Western Epistemology Research Articles

Space technologies for development? Practicing sovereignty, beyond inclusion

The increasing use and integration of space technologies in International Development projects raises fundamental questions about the ways in which these technologies are produced and applied, for what purposes and what ideas of innovation underpin their knowledge frameworks. With reference to two UK Space Agency (UKSA)-funded projects aiming to create an environmental information system using remotely sensed data, this article considers the possibilities and threats of user-centred technology design for the management of Indigenous territories. The team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers grapples with the contradictions and sites of tension emerging at the intersection of the space sector, development, Earth system science and Indigenous sovereignty. Can space science and development be re-interpreted in the light of local needs, knowledges and right to self-determination? While common reliance on Western epistemologies feeds into deterministic understandings of technological benefits, this article presents Indigenous worldviews and practices as integral to codesign and co-implementation of innovations that are both technical and social. It argues that data are grounded and must be kept in connection with the contexts, culture and knowledges that make up a place. Praxis – as a theoretically inspired practice of doing development projects – thus emerges as a worldmaking activity inspired by a vision of design that foregrounds Indigenous sovereignty.

Help, The Women are Naked: Bodies, Power & Resistance in ‘Post-colonial’ Uganda

This paper engages with acts of naked protest in Uganda to explore their effect and affect as a decolonial praxis for both gender and human rights. In this paper, the successes of such rights activism by Ugandan women are made clear. With regard to womanhood, this paper discusses how naked protest questions Western epistemologies of gender in colonized Uganda – troubling an exclusionary and racialized sex/gender dimorphism through its anachronistic performance that relies on bringing a specific pre-colonial power imbued in Ugandan womanhood into a ‘post-colonial’ present. With human rights, this paper proposes that both human rights and gender are inextricably linked and must be read in tandem to truly actualize the significance of naked protest. Where claims to womanhood are made, inevitably, claims to a denied humanness are too. Decolonizing the human in human rights requires reconceptualization that consequentially returns us to Wynter’s question: what does it mean to be human? This paper attempts to offer some preliminary answers by necessarily reading this decolonial movement with an epistemic disobedience and by emphasizing the importance/power of the category ‘human’ in ‘post-colonial’ Uganda. Notably so, the ‘limitation’ of naked protest is also explored, particularly its participation within a colonial framework for the way in which naked protest fails to move beyond established gender boundaries. That said this paper questions whether this circumstance marks an inadequacy or, given that naked protest infuses agentic and political meanings to what it means to be a Black Ugandan woman, a necessary utility. Altogether, this paper is interested in reading the performance of naked protest through a lens that goes beyond the corporeal, or more precisely, that reads this corporeal performance in a metaphysical or macro-societal arena paying particular attention to the ways that it utilities pre-colonial cultural meanings as a source of power to demand rights and lay claim to the categories woman and human.

Decolonizing the Academic Study of Science and Religion? Engaging Wynter’s Epistemic Disobedience

With roots in the early 1960s, decoloniality as a sub-sect of postcolonial studies made successful attempts at redefining and unearthing essentially Western conceptualizations of knowledge and knowledge formation across different fields of endeavor. Many academic disciplines have benefited from decolonial studies’ self-reflective theories and deconstructive approaches, and religion and science should not be an exception. Within religion and science as an academic field, Western and European intellectual frames have been overwhelmingly presented as definitive of globalized perspectives and knowledge, especially the definition of “religion” and “science” within the academic field. The subtle but evident impact of adopting Western epistemology as ‘the’ definitive reference frame for all peoples and cultures is the transposition of colonial and overtly Eurocentric conceptualizations and definitions of what religion and science mean as perfunctory for what religion and science should mean within non-Western frames as well as a disregard for the latter. This has led to the presentation (or overrepresentation, according to Sylvia Wynter) of a single homogenized perspective for meaning-making and interpretation of topics and themes within the field, a decision which has not only significantly impacted the field, in terms of ongoing dialectics about the relationship between religion and science, but which has also seen the exclusion of other forms of beneficial epistemic reference frames, which have been viewed as subaltern. Drawing from Wynter’s epistemic disobedience, this paper highlights decolonial approaches for engaging in the academic study of science and religion, and which will advance the path towards delinking the field from Euro-Western conceptualizations. This will unravel the rich epistemic formation within non-Western knowledge frames and the inclusion of which will greatly enrich and redefine the academic study of religion and science in the days ahead.

