Suchergebnisse

"In times of globalization, critiques of sovereignty have become a pervasive feature of political theory. This book investigates how forms of political association and the responsibilities we have for others could be informed by non-sovereign concepts of the self. Placing the reader in dialogue with Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler and Stanley Cavell, it engages with debates surrounding the key concepts of identity, becoming, agency and ethical responsibility - specifically in terms of a 'non-sovereign self'. Non-sovereignty highlights how thought, language, and ultimately one's very survival depend on social relationships. While non-sovereign accounts of human social life have become widely accepted, there is an ongoing debate about definitions and roles of key terms such as 'finitude' or 'relationality' and the consequences they have for political thought. Drawing on Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler and Stanley Cavell, this book addresses contemporary theoretical and political debates in a broader comparative perspective and rearticulates the relationship between ethics and politics by highlighting those who are currently excluded from our notions of political community"--

AbstractTaking the early tissue culture experiments of Alexis Carrel in the 1910s–1930s as its example, the article explores the relationship between advances in biotechnological control over living matter and a holistic ontology of life, which stresses the temporal specificity of living things. With reference to Henri Bergson, Carrel argued that physiological time depends on an organism's relationship to its milieu. By developing a laboratory apparatus and culture media, new objects of investigation could be made to live outside the organism and be brought to behave in novel temporal ways. In difference to recent biotechnological advances, like for example genome editing, which seek to 'engineer' living organisms by rebuilding them from their DNA up, then, early twentieth century interventionist laboratory practices were often linked to an understanding that biological plasticity results from organismic complexity and interactions between organism and milieu. These notions contributed to shaping laboratory apparatuses and techniques; they also helped to establish an understanding of environmental control that would allow for the production of novel 'living things'.

Gene editing tools are 'revolutionizing' microbiological research. Much of the public debate focuses on the possibility of human germ line applications. The use of genome editing to alter non-human animals, however, will have more immediate impacts on our daily lives. Genome edited animals are used for basic biological and biomedical research and could soon play a role in the livestock industry and ecosystem management. Genome editing thus provides an occasion to rethink societal narratives about the relationships between humans and other animals. Even though the technique can be easily incorporated as an example into a conventional storyline about the development of the modern life sciences as striving for control over nature, it can also help to highlight the anthropocentric biases expressed in these narratives and demonstrate the continuities between humans and other animals.

Natural environments are undergoing significant changes due to human influences. At the same time, new technologies are emerging with the promise to provide solutions to environmental crises. This Special Focus on Novel Natures ‐ New technologies and conflicts in nature
conservation emphasizes the need for in-depth debates about human relationships with natural environments and technologies. Under the heading of novel natures, we want to open the floor for cross-disciplinary debate, preparing the ground for conscientious, well-informed, and equitable
decision-making in nature conservation and restoration.

Engineered gene drives are an emerging technology for the large-scale genetic modification of natural populations of species. They are controversial due to high levels of uncertainty about their risks and benefits. We analyze gene drives in their social, natural, and technological contexts.
We discuss their depth of intervention and compare gene drives to "conventional" genetic modification techniques and to other novel high-impact technologies. While gene drives might overpromise and under-deliver solutions for problems of sustainable development, they also represent
a paradigm shift in human technological interference with nature, thus requiring broad discussion in society.

Ecologists, particularly restoration ecologists, were early to recognise the challenges of historically unprecedented combinations of species and abiotic conditions brought about by human intervention. However, to date, this ecological understanding has paid limited attention to
sociocultural considerations. We propose the concept of novel natures to combine ecological and social dimensions in the perception and evaluation of novelty in nature, and to assist conservation and restoration decision-making in a time of rapid environmental change.

Critically engages with Jacques Derrida's Politics of Friendship and with the limits of friendship as a political conceptReconsiders the importance of this relatively understudied key text in Derrida's oeuvre Includes two contributions on Geschlect IV, 'Heidegger's Ear: Philopolemology', published in the French edition but excluded from the English translationResonates with issues in contemporary politics such as nationalist and anti-nationalist political programmesOffers an interdisciplinary perspective from philosophy, comparative literature and French studies Brings together early career, established and emeritus scholars including Peggy Kamuf, Isabelle Alfandary, Timothy Secret and Pheng Cheah25 years after the publication of Derrida's Politics of Friendship (Politiques de l'