify important commonalities across the texts

Black British Identities : The Dialogics of a Hybridity-of-the-Everyday.

This study looks at hybridity as an everyday interactional phenomenon using conversations on lived experience, amongst Black British people of Caribbean heritage between the ages of 16-40 who are from London, the Midlands and West Yorkshire. Black British identifications in talk-in-interaction are conceptualised as texts of social practice so as to look at Bhabha's notion of 'translated hybrid subjects' who function within a 'third space of hybridity' where there is a denial 'of a prior given original or originary culture'. The conversations are analysed using an ethnomethodologically inclined discourse analysis- a framework that I develop which is influenced by Foucauldian approaches to discourses, Bakhtin, ethnomethodology and discourse analysis. I generate a model for looking at the hybridity of the everyday in talk-in-interaction, which is based on its constitutive components: statement, translation as reflexivity, new addressivity. Using analyses of the data I show that there is a simultaneity of hybridity and essence in Black identification talk. 'Essence' manifests itself as 'race', skin, roots, community, culture and politics and remains within any notions of translation or hybridity. The third space' is constituted in interactions in which speakers show their awareness of being positioned by discourses and then negotiate an-other positioning. Hybrid identities are critical ontologies of the self, the radical otherness of different from the changing same produced through dialogism, performativity and abjection. Translation as reflexivity shows the dynamics of hybridity in talk-in-interaction as speakers use dialogic analysis to critique their positioning and then re-position themselves within identification discourses to produce new addressivities. These addressivities are hybrid identifications

Creolizing Europe

Creolizing Europe critically interrogates creolization as the decolonial, rhizomatic thinking necessary for understanding the cultural and social transformations set in motion through trans/national dislocations. Exploring the usefulness, transferability, and limitations of creolization for thinking post/coloniality, raciality and othering not only as historical legacies but as immanent to and constitutive of European societies, this volume develops an interdisciplinary dialogue between the social sciences and the humanities. While not all the contributions in this volume explicitly address Edouard Glissant’s approach to creolization, they all engage with aspects of his thinking. All of the chapters explore the usefulness, transferability, and limitations of creolization to the European context. As such, this edited collection offers a significant contribution and intervention in the fields of European Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Cultural Studies on two levels

Adding 6 months of androgen deprivation therapy to postoperative radiotherapy for prostate cancer: a comparison of short-course versus no androgen deprivation therapy in the RADICALS-HD randomised controlled trial

Background Previous evidence indicates that adjuvant, short-course androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) improves metastasis-free survival when given with primary radiotherapy for intermediate-risk and high-risk localised prostate cancer. However, the value of ADT with postoperative radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy is unclear. Methods RADICALS-HD was an international randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of ADT used in combination with postoperative radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Key eligibility criteria were indication for radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, prostate-specific antigen less than 5 ng/mL, absence of metastatic disease, and written consent. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to radiotherapy alone (no ADT) or radiotherapy with 6 months of ADT (short-course ADT), using monthly subcutaneous gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue injections, daily oral bicalutamide monotherapy 150 mg, or monthly subcutaneous degarelix. Randomisation was done centrally through minimisation with a random element, stratified by Gleason score, positive margins, radiotherapy timing, planned radiotherapy schedule, and planned type of ADT, in a computerised system. The allocated treatment was not masked. The primary outcome measure was metastasis-free survival, defined as distant metastasis arising from prostate cancer or death from any cause. Standard survival analysis methods were used, accounting for randomisation stratification factors. The trial had 80% power with two-sided α of 5% to detect an absolute increase in 10-year metastasis-free survival from 80% to 86% (hazard ratio [HR] 0·67). Analyses followed the intention-to-treat principle. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN40814031, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00541047. Findings Between Nov 22, 2007, and June 29, 2015, 1480 patients (median age 66 years [IQR 61–69]) were randomly assigned to receive no ADT (n=737) or short-course ADT (n=743) in addition to postoperative radiotherapy at 121 centres in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, and the UK. With a median follow-up of 9·0 years (IQR 7·1–10·1), metastasis-free survival events were reported for 268 participants (142 in the no ADT group and 126 in the short-course ADT group; HR 0·886 [95% CI 0·688–1·140], p=0·35). 10-year metastasis-free survival was 79·2% (95% CI 75·4–82·5) in the no ADT group and 80·4% (76·6–83·6) in the short-course ADT group. Toxicity of grade 3 or higher was reported for 121 (17%) of 737 participants in the no ADT group and 100 (14%) of 743 in the short-course ADT group (p=0·15), with no treatment-related deaths. Interpretation Metastatic disease is uncommon following postoperative bed radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy. Adding 6 months of ADT to this radiotherapy did not improve metastasis-free survival compared with no ADT. These findings do not support the use of short-course ADT with postoperative radiotherapy in this patient population

