Confronting Inadequacy, Imposture, and Inaction: Ukraine, Hong Kong, and Difficult Knowledge

Abstract

In this piece, I explore the deluge of thoughts and emotions triggered by the opportunity of writing about the war in Ukraine. Thinking with Noddings’s ethic of care, Britzman’s idea of difficult knowledge, Dewey’s and Ingold’s visions on education and commoning, and Probyn’s arguments on writing about affects, I reflect on academic practices of research and writing, what constitutes the urge of responding to the call for papers of this special issue, the affective response it sparks in me concerning my relation with my own home city, and some sense of how to move forward.