Cognitive imperialism in artificial intelligence: counteracting bias with indigenous epistemologies

AbstractThis paper presents a novel methodology for integrating indigenous knowledge systems into AI development to counter cognitive imperialism and foster inclusivity. By critiquing the dominance of Western epistemologies and highlighting the risks of bias, the authors argue for incorporating diverse epistemologies. The proposed framework outlines a participatory approach that includes indigenous perspectives, ensuring AI benefits all. The methodology draws from AI ethics, indigenous studies, and postcolonial theory, emphasizing co-creation with indigenous communities, ethical protocols for indigenous data governance, and adaptation of AI algorithms. Case studies in natural language processing, content moderation, and healthcare demonstrate the methodology’s effectiveness and importance. By offering a concrete methodology for decolonizing AI, this paper contributes significantly to AI ethics and social justice, providing a roadmap for equitable, culturally respectful AI.

"But Always My Thoughts Stay with Me, My Own Way": Intellectual and Creative Claims of Sovereignty by Indian Boarding School Students in The Colored Land : A Navajo Indian Book, Written and Illustrated by Navajo Children (1937)

Abstract: In 1937, Ruth K. Brandt, Supervisor of Elementary Education, in the federal Office of Indian Affairs, edited and published The Colored Land: A Navajo Indian Book, Written and Illustrated by Navajo Children with Scribner's Sons. Diné elementary school students from the Tohatchi Boarding School in New Mexico were the featured writers of much of the text with supporting illustrations composed by students from the Santa Fe Indian School. It was presented by its editors as evidence of the government's successful approach to assimilation through education. Situating their work within frameworks offered by contemporary Diné poets, I argue that these young children resisted acculturation and assimilationist efforts in the Reorganization Era by maintaining cultural values and traditions and even, in a few cases, issuing challenges to Western epistemologies and educational regimes. This early collection of published creative work by Diné writers and artists features undercurrents of resistance alongside literary and intellectual claims of sovereignty.

One Health, many perspectives: Exploring Indigenous and Western epistemologies

Abstract The One Health approach, which assesses the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health, fails to include and amplify Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous scientists. To effectively center Indigenous knowledge next to and within the One Health approach, which is historically based in Western science, the similarities and differences between Indigenous science, specifically Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and One Health must be explored. The objective of this project is to identify values in Indigenous science that are unsupported or underrepresented in Western science and then collaboratively ideate recommendations that Western allies can take to center and support Indigenous scientists and elevate Indigenous knowledge. From January to March 2023, the study team conducted semi-structured interviews with Indigenous knowledge keepers via Zoom video calls. American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian (Kānaka Maoli), and other Indigenous participants from the global diaspora residing in the continental United States and Hawaiian Islands were recruited through social media and referrals from Indigenous leaders who had participated in formative (phase 1) interviews completed in 2022. In those formative interviews, four themes emerged and called for further exploration of Indigenous perspectives on (1) the natural world, (2) cultural heritage, (3) value expression, and (4) reflection. These ideas were reframed into questions asked in subsequent (phase 2) interviews in 2023. Thematic identification methods were used to highlight key ideas throughout the interviews. Participants noted gaps between their Indigenous worldviews and the One Health model, particularly relating to contrasts with Western culture, holistic expression, power in action, identity and belonging, maintaining community and cultural practices, and sharing information/education. It was also noted that One Health must do more than just uplift Indigenous values to support Indigenous scientists and should instead collaborate with TEK keepers and foster practices that are inclusive and validating of other knowledge systems. Phase 2 interview responses highlighted Indigenous principles that are underrepresented in One Health practice. These principles were transformed into considerations specifically for Western-rooted scientists to improve allyship to Indigenous science and scientists. Adoption of the considerations would strengthen partnership between One Health practitioners and Indigenous scientists and promote collaboration across many ways of knowing. One Health impact statement The One Health theory encourages transdisciplinary collaboration to break down siloing and innovate solutions. Yet, One Health practice, and the Western scientific approach it takes, often excludes involvement with Indigenous ways of knowing and disclaims Indigenous knowledge keepers who have been conducting “One Health” work since time immemorial. Indigenous knowledge keepers who self-identified as cultural bridges between Native communities and Western communities were interviewed and asked to speak to values found in Indigenous science and research. The featured principles highlight some of the similarities and differences between Indigenous and Western scientific approaches. The identified values informed recommendations for Western scientists to be better allies to Indigenous scientists and to amplify Indigenous voices and science. One Health practitioners will benefit from these guidelines by navigating research in a more equitable way and by creating sustainable reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous scientists. This makes One Health more open and accessible to Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.

