Biopower and an ecology of genes : seeing livestock as meat via genetics

This book chapter focuses on some of the implications of what has been represented as a radical change in livestock breeding for thinking about meat in relation to living farm animals: the use of genetic techniques in selecting breeding animals. The chapter draws on Foucault’s theorisation of biopower to describe some of the key dimensions of this shift, articulating this concept with an argument that breeders’ engagement with these techniques is part of a changing political ecology of livestock farming at the inter-related scales of the gene, the body, the herd or flock, the farm and the meat production system

Biopower and an ecology of genes : seeing livestock as meat via genetics

This book chapter focuses on some of the implications of what has been represented as a radical change in livestock breeding for thinking about meat in relation to living farm animals: the use of genetic techniques in selecting breeding animals. The chapter draws on Foucault’s theorisation of biopower to describe some of the key dimensions of this shift, articulating this concept with an argument that breeders’ engagement with these techniques is part of a changing political ecology of livestock farming at the inter-related scales of the gene, the body, the herd or flock, the farm and the meat production system

Sonoro cristal: Pedro Soto de Rojas and the Eloquent Galatea

This article considers the early reception of Góngora's Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea by analysing the Baroque mythological fable `Fábula de la Naya' from Pedro Soto de Rojas' Desengaño de amor en rimas (1623). I argue that Soto restores the prominence of Galatea, as depicted in the classical versions of the myth, by placing the Gongorist Polyphemic lament in the mouth of a female protagonist. The self-authored notes which accompany Soto's fable gesture towards an ambitious metapoetic agenda, which places the Naiad at the heart of his directed reading. The fragile eloquence with which this female speaker is invested works against this collection's overall movement towards closure and containment. Soto's Fábula may be read as a sylvan intersection in terms of seventeenth-century literary controversy; Naya, and her union with the conventional Fenixardo, becomes the poetic embodiment of a tense dialogue between poetic tradition and innovation

Researching in-between experience and reality

In this article, we draw on LORENZER's method in our analysis of a single case data extract derived from a research project generating data through the Tavistock Infant Observation tradition. The partial case analysis demonstrates our methodological approach and explores conceptual territory at the meeting point of German and British psychoanalytically-informed traditions. Our scenic composition synthesised key elements of one observation visit to the home of a young black first-time mother in London. LORENZER's advice to the cultural analyst to explore what irritates or provokes in the scene has something in common with the way that observers in the infant observation tradition use their emotional responses and process their experience. The aim is to provide access to what WINNICOTT described as an intermediate area of experience and LORENZER considered "in-between". We explore this area through two provocations in our scenic composition. Using these data examples we ask: is it possible to conceptualise collective, societal-cultural unconscious processes (LORENZER's gesellschaftlich-kollektives Unbewußtes, 1986) within this intermediate area? Specifically, how is racial and class difference present in the scene? How can it be located through scenic understanding of research data? And why does it matter

The initial stage of the international sojourn: excitement or culture shock?

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of the adjustment journey of international postgraduate students at a university in the South of England, which involved interviews and participant observation over a twelve-month academic year. It was discovered that the initial stage of the sojourn was not characterized by feelings of excitement, as suggested by the U-Curve model (and its successors): though such feelings were present, they were overwhelmed by negative symptoms more commonly associated with culture shock. The implications of these findings for support structures in Higher Education are discussed

Contesting Genetic Knowledge-Practices in Livestock Breeding: Biopower, Biosocial Collectivities, and Heterogeneous Resistances

Cattle and sheep breeders in the UK and elsewhere increasingly draw on genetic techniques in order to make breeding decisions. Many breeders support such techniques, while others argue against them for a variety of reasons, including their preference for the ‘traditions' of visual-based and pedigree-based selections. Meanwhile, even for those institutions and breeders who promote genetic techniques, the outcomes are not always as predicted. We build on our recent use of Foucault's discussions of biopower to examine the effects of the introduction of genetic techniques in UK livestock breeding in order to begin to explore the diffuse and capillary nature of resistance within relations of biopower. We focus specifically on how resistance and contestation can be understood through the joint lenses of biopower and an understanding of livestock breeding as knowledge-practices enacted within heterogeneous biosocial collectivities. In some instances these collectivities coalesce around shared endeavour, such as increasing the valency of genetic evaluation within livestock breeding. Yet such mixed collectivities also open up opportunities for counter-conduct: heterogeneous resistances to and contestations of genetic evaluation as something represented as progressive and inevitable. We focus on exploring such modes of resistance using detailed empirical research with livestock breeders and breeding institutions. We demonstrate how in different and specific ways geneticisation becomes problematised, and is contested and made more complex, through the knowledge-practices of breeders, the bodies of animals, and the complex relationships between different institutions in livestock breeding and rearing

Integrated breathing and relaxation training (the Papworth method) for adults with asthma in primary care: a randomised controlled trial

Background: An integrated breathing and relaxation technique known as the Papworth method has been implemented by physiotherapists since the 1960s for patients with asthma and dysfunctional breathing, but no controlled trials have been reported. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Papworth method in a randomised controlled trial.Methods: Eighty-five patients (36 men) were individually randomised to the control group (n = 46) or to the intervention group receiving five sessions of treatment by the Papworth method (n = 39). Both groups received usual medical care. Assessments were undertaken at baseline, post-treatment (6 months after baseline) and at 12 months. The primary outcome measure was the St George's Respiratory Symptoms Questionnaire (SGRQ). Secondary outcome measures included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Nijmegen dysfunctional breathing questionnaire and objective measures of respiratory function.Results: Post-treatment and 12 month data were available for 78 and 72 patients, respectively. At the post-treatment assessment the mean (SD) score on the SGRQ Symptom subscale was 21.8 (18.1) in the intervention group and 32.8 (20.1) in the control group (p = 0.001 for the difference). At the 12 month follow-up the corresponding figures were 24.9 (17.9) and 33.5 (15.9) (p = 0.007 for the difference). SGRQ Total scores and HADS and Nijmegen scores were similarly significantly lower in the intervention group than in the control group. The groups did not differ significantly following the treatment on objective measures of respiratory function except for relaxed breathing rate.Conclusions: The Papworth method appears to ameliorate respiratory symptoms, dysfunctional breathing and adverse mood compared with usual care. Further controlled trials are warranted to confirm this finding, assess the effect in other patient groups and determine whether there is some effect on objective measures of respiratory function

The murky waters of neoliberal marketization and commodification on the education of adults in the United States

We approach marketization and commodification of adult education from multiple lenses including our personal narratives and neoliberalism juxtaposed against the educational philosophy of the Progressive Period. We argue that adult education occurs in many arenas including the public spaces found in social movements, community-based organizations, and government sponsored programs designed to engage and give voice to all citizens toward building a stronger civil society. We conclude that only when adult education is viewed from the university lens, where it focuses on the individual and not the public good, does it succumb to neoliberal forces. (DIPF/Orig.