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Duration of androgen deprivation therapy with postoperative radiotherapy for prostate cancer: a comparison of long-course versus short-course androgen deprivation therapy in the RADICALS-HD randomised trial

Background Previous evidence supports androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with primary radiotherapy as initial treatment for intermediate-risk and high-risk localised prostate cancer. However, the use and optimal duration of ADT with postoperative radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy remains uncertain. Methods RADICALS-HD was a randomised controlled trial of ADT duration within the RADICALS protocol. Here, we report on the comparison of short-course versus long-course ADT. Key eligibility criteria were indication for radiotherapy after previous radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, prostate-specific antigen less than 5 ng/mL, absence of metastatic disease, and written consent. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to add 6 months of ADT (short-course ADT) or 24 months of ADT (long-course ADT) to radiotherapy, using subcutaneous gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogue (monthly in the short-course ADT group and 3-monthly in the long-course ADT group), daily oral bicalutamide monotherapy 150 mg, or monthly subcutaneous degarelix. Randomisation was done centrally through minimisation with a random element, stratified by Gleason score, positive margins, radiotherapy timing, planned radiotherapy schedule, and planned type of ADT, in a computerised system. The allocated treatment was not masked. The primary outcome measure was metastasis-free survival, defined as metastasis arising from prostate cancer or death from any cause. The comparison had more than 80% power with two-sided α of 5% to detect an absolute increase in 10-year metastasis-free survival from 75% to 81% (hazard ratio [HR] 0·72). Standard time-to-event analyses were used. Analyses followed intention-to-treat principle. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN40814031, and ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT00541047 . Findings Between Jan 30, 2008, and July 7, 2015, 1523 patients (median age 65 years, IQR 60–69) were randomly assigned to receive short-course ADT (n=761) or long-course ADT (n=762) in addition to postoperative radiotherapy at 138 centres in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, and the UK. With a median follow-up of 8·9 years (7·0–10·0), 313 metastasis-free survival events were reported overall (174 in the short-course ADT group and 139 in the long-course ADT group; HR 0·773 [95% CI 0·612–0·975]; p=0·029). 10-year metastasis-free survival was 71·9% (95% CI 67·6–75·7) in the short-course ADT group and 78·1% (74·2–81·5) in the long-course ADT group. Toxicity of grade 3 or higher was reported for 105 (14%) of 753 participants in the short-course ADT group and 142 (19%) of 757 participants in the long-course ADT group (p=0·025), with no treatment-related deaths. Interpretation Compared with adding 6 months of ADT, adding 24 months of ADT improved metastasis-free survival in people receiving postoperative radiotherapy. For individuals who can accept the additional duration of adverse effects, long-course ADT should be offered with postoperative radiotherapy. Funding Cancer Research UK, UK Research and Innovation (formerly Medical Research Council), and Canadian Cancer Society

Foucault, Bakhtin, Ethnomethodology: Accounting for Hybridity in Talk-in-Interaction