Global Political Logics and Mainstream Discourses on Illness in the Declarations of the State of Exception in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Case of the USA, France, and Spain.

At the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, several countries declared "states of exception," that is, authorized legal devices that, in the face of circumstances deemed catastrophic, permit the implementation of extraordinary measures and the temporary suspension of some rights in order to restore the previous state of affairs as soon as possible. This paper offers a comparative textual analysis of the different states of exception declared in the USA, France, and Spain. I argue that these texts constitute a privileged site to explore how prevalent global political logics and mainstream discourses on illness are interwoven. Regarding the global political logics in play, I hold that these declarations constitute an instantiation of democracy's autoimmune character; it attacks itself in order to protect itself. Regarding mainstream discourses on illness, I explore how illness is regarded as a threat to one's self (by something seemingly other) and the notion that therapy must consist of securing the self's triumph over anything seemingly other. This twofold analysis reveals that an aporetic dialectic between self and other-as regards politics and illness-operates in these declarations, most likely because it is, in fact, one and the same dialectic, upon which Western epistemology rests. Furthermore, I suggest that these texts reflect and promote these dominant logics, contributing to shape human relationships around the globe in a certain dangerous way.

Empirical Experience of the Prophet as a Source of Knowledge Hadith Perspective

Empiricism is a branch of Western epistemology that is based on experience and discourages reason. According to empiricism, the source of knowledge is experience or empirical. Reason is not a source of knowledge; instead, reason is tasked with processing knowledge gained from experience. The aim of this research is to find out hadiths about the life of the Prophet which can constitute epistemology as science. This research uses a descriptive method with a literature review. Thus, this research concludes that the application of Islamic epistemology based on the life of the Prophet is proven in the Muslim hadith no. index 2336 about the wrong story of the Prophet to date palm farmers. This hadith is a tribute to the Prophet because of his expertise and ability in the professional field. In other words, the Prophet's hadith shows that the only people who understand agricultural issues better are farmers. Judging from the asbab al-wurud hadith, the Prophet was born and raised on the barren Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, the Prophet only expressed his opinion without having experience in farming dates. From this experience of the Prophet's erroneous opinions, lessons can be made for farmers, as those who understand more about the world of Islamic boarding schools are the kyai and Islamic boarding school administrators.

Empirical Experience of the Prophet as a Source of Knowledge Hadith Perspective

Empiricism is a branch of Western epistemology that is based on experience and discourages reason. According to empiricism, the source of knowledge is experience or empirical. Reason is not a source of knowledge; instead, reason is tasked with processing knowledge gained from experience. The aim of this research is to find out hadiths about the life of the Prophet which can constitute epistemology as science. This research uses a descriptive method with a literature review. Thus, this research concludes that the application of Islamic epistemology based on the life of the Prophet is proven in the Muslim hadith no. index 2336 about the wrong story of the Prophet to date palm farmers. This hadith is a tribute to the Prophet because of his expertise and ability in the professional field. In other words, the Prophet's hadith shows that the only people who understand agricultural issues better are farmers. Judging from the asbab al-wurud hadith, the Prophet was born and raised on the barren Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, the Prophet only expressed his opinion without having experience in farming dates. From this experience of the Prophet's erroneous opinions, lessons can be made for farmers, as those who understand more about the world of Islamic boarding schools are the kyai and Islamic boarding school administrators.

