Posthumanist Approach Research Articles

Embracing Complexity

The aim of the article is to propose a posthumanist approach to the issue of (non/religious) identity. Reflections at the intersection between post-humanism, study of religion, and identities help to better understand and clarify how core elements of posthumanism such as the decentring and relativization of the Human and the Anthropos do not mean that human beings don’t matter at all, but they point out a specific, supposedly universal concept of Man. In this sense, central is an intersectional approach to identity and difference. While identity has always been constructed on dichotomies, Posthumanism, following previous forms of deconstruction, emphasizes the multiplicity of identities, their constructedness, and their constant multiple recombinations in innovative forms. An integrated posthumanist approach to the intersection of different aspects and components of identity, including non/religious ones, has the potential for highlighting both the idea that identity is not a monolithic concept, and the risks linked to a reification of something ultimately constructed—as it happens with identity politics, but also with its critics.

Gender Performativity and Unstable Identity in Contemporary Queer Romanian Prose

Despite its importance in the analysis of gender in various research fields, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity circulates in rather restricted academic spaces in Romania, as her gender studies is not yet a wide field of research. The importation and particularization of the discussion of gender as a social construct is influenced by various factors: from the persistent patriarchal structure of a society in which the post-communist legacy is still felt, to the simultaneity of theoretical receptions of works authored by Butler and several other types of feminist discourse, such as Rosi Braidotti’s posthumanist approach. This paper analyses to what extent these theories produce effects in contemporary Romanian literature, especially in prose with queer issues at its core. The paper further examines the way in which the category of socially constructed gender can be used as a tool for analysing the configurations of the human subject as a sexualised Other in contemporary Romanian literature.

Hvordan kan en posthuman museumsdidaktikk se ut?

In the article, a posthuman approach is used to analyze situations that occurred during an art learning program at a Norwegian museum, organized by The Cultural Schoolbag (Den kulturelle skolesekken). The concepts of collaboration and attentionality are employed as implications of a posthuman museum education are discussed. Museum education is analyzed as broad collaborations where human and non-human actors are interconnected. The analysis argues that ethical and instrumental considerations can work together in museum education, and that posthuman education may encompass all types of museum objects.

Affirmative, Critical and Posthuman Approaches to Fascism. A Review of Deleuze and Guattari and Fascism, edited by Rick Dolphijn and Rosi Braidotti

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Posthumanist new materialist pathways for reimagining music education research: What matters? What can this offer music educators?

ABSTRACT Much of historical and contemporary music education research is influenced by a Cartesian ontology of opposition. This reinforces the classic function of music and music education: the exercise of possession, ownership and control. To confront these ideas, our article reimagines music education research through posthumanism and new materialism. In doing so, the focus shifts to making with nonhuman matter, posthuman bodies and the materialisation of music. Examples of cartographic research are discussed to show how the experience of musical environments is constantly reconfigured by human and nonhuman elements. This abandons the notion that music education takes place only in the mind and explores what a posthumanist approach to materiality can offer instead. As a result, normative academic conventions are disrupted by the recognition of in-the-making embodied musical learning, the intra-action of human and nonhuman sound materialising, and the materiality of the body in its experience of music as a play space, arguing that staying with the trouble of doing something new, or swimming against the tide, matters for music educators.

Thinking Planetary About Global Futures: Posthuman Cosmopolitanism

Abstract The link between the global condition and planetary thinking is a crucial one when thinking about the future. Positing itself in the context of future-oriented history and posthumanist and planetary thinking, the essay reflects on a central concept of global thought such as cosmopolitanism, theorizing the possibility of a posthuman cosmopolitanism. Built on concepts such as multiple modernities and secularities, philosophical posthumanism, and non-anthropocentric history, posthuman cosmopolitanism is primarily future-focused, globally rooted, and planetary oriented. Specifically, by proposing as a case study of a sort a posthumanist approach to a rethinking of cosmopolitanism, the essay emphasizes how thinking planetary and in a posthumanist and post-anthropocentric way does not entail, as it may be assumed, a relativization and loss of relevance of “the human” per se, but a more complex web of intra-active relations. By building on the work of authors such as Braidotti, Domanska, Chakrabarty, Simon, and Latour, the essay proposes an original reflection, engaging with a crucial issue such as how to think about a global future that focuses on globality as the product of interconnected, multiple processes and constantly shifting interrelations between human and non-human forces.

