The Productive Power of Ambiguity: Rethinking Homosexuality through the Virtual and Developmental Systems Theory

Hypatia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-53
Author(s):  
Ann Burlein
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems

The Productive Power of Ambiguity: Rethinking Homosexuality through the Virtual and Developmental Systems Theory

Hypatia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Burlein
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Developmental System ◽  
Economic Profit

This paper juxtaposes Deleuze's notion of the virtual alongside Oyama's notion of a developmental system in order to explore the promises and perils of thinking bodily identity as indeterminate at a time when new technologies render bodily ambiguity increasingly productive of both economic profit and power relations.

scholarly journals The Power and Promise of Developmental Systems Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letitia Meynell
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Political Theories

I argue that it is time for many feminists to rethink their attitudes towards evolutionary biology, not because feminists have been wrong to be deeply sceptical about many of its claims, both explicit and implicit, but because biology itself has changed. A new appreciation for the importance of development in biology has become mainstream and a new ontology, associated with developmental systems theory (DST), has been introduced over the last two decades. This turn challenges some of the features of evolutionary biology that have most troubled feminists. DST undermines the idea of biological essences and challenges both nature/nurture and nature/culture distinctions. Freed from these conceptual constraints, evolutionary biology no longer poses the problems that have justified feminist scepticism. Indeed, feminists have already found useful applications for DST and I argue that they should expand their use of DST to support more radical and wide-ranging political theories.

Feminism and rethinking our models of the self

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Meehan
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Starting Point

In this article I argue that Butler and Benhabib work with models of the self that should be jettisoned. Butler relies on what I call the outside-to-inside model, while Benhabib shuttles between an outside-to-inside and an inside-to-outside model. Because of the inherent limitations of these models neither can do what both authors set out to do, which is to describe the ontogeny of the self. I trace their discussions over the course of their writings and then propose that the notion of emergence that one finds in Developmental Systems Theory offers a much better starting point for account of the nature and development of the self.

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