Gender Stereotypes and Toxic Masculinity: Phenomenological Study of Pamulang University Students

In Indonesia, which is still considered a conservative country, feminism as a gender-based emancipatory movement has become an understanding that tends to be covered by the glitter of patriarchism. Resistance to feminist thought is quite massive because the majority of people consider it to be a Western epistemology that is not in harmony with Eastern cultural values. One of the main causes of gender inequality is society's lack of understanding of the differences in definitions between sex and gender. The majority still view these two terms as merely linguistic synonyms, even though conceptually they have significant differences. In an intimate academic environment with a tradition of thinking, the phenomenon of toxic masculinity is quite widely recognized by students. Like several students at Pamulang University, South Tangerang who feel they are victims of systemic toxic masculinity. In the initial research observations, the results of interviews showed that the phenomena of gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity experienced by Pamulang University students included several things, namely regarding individual aspects such as role, character, physique and sexual orientation.

Pedagogical relations as a decolonisation tool in African higher education: Reflection on the ethics of care, respect, and trust

This article uses the findings obtained from a study that delves into the perceptions of students on their relationship with their higher education (HE) lecturers and how it affects their academic success, to respond to the issue of decolonisation in South African HE, and to approach the question of decolonising HE in Africa. The article argues that it is essential to prioritise student well-being, amplify their voices, and promote a caring culture towards addressing the issue of decolonisation in African education systems. The study shows that African HE students hold higher expectations of their lecturers beyond being professionals. This expectation includes respect for students’ thoughts and incorporation of epistemology that aligns with fostering African development, culture and thoughts (without necessarily conforming to neoliberal norms). The four categories of the teacher’s role, which include academic development, respect and trust, social relationships, and ethics of care are highly demanded by HE students. Borrowing the study outcome, this article holds the view that students’ high expectations of their lecturers to foster social relationships should be channelled to incorporate the African student as a collaborator in the business of education and as a response to the demands of HE students to decolonise African education system. These four categories are not only institutional strategies for effective teaching and learning but also a way to address the non-inclusive impact of Western epistemology on historically racial institutions in Africa.Contribution: This article proposes that adopting mainstream pedagogical relationships can be a powerful tool in incorporating the African students’ thoughts and a step towards liberating the HE system in Africa. It recommends these four cardinal themes as institutional strategies for restricting teaching and learning that relegate students to the receiving end thus systems that refute students as collaborators of knowledge sharing especially at historically racial institutions.

Relational Approach Towards Decolonizing Curriculum Development within the Colonial Postsecondary Institution

The Canadian academy is dominated by Western epistemologies that devalue Indigenous ways of knowing and marginalize Indigenous communities, cultures, and histories (Louie et al., 2017). This paper draws on a cross-disciplinary, interprofessional collaboration between a School of Public Health Sciences and School of Social Work to develop an online graduate course that sought to advance knowledge and practice in Indigenous wellbeing and health through a social justice lens. We explore key considerations, strategies, and challenges undertaken by an interdisciplinary group of non-Indigenous professors to create a learning experience for students that challenges colonial ways of seeing, being, knowing, and doing in the professional practice fields of public health and social work and that serves to elevate and sustain Indigenous voices, knowledges, sciences, and practices within the academy. In doing so, we centre the process of course development, including working with an Indigenous Advisory Circle and Indigenous contributors of content, guest lecture videos, and artwork. The paper describes the creation of a relational teaching and learning community, while raising concerns about the institutionalization of this approach to Indigenous-focused course development in the absence of the structural changes needed to enhance the presence of Indigenous faculty and Elders in academic institutions.

A linguistic evaluation of the South African higher education sector: A reflection on 30 years of democracy (1994–2024)

The core objective of this article is to evaluate the progress made in linguistic development over the past three decades, with a specific focus on the role of language and its philosophical underpinnings in reshaping and decolonising South African higher education landscape. Linguistic imperialism as a conceptual framework alongside the Framework for Policy Analysis were employed to inform, guide and support the author’s contention that linguistic hegemony is still dominating the discourse within the higher education sector. The research adopts a qualitative approach, utilising content analysis for data analysis purposes. The findings of the article reveal that despite 30 years of democracy, the influence of colonial-era language philosophy and western epistemologies persists. It is suggested that comprehensive implementation of language policies could effectively address the transformation and decolonisation agenda. It further advocates for alignment between policy and practice through pragmatic, intentional and transformative initiatives aimed at identifying, interrogating and disrupting the coloniality of power and its western epistemologies, as far as language policy and practice are concerned. In conclusion, the article emphasises the urgent need to counteract existing linguistic imperialism and hegemony embedded within colonial knowledge systems by enacting transformative policies that will prioritise student access, success, linguistic diversity, linguistic justice, epistemic justice and social cohesion within the framework of higher education.Contribution: The aim is to provide guidance to language policy implementers in South African universities by offering an overview of the linguistic advancements achieved between 1994 to 2024.

