Efekt ślepej plamki. Antropologia krytyczna wobec neoliberalizmu

In this article, the authors argue that critical anthropology must inevitably recognize its intrinsic aporia, which can be illustrated by the “blind spot” metaphor. They use the metaphor to point to a cognitive bias that can be described as the tendency to claim one’s own epistemological objectivity and axiological neutrality while ignoring the fact of being entangled in the object of anthropological critique. To illustrate the blind-spot effect they refer to the visible neoliberalization of Polish academia in the last decade. Their aim is to show how critical anthropologists (re)produce the entrepreneurial regimes, power relations, and mechanisms of subjugation that they critique. For the sake of their argument they use theories drawn from studies on governmentality, namely affect theory and the idea of the dispositive.

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Affective entanglements with the sexual imagery of paradise in the Qur’an

Body and Religion ◽

10.1558/bar.16180 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 52-70

Author(s):

Mahdi Tourage

Keyword(s):

Power Relations ◽

Affect Theory ◽

Sexual Imagery ◽

Symbolic Function ◽

Embodied Experiences ◽

Qur'an Commentary

This paper examines affective structures and power formations that are constructed,maintained or contested when the significance of the sexual imageryof paradise in the Qur’an is divided into sensual and spiritual. I take a fictionalstory by Mohja Kahf as an example of a Qur’an commentary that centresgendered and embodied experiences in the text, and contrast it with MuhammadAbdel Haleem’s commentary, who views the sexual rewards of paradiseas allegorical. Using affect theory, I will argue that allegorical interpretationslimit the affective efficacy of the sensuality of the text to their symbolic function,associating spirituality with a disembodied, hence transcendent masculinity.Kahf’s exegesis, however, shows that affect and meaning are not pre-given, butproduced in interaction with the text. I will conclude that configuring the textas sensual or spiritual is not due to any intrinsic or predetermined content, buta product of power relations.

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(Re)Thinking Design with New Materialism: Towards a Critical Anthropology of Design

Somatechnics ◽

10.3366/soma.2020.0327 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 355-373

Author(s):

Michaela Büsse

Keyword(s):

Power Relations ◽

New Materialism ◽

Socially Constructed ◽

Human Material ◽

Design Theories ◽

Critical Anthropology ◽

Ontological Turn ◽

Human Centred Design

The article proposes an empirical and discursive understanding of design as engaging and intensifying uneven power relations. By affiliating with the ontological turn in anthropology, such re-defined reading of design acknowledges design's complicity with extractive capitalism while aiming to open up possibilities to think design otherwise. In recent years, inspired by the resurgence of materialism, abstract notions of design as mediating practice between human and environment have gained popularity. Yet, these more-than-human-centred design theories tend to obscure the material and immaterial infrastructures that still shape human and nonhuman realities. By utilising the example of sand's transformation into land and tracing its journey across sites, actors and continents, the infrastructures of planetary transformation – as well as what eludes them – are investigated. Turning matter into medium emphasises thresholds and ruptures in the human-material relationship and thus transcends both a socially constructed and material reading of reality. Through a historical and empirical relocation of the current more-than-human-centred design discourse, the research presented in this article aims to support the establishment of a critical anthropology of design.

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Cosmopolitan risk community and China’s climate governance

European Journal of Social Theory ◽

10.1177/1368431015579970 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 327-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Joy Yueyue Zhang

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Collective Action ◽

Power Relations ◽

Blind Spot ◽

The State ◽

Climate Governance ◽

Common Problems ◽

Risk Communities

Ulrich Beck asserts that global risks, such as climate change, generate a form of ‘compulsory cosmopolitanism’, which ‘glues’ various actors into collective action. Through an analysis of emerging ‘cosmopolitan risk communities’ in Chinese climate governance, this article points out a ‘blind spot’ in the theorization of cosmopolitan belonging and an associated inadequacy in explaining shifting power relations. The article addresses this problem by engaging with the intersectionality of the cosmopolitan space. It is argued that cosmopolitan belonging is a form of performative identity. Its key characteristic lies in a ‘liberating prerogative’, which enables individuals to participate in the solution of common problems creatively. It is this liberating prerogative that forces the state from a position of political monopoly and marks the cosmopolitan moment.

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Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda

Perspectives on Global Issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders ◽

10.1044/gics3.1.22 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 22-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Brynne D. Ovalle ◽

Rahul Chakraborty

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Identity Construction ◽

Social Theory ◽

Power Relations ◽

Linguistic Diversity ◽

Cultural Organization ◽

Using Data ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.

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