The Soul in Preaching

What happened to the human soul in contemporary theories of preaching? The field of homiletics shows a wide variety of themes, approaches, perspectives, and theologies. Somewhere between the social critique, in postcolonial and post-human approaches, and sense-making, in cultural and experiential approaches, the issue of humanity re-emerges. This essay inquires whether and how it might be possible to re-envision preaching as a practice of care for the soul. The essay closes with a homiletical agenda in the form of three conditions for retrieving the soul in homiletics, a hermeneutical, a rhetorical, and a theological condition.

Posthumanism and Darwin in Dialogue: The Evolution of a Contemporary Conceptualization of Theatre and Performance

Over the years, there has been a turn in the academy that is adopted as the postmodern era which encompasses the posthumanist, and a shift within it to new materialist, and affect theories. Human-dominant influence over natural elements such as flora and fauna, non-human animals, material, and immaterial objects is subjected to a radical shift. The innovative understanding of science and technology plays a crucial role in this current wave. Posthumanist thought comes in contact with a human-centered society, however, proposing a decentralized approach to the way humans perceive themselves in the environment. The politics at play here is not anti-humanist but a revisiting and acknowledgment of the environmental entities that make up the human space. Therefore, this paper takes an expository inquiry, querying if the knowledge of Darwin’s evolutionary theory can be applied to the understanding of artistic performance through a posthumanist approach. Also, does posthumanism and the evolution of contemporary performance have what it takes to affect and effect the desired modification, granting agency not only to the human animals but to other non-human entities? Hence, humans must learn to coexist in the ecological space sharing power amongst things, plants, non-human animals, objects, and other forms of technological creations. Methodologically, the online library sources provide primary data for this research with a selection of works by three posthumanist performers to be analyzed. This research is pivotal to the artistic application of biology and technology, as tools in solving contemporary performance-related issues amongst humans, the organic and inorganic matter.

Dilemmas of intervention: From person-centred to alienation-centred dementia care

Discussions regarding personhood and dementia care are often based on practices of recognition; on notions of being—or not being— ‘one of us’. This article provides a short overview of personhood as articulated in dementia care, especially in the assemblage of practices known as ‘person-centred care’ (PCC), and in post-human approaches that developed following the critique of PCC. This article posits an alternative framework, based on a rereading of the concept of alienation, that we want to call ‘alienation-centred care’. It considers the extent to which dynamic prosthetic networks can be adapted to the lives of people with dementia, rather than only examining the individual's reactivity to dementia interventions that define traditional approaches. It further urges us to understand the multiple origins of alienating states. Conclusions explore how this framework might address some of the limitations identified in both humanist and post-human approaches to personhood and dementia.

The Chile is my uncle: Spicy kinship between humans and more-than-humans in the Sikkimese Himalayas

The eastern Himalayan red and green round chiles, known as akubari in the Sikkimese Bhutia Lhokyed language and dalle khorsani in Nepali language, have recently become popular commodities across India. However, they are not only commodities. This article contributes to Indigenous and posthuman approaches to food studies by interrogating the ways that akubari function as kin in rural west Sikkimese cultural contexts. Akubari is a grown from the land and seen as a family member that provides nourishment, sustenance, healing, and flavor for human and more-than-human beings in the region. Even the name “akubari” invokes kinship as a spicy uncle. This article draws on ethnographic research from west Sikkim, local medical and folklore traditions, and textual research into Buddhist and Indigenous ritual texts to demonstrate the many layers of being that akubari invokes beyond its status as a commodity. This demonstrates how local ways of knowing food contribute to food sovereignty in Himalayan, Northeast Indian, and global settings.

Exploring the foundations of tourism geography: between flat ontology and J. Searle’s vertical social ontology

This article explores the theoretical foundations of tourism geography, focusing on the dialectic between flat ontology and John Searle's vertical ontology. Drawing from contemporary debates in the field, it examines the philosophical underpinnings of tourism geography and their implications for understanding the social and spatial dynamics of tourism. The concept of flat ontology, rooted in posthuman approach, posits an egalitarian view of the world, where both human and nonhuman entities possess equal ontological status. Proponents argue that this perspective provides a holistic understanding of tourism, acknowledging the co-agency of non-human elements such as landscapes, ecosystems, and material culture. In contrast, J. Searle's ontology underscores the significance of human intentionality and social structures in shaping the institutional frameworks and practices of tourism. By engaging with these two ontological frameworks, the article highlights the potential synergies, but also tensions between flat ontology and vertical social ontology within tourism geography.