Die Theoretisierung von Hybridität in postcolonial studies schließt zumeist die Analyse von Alltagssituationen aus. Ausnahme bilden hier die Forschungsarbeiten zur kulturellen Produktion von MigrantInnen und zur Konsumkultur im Sinne des "den Anderen aufessen". Dieser Aufsatz geht von der Untersuchung von Hybridität als "im Alltag praktisch hergestellt" aus und untersucht dies am Beispiel einer diskursiven Interaktionsanalyse von Gesprächen über Identität zwischen schwarzen "mixed race" Frauen in Großbritannien. Die hier vorgestellte Analysemethode versteht sich als "Übersetzungsprozess", der als diskursive ethnomethodologische Analyse (eda) FOUCAULT und BAKHTIN miteinander verbindet, um die Verhandlungen und Artikulationen von Hybridität im Alltag schwarzer Frauen zu "ent-decken". Hybridität wird dabei als reflexive Bewegung des "Übersetzens" von Diskursen zu Identitätspositionen verstanden, die für die Gesprächsteilnehmerinnen Identifikationsmomente im Gespräch darstellen. FOUCAULTs Diskurskonzept und BAKHTINs Heteroglosia und "Adressivität" (addressivity) ermöglichen es, diese Bewegung in den Gesprächen mittels der ethnomethodologischen "Übersetzung" theoretisch zu fassen. Ausgehend von den theoretischen Konvergenzen und Divergenzen zwischen FOUCAULT und BAKHTIN werden die Konzepte Subjekt, Identität und Diskurs mittels "eda" empirisch rekonstruiert. Die genaue empirische Sicht durch die Lupe der eda erlaubt es, Subjektpositionen, die die Sprecherinnen als Beschränkung oder Ermöglichung ihrer Aktionen oder Erfahrungen identifizieren und in ihren Gesprächen "verhandeln", als Effekte von Subjektivierungsprozessen zu deuten.Theorising hybridity within Postcolonial Studies is often done at a level which seems to exclude the everyday with the exception of its relevance for the cultural productions of migrants and dominant culture's "eating the other". This article uses the exploration of hybridity as an everyday interactional achievement within Black "mixed race" British women's conversations on identity to look at the production of an analytic method as process based on the task of the analyst as translator. This method as process thinks the links between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN in the emergence of an ethnomethodologically inclined discourse analysis (eda) which is called on to make sense of a hybridity of the everyday where Black women reflexively translate discourses on identity positions in order to construct their own identifications in conversations. FOUCAULT's discourses and BAKHTIN's heteroglossia and addressivity allow us to theorise this movement in the talk which ethnomethodological transcription and theory enables us to first pinpoint occurring. The article begins by looking at first, how hybridity as identification emerges in talk-in-interaction through both speaker and analyst translations. Having established this, it then goes on to look at the theoretical convergences and divergences between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN on the subject, identity and discourses in the eda enterprise. Looking at data through the lens of eda means that we must be aware of the subject positions which speakers identify as having the effect of constraining or facilitating particular actions and experiences and there is always the possibility for challenge to subjectificationLa teorización de la hibridación en los Estudios post-coloniales suele hacerse de tal manera que se llega a excluir del análisis las situaciones cotidianas, a excepción de los estudios sobre la producción cultural de in- o emigrantes y de las culturas de consumo, bajo el lema "Comerse al Otro". Este articulo explora la hibridación en las interacciones cotidianas de mujeres Negras de "mixed race" en el Reino Unido, planteando un análisis de sus conversaciones sobre identidad. A través de estos ejemplos muestro que mi método de análisis es un proceso de traducción. Mi propuesta de un análisis etnometodológico discursivo (eda) plantea la conexión entre FOUCAULT y BAKTHIN. Siguiendo esta perspectiva se intenta captar el sentido de la hibridación cotidiana, en la cual las mujeres Negras de manera reflexiva traducen discursos sobre posiciones identitarias para construir sus propias líneas de identificación en las conversaciones. El concepto de FOUCAULT de discurso y los conceptos de BAKHTIN de heteroglosía y "addressivity" (direccionalidad) nos permiten teorizar sobre el momento de proceso en la conversación. Este movimiento se muestra en primer lugar a través de la trascripción etnometodológica y su teoría. El artículo arranca con una mirada hacia cómo el concepto de hibridación que plantea una identificación surge en la interacción de conversaciones a través de dos vías: la posición de las participantes en la conversación y el análisis de traducción motivado por mi lectura de las transcripciones etnometodológicas. Después de haber establecido esto, posamos nuestra mirada sobre las convergencias y divergencias entre FOUCAULT y BAKHTIN sobre los conceptos de sujeto, identidad y discurso, aplicando el método de eda. Esto nos lleva a anotar que percibir datos a través de la lente de eda significa que tenemos que estar atentos/atentas a la posición subjetiva que las participantes de la conversación tematizan como efectos particulares de restricción o facilitación de sus acciones y experiencias. Esto representa un desafió para entender el momento de subjetivación

Foucault, Bakhtin, Ethnomethodology: Accounting for Hybridity in Talk-in-Interaction

Theorising hybridity within Postcolonial Studies is often done at a level which seems to exclude the everyday with the exception of its relevance for the cultural productions of migrants and dominant culture's "eating the other". This article uses the exploration of hybridity as an everyday interactional achievement within Black "mixed race" British women's conversations on identity to look at the production of an analytic method as process based on the task of the analyst as translator. This method as process thinks the links between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN in the emergence of an ethnomethodologically inclined discourse analysis (eda) which is called on to make sense of a hybridity of the everyday where Black women reflexively translate discourses on identity positions in order to construct their own identifications in conversations. FOUCAULT's discourses and BAKHTIN's heteroglossia and addressivity allow us to theorise this movement in the talk which ethnomethodological transcription and theory enables us to first pinpoint occurring. The article begins by looking at first, how hybridity as identification emerges in talk-in-interaction through both speaker and analyst translations. Having established this, it then goes on to look at the theoretical convergences and divergences between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN on the subject, identity and discourses in the eda enterprise. Looking at data through the lens of eda means that we must be aware of the subject positions which speakers identify as having the effect of constraining or facilitating particular actions and experiences and there is always the possibility for challenge to subjectification URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs070210

Foucault, Bakhtin, Etnometodología: Contando con Hibridación en interaciones en conversaciones