A critical cartography: mapping chapters, networks, and relationships through regional organization

ABSTRACT The Association for Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) was created, in part, to address underrepresentation in the study and management of heritage. However, achieving genuinely inclusive representation within global heritage conversations remains elusive, exacerbated by entrenched power dynamics and the dominance of Western epistemologies. Here, we discuss ACHS’s efforts to foster a more democratic, inclusive discourse through its organizational structure and international collaborations. As we argue here, although significant strides towards diversifying heritage discourse are evidenced by the creation of chapters and networks aimed at amplifying underrepresented voices, challenges persist in ensuring equitable participation. We discuss the importance of strategic regionalization and language inclusivity in advancing a platform that reflects the diversity of global heritage perspectives.

Ukukhonza as an ethic-oriented ontology to ensure harmonious existence among AmaZulu

The production of knowledge should be premised on the inclusion of all epistemologies to provide possibilities to build a more just world. However, knowledge production, as we have it today, is premised on Western epistemology which is used to distil other knowledges before they could be accepted as legitimate. This approach stifles possibilities to find different ways of knowing that could contribute to imagining the world anew. There is a need, therefore, to unthink the West such that we find other ways to understand the world. The article helps in unthinking the West to allow an authentic understanding of the indigenous people of South Africa. I argue that the ontology of AmaZulu – one of the indigenous groups in South Africa – is an ethic-orientated ontology that is expressed through the concept of ukukhonza – a process where one surrenders their identity in order to belong to the group (this can also refer to worship). In ukukhonza, the surrendering of one’s identity is to ensure harmonious living centred on a common identity that is unified by the principles of ubuntu. Drawing on the nuances of ukukhonza, this article argues that the ontology of AmaZulu is centred on respecting life in its different forms because it is believed that everything is interconnected. This understanding of life provides a different conceptualisation of God which anchors the religion that is practised everyday such that doing good is inescapable. This is an ethic-oriented ontology which when brought forth in its authentic form can address the many ills of modern society.Contribution: This is the conceptual article that contributes to rethinking religion from an African perspective to provide a possibility of an ethic-centred society that can inform the new ways of being in the world.

Decolonizing Higher Education in Norway: Critical Collaborative Autoethnographic Reflections on a University Pedagogy Course

Globally, there is a trend in academic development to centralize the importance of decolonizing curriculum and pedagogical practice in higher education (HE). In Norway, despite internationalization, diversity and inclusion being highly regarded values in HE policy documents, efforts towards decolonial change and transformation of curriculum and pedagogical practice in HE seem to be largely ignored. Understanding university teacher education as a driver of institutional educational transformation, this article contributes to the effort of decolonizing HE in Norway. Utilizing critical collaborative autoethnographic methodology, we reflect on our own roles in our early attempts to decolonize a course on decolonization and pedagogical practice offered to teaching staff at a Norwegian university college. Taking our point of departure in decolonial theory and the concept of modernity/coloniality, we critically discuss and question the potency of our own roles—as two middle-aged white cis-men and one middle-aged cis-woman, all lecturers with expertise mainly in decolonial theories, decolonial learning and teaching practices, and critical whiteness and critical discourse analysis perspectives—in transforming the ways that Western epistemology prevail in our pedagogical practices. We also address the implications for university pedagogy courses with respect to future decolonizing efforts in HE in Norway.

Shifting the terrain, enriching the academy: Indigenous PhD scholars’ experiences of and impact on higher education

AbstractIn Australia, much like other colonized locations such as Canada, New Zealand, and the USA, the colonial legacies embedded within higher education institutions, including the history of exclusion and the privileging of Western epistemologies, continue to make universities challenging places for Indigenous PhD scholars. Despite this, and while the numbers of Indigenous PhD scholars remain well below population parity, they are carving a space within the academy that is shifting the academic terrain and enriching the research process. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Indigenous PhD scholars working in the field of health and a qualitative survey of doctoral Supervisors and Advisory Committee Chairs, this paper explores the doctoral experience of Indigenous scholars. What becomes apparent, through this research, is that despite ongoing experiences of racism and alienation, these scholars are finding ways to circumvent inadequate supervisory processes, systems support, and research paradigms, to carve a path that centers Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.

