egan Says:
November 29th, 2011 at 2:25 pm edit
Not sure if we’re supposed to be posting these, but here are my thoughts on expanded spaces for science and justice. Perhaps openings for future discussions:
1. Universe… and Pluriverses
I’m still holding out for multiplicities: other worlds and pluriverses that are historically constituted, precarious, and aleatory. How to speak about “justice” as shifting practices of inclusion and exclusion, without the promise of a Universe or the melancholy of relativisms? Are “friction” and “grip” good enough metaphors for “things” that might emerge out of, in between, despite, outside of this admittedly too simplistic binary of Universe and pluriverses?
2. Positions and Performativities
From what position do we speak? And can the subaltern speak? This recalls Gayatri Spivak’s work. I would love more room for postcolonial discourses, particularly in relation to “justice” and “science”. Who gets to perform “justice” and science”?
How do we, always variously positioned in different spaces and times, propose/teach ourselves new forms of listening?
Homi Bhabha writes, “the globe shrinks for those who own it. For the dispossessed or the displaced, the migrant or refugee, no distance is more awesome than the few feet across borders.” I see myself occupying both (and more) of these positions. How does that help me/us to reconfigure “justice” discourses (hegemonies of postcolonial theory as well as continental philosophy)?
3. Humans-Nonhumans-Machines
Interesting to learn of Brin’s role in supporting human genome research. Also in light of Gates’ role in supporting rice genome research (models for crop diversity research). I would love to unpack these technoscientific assemblages more: the role of software, the role of nonhumans in the ongoing and largely unquestioned reproduction of human-centric kingdoms.
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