Die Theoretisierung von Hybridität in postcolonial studies schließt zumeist die Analyse von Alltagssituationen aus. Ausnahme bilden hier die Forschungsarbeiten zur kulturellen Produktion von MigrantInnen und zur Konsumkultur im Sinne des "den Anderen aufessen". Dieser Aufsatz geht von der Untersuchung von Hybridität als "im Alltag praktisch hergestellt" aus und untersucht dies am Beispiel einer diskursiven Interaktionsanalyse von Gesprächen über Identität zwischen schwarzen "mixed race" Frauen in Großbritannien. Die hier vorgestellte Analysemethode versteht sich als "Übersetzungsprozess", der als diskursive ethnomethodologische Analyse (eda) FOUCAULT und BAKHTIN miteinander verbindet, um die Verhandlungen und Artikulationen von Hybridität im Alltag schwarzer Frauen zu "ent-decken". Hybridität wird dabei als reflexive Bewegung des "Übersetzens" von Diskursen zu Identitätspositionen verstanden, die für die Gesprächsteilnehmerinnen Identifikationsmomente im Gespräch darstellen. FOUCAULTs Diskurskonzept und BAKHTINs Heteroglosia und "Adressivität" (addressivity) ermöglichen es, diese Bewegung in den Gesprächen mittels der ethnomethodologischen "Übersetzung" theoretisch zu fassen. Ausgehend von den theoretischen Konvergenzen und Divergenzen zwischen FOUCAULT und BAKHTIN werden die Konzepte Subjekt, Identität und Diskurs mittels "eda" empirisch rekonstruiert. Die genaue empirische Sicht durch die Lupe der eda erlaubt es, Subjektpositionen, die die Sprecherinnen als Beschränkung oder Ermöglichung ihrer Aktionen oder Erfahrungen identifizieren und in ihren Gesprächen "verhandeln", als Effekte von Subjektivierungsprozessen zu deuten. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0702107Theorising hybridity within Postcolonial Studies is often done at a level which seems to exclude the everyday with the exception of its relevance for the cultural productions of migrants and dominant culture's "eating the other". This article uses the exploration of hybridity as an everyday interactional achievement within Black "mixed race" British women's conversations on identity to look at the production of an analytic method as process based on the task of the analyst as translator. This method as process thinks the links between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN in the emergence of an ethnomethodologically inclined discourse analysis (eda) which is called on to make sense of a hybridity of the everyday where Black women reflexively translate discourses on identity positions in order to construct their own identifications in conversations. FOUCAULT's discourses and BAKHTIN's heteroglossia and addressivity allow us to theorise this movement in the talk which ethnomethodological transcription and theory enables us to first pinpoint occurring. The article begins by looking at first, how hybridity as identification emerges in talk-in-interaction through both speaker and analyst translations. Having established this, it then goes on to look at the theoretical convergences and divergences between FOUCAULT and BAKHTIN on the subject, identity and discourses in the eda enterprise. Looking at data through the lens of eda means that we must be aware of the subject positions which speakers identify as having the effect of constraining or facilitating particular actions and experiences and there is always the possibility for challenge to subjectification URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0702107La teorización de la hibridación en los Estudios post-coloniales suele hacerse de tal manera que se llega a excluir del análisis las situaciones cotidianas, a excepción de los estudios sobre la producción cultural de in- o emigrantes y de las culturas de consumo, bajo el lema "Comerse al Otro". Este articulo explora la hibridación en las interacciones cotidianas de mujeres Negras de "mixed race" en el Reino Unido, planteando un análisis de sus conversaciones sobre identidad. A través de estos ejemplos muestro que mi método de análisis es un proceso de traducción. Mi propuesta de un análisis etnometodológico discursivo (eda) plantea la conexión entre FOUCAULT y BAKTHIN. Siguiendo esta perspectiva se intenta captar el sentido de la hibridación cotidiana, en la cual las mujeres Negras de manera reflexiva traducen discursos sobre posiciones identitarias para construir sus propias líneas de identificación en las conversaciones. El concepto de FOUCAULT de discurso y los conceptos de BAKHTIN de heteroglosía y "addressivity" (direccionalidad) nos permiten teorizar sobre el momento de proceso en la conversación. Este movimiento se muestra en primer lugar a través de la trascripción etnometodológica y su teoría. El artículo arranca con una mirada hacia cómo el concepto de hibridación que plantea una identificación surge en la interacción de conversaciones a través de dos vías: la posición de las participantes en la conversación y el análisis de traducción motivado por mi lectura de las transcripciones etnometodológicas. Después de haber establecido esto, posamos nuestra mirada sobre las convergencias y divergencias entre FOUCAULT y BAKHTIN sobre los conceptos de sujeto, identidad y discurso, aplicando el método de eda. Esto nos lleva a anotar que percibir datos a través de la lente de eda significa que tenemos que estar atentos/atentas a la posición subjetiva que las participantes de la conversación tematizan como efectos particulares de restricción o facilitación de sus acciones y experiencias. Esto representa un desafió para entender el momento de subjetivación. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs070210