The Deep Time Trap

This article argues that Lorine Niedecker’s 1968 poem “Lake Superior” reveals a limitation of recent scholarly investments in the concept of geological “deep time.” “Lake Superior” is a meditation on deep time; the Europeans who colonized the Great Lakes; and Lake Superior’s assemblage of rocks, bodies, and bodies of water across timescales. In analyzing Niedecker’s poem alongside her research notes, this article claims that, even as the speaker’s invocation of deep time troubles settler-colonialist historical narratives, she nevertheless remains mired in what Mark Rifkin calls “settler time.” The poem’s geological timescale fails to liberate the speaker from a settler-colonialist representation of and relation to the environment. While many scholars contend that deep time offers an alternative to anthropocentrism, this article argues that deep time is also a colonialist construct that can reinforce harmful Western epistemologies and obscure non-white ways of relating to the environment. Indigenous scholarship and activism offer alternative timescales that might allow us to care for the environment without minimizing the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman beings, without relying on settler-colonialist logics, and while centering Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty.

Exploring clinical reasoning in child language assessment through decoloniality

Purpose Clinical reasoning has been taught, practised, and researched under Western epistemologies, which have been fallible in addressing the complexity of clinical reasoning within Indigenous cultures and societies. We explored how speech-language pathologists in Sri Lanka negotiate and value Indigenous and Western perspectives in clinical reasoning within a decolonial framework. Method This study used participatory research methodology within the decolonised qualitative research paradigm to produce data collaboratively with eight Sri Lankan speech-language pathologists. Oral history narratives and object-based textual reflections generated the necessary data for the study. Systematic visual-textual analysis and reflexive thematic analysis were carried out iteratively, and the data analysis and interpretation were undertaken collaboratively with the participants. Result We generated four key themes about professional education, individuality in practice, holistic thinking, and balancing interests and priorities. The results demonstrate that social, political, and economic forces impact practitioners’ clinical reasoning. Conclusion Practising science in its original form within Indigenous contexts is challenging. Colonial roots and imperialism impact the delivery of appropriate services in socially and politically marginalised communities. Practitioners’ self-awareness about authentic identities and practical wisdom can develop culturally relevant knowledge for equitable practice.

Monstrous Mushrooms, Toxic Love and Queer Utopias in Jenny Hval's Paradise Rot

Embarking on a close reading of Jenny Hval's 2018 novel, Paradise Rot, this paper sets out to unveil the utopic potential rooted in reimagining the body not as a self-contained being but as an intricate network extending beyond the confines of the skin. It challenges prevailing Western epistemologies that isolate humans, hierarchically distancing them from non-humans such as plants and animals. By taking up the literary conventions of gothic horror, the analysis focuses on the peculiar, co-dependent relationship of Paradise Rot's central characters: Carral and Johanna. As the women’s unsettling love affair unfolds, they become a symbiotic and mycorrhizal entity akin to the sprouting mushrooms inhabiting their dilapidated house. Exploring the metaphorical and tangible challenges posed by mushrooms, the paper underscores the interconnected, non-singular nature of fungal networks. Hval provocatively links the queerness of her main characters with fungi, both typically demonized as alien, contaminating, and freakish. This paper furthermore aligns these characteristics with queered figures from classic gothic horror, including the lesbian vampire and Susan Stryker’s transgendered Frankenstein. Together, these monstrous entities disturb the boundaries between the “natural” and the supernatural, the human and the non-human, the living and the dead. Marxists have drawn comparisons between the vampire’s parasitic need to feed on blood and capitalism’s exploitation of labor. Through the character of Carral, who I read as a femme vamp figure, I argue that vampires have redemptive qualities that illuminate our fundamental dependence on others to survive. Hval's novel illustrates the essential, confronting fact that we need one another, and more so than ever in precarious times. In the context of the climate crisis, neoliberal individualism, and ongoing economic instability, understanding our indebtedness to one another and our environments is crucial for planetary survival. Ties of care in late capitalist societies are complex, messy, and unequal, yet by recognizing our reliance on one another, we might, as scholar Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018) argues, realize a utopia where one’s dependence on others cannot, and need not, be concealed.