Understanding communicative relationships between caregivers and foreign retirees: a diffractive vignettes approach

PurposeThis article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the methodological approach to studying caregiving in a transnational context by analysing, local caregiver’s lifeworld, informal interpreting/translation and professional communication with foreign retirees.Design/methodology/approachThis project explores the complex and multifaceted meanings of everyday objects through diffractive vignettes to illuminate the communicative entanglements that arise between caregivers and foreign retirees receiving care in Thailand. To identify intra-actions in caregiving, we collected data through informal interviews, observations and various artefacts before combining them in a group of potential communicative relationships by creating a narrative summary of situations.FindingsCommunicative relationships in the vignettes are multidimensional, with diverse logics underlying choices, rapport formation and communication effectiveness. This premise also illuminates how caregivers perceive and intra-act with their accommodation strategies, considering trust, comfort and comprehension. Our findings were also discussed with the concept of communication accommodation theory.Originality/valueAs an extension of the post-humanist approach to the diffractive reading of vignettes, this study sees its value in studying agent-related informal translation/interpreting and human-to-human relationships.

Living with Bears in Prahova Valley, Romania: An Integrative Analysis.

Our research focuses on a complex and integrative analysis of bear presence in four tourist resorts in Prahova Valley, Romania: Sinaia, Bușteni, Azuga and Predeal. Employing innovative mixed methods, including questionnaires, interviews, newspaper analysis, and consideration of the local toponymy, including bear-related names and souvenirs, we aim to highlight the extent to which a posthumanist attitude is evident in the region. The sustained appearance of bears is attributed to habitat invasion through deforestation, road construction, residential neighborhoods, and tourist infrastructure. Ambiguity arises from the presence of food sources and voluntary feeding both by locals and tourists. The mass media initially heightened fear and panic during the onset of human-bear interactions but later adopted a more tolerant tone regarding the bear's presence in tourist resorts, reflecting an openness to the posthumanist approach in Prahova Valley. That is why locals express fear and concern about bear encounters, advocating for a clear separation between animal and human spaces. Tourists exhibit attitudes ranging from unconscious appreciation to ambivalence, often contributing to the problem through practices such as feeding bears for fun. The use of bear-related names for tourist establishments is identified as anthropocentric, despite their appeal for attracting tourists. Souvenir sales, through increasing socio-economic value and contributing to tourist experiences, are also recognized as anthropocentric. However, souvenirs can provide elements of support for bear conservation efforts and the equal consideration of human and non-human entities. This study concludes that a successful adaptive coexistence requires a posthumanist vision, overcoming anthropocentrism in a landscape altered by human activities, supported by bear management programs in Bucegi Natural Park, and conservation efforts in Prahova Valley in a landscape altered by people.

A Posthuman Approach to BrexLit and Bordering Practices through an Analysis of John Lanchester’s The Wall

Kristen Sandrock (2020) connects John Lanchester’s 2019 Brexit novel The Wall with what she refers to as ‘British border epistemologies’; that is, a radical process of re-bordering due to global warming and its impact on human mobility. The literary phenomenon that is now referred to as ‘BrexLit’ bears witness to the way in which borders and the fear to the other seem to impinge on contemporary British fiction. BrexLit is framed by an increasing global interest in exploring interdisciplinary bordering practices. Primarily, BrexLit manifests through realist and/or speculative long fiction, although there are numerous short stories and poetry that deal with this seismic political event. This article proposes to focus on different samples of speculative long fiction born from Brexit before highlighting Lanchester’s The Wall. Posthuman studies offer a convenient theoretical framework with which to approach this specific text where the British border, refugees and the fear of the other are the drivers of the plot. Thus, this contribution will explore alien configurations of refugees in contemporary British speculative fiction and the way in which these texts question Brexit rhetoric in an eye-opening and thought-provoking way, assisting readers to understand the context and consequences of such a profound political event.

Ratty places – unsettling human-centeredness in ecological inquiry with young people

Posthumanist orientations have underlined the need to foster non-hierarchical relations with other-than-human beings to adequately attend to planetary crises and help life to survive and flourish. Since a posthumanist critique towards natural sciences has mostly leaned on questioning the premise of human subjects making sense of objectified nature, little effort has been made to explore if and how scientific research and posthumanist approaches might intersect and co-exist without abandoning their respective aims. In this paper, we analyse a case of ecological citizen science inquiry on urban rats to explore theoretical and practical opportunities for environmental education that arise from bridging the posthumanist call for attentiveness towards multispecies worlds with ecological research endeavor. We reconceptualize ecological inquiry as sharing atmospheres with other animals as well as through its material aspects to articulate conceptual tools to disrupt the subject-object division of knowledge creation between humans and other animals.

Comments

Matthew Greer offers us a powerful, refreshing and thought-provoking critique of posthumanist approaches in archaeology as he sees them through the lens of Black Studies. He asks us to leave aside—temporarily—concerns with anthropocentrism to concentrate instead on the human side of the equation, while nonetheless positioning himself in line with posthumanist efforts to dismantle the human–non-human divide. The crux of Greer's arguments is that posthumanist approaches do not go far enough in distancing themselves from humanism for two reasons. First, humanity remains (tacitly) equated with white, heterosexual, economically well-off men, a single group that forms the scale against which all other people are measured. Second, posthumanist approaches do not acknowledge that racism and related forms of oppression were integral to the emergence of humanism and not a by-product of it.

포스트휴먼 존재로서 어린이의 발현적 연극놀이 탐색

The purpose of this study is to examine through expressive theatrical play that children are rich posthuman beings. This study utilized participatory observation and a posthumanist approach, drawing on van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological analysis method. The study was conducted at Y Kindergarten in Busan, focusing on one class of four-year-old children, from early October 2022 to the end of January 2023, with observations conducted four to five days a week, approximately from 9:00 to 13:00, totaling 70 sessions. The research findings and their significance can be summarized as follows. First, as posthuman beings, young children initiate dramatic play from the arrangement of materials, and in their dramatic play, various theatrical elements such as stories, props, characters, and backgrounds are enacted and manifested. Second, as posthuman beings, young children experience heightened dramatic experiences within their dramatic play, and their unique characteristics are expressed.Third, as posthuman beings, young children establish relationships with materials within their environment. This study is significant in that it views infants as posthuman beings and examines the emergent nature of infant existence revealed in expressive theatrical play. In the future, it is hoped that children will be recognized as posthumans in early childhood education and that expressive theatrical play will be actively carried out.

Mediated by the materiality of spaces

This commentary considers how the special issue ‘Mobilising Language, Gender and Sexuality Studies’ contributes to recent developments in theories that demonstrate the importance of taking a posthumanist approach to sociolinguistics research. While the papers in the special issue show how mobile communities, including migrants, asylum seekers, sex workers and domestic workers, make sense of and participate in different activities in the world, this commentary shows that people in these communities also make sense of themselves with reference to different spaces – both real and imaginary, and both near and distant. Teasing out these aspects, the commentary suggests keeping research about posthumanism, the Global South and alternative ways of doing sociolinguistics at the core of the exploration of the complexities inherent in language practices, gender, sexuality, and individual and collective mobility, migration and resistance.

A Material Culture of Medieval Disability: Contextualising Norwegian Votive Offerings

In this paper, the potential for material culture studies within the history of disability is explored through a study of preserved anatomical votives from medieval Norway left in connection with miraculous healing practices. The Norwegian votives, which include wooden body parts of hands, arms, finger, feet and legs as well as mobility aids, are here related to the lived experience of the physically impaired. Anatomical votives have been interpreted as meaningful depictions of how an individual conceptualised the body part in question, which they sought healing for. Through a posthumanist approach, anatomical votives can, however, not only be seen as solely representational of a body part but as material extensions of the body. Preserved mobility aids, here identified as hand-trestles and a knee-brace, provide insight into the availability of aids for individuals with lower limb impairments in the medieval North. The study of the material culture of disability can elucidate cultural notions of disability in relation to physical impairment. While written miracle accounts have been identified as important sources for the study of medieval disability, their associated material culture is here presented as important data for the embodied experience of the physically impaired in medieval Norway.

The religious materiality of the world in the novel The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

The article discusses the novel The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen’s applying elements of selected posthumanist theories, mainly object-oriented ontology (G. Harman, T. Morton) and new materialism (J. Bennett). It considers the assumption that in the novel, the ontological status of human beings as well as material objects is fluid, as both play the role of a prop and the entity manipulating the prop. The author focuses on the main character’s religious cognitive perspective and her relations with her (im)material surroundings. An attempt is made to point out certain similarities between the religious worldview and the posthumanist approach. To this end, the author discusses several issues related to the dualistic categories of material vs. immaterial, rational vs. irrational, as well as human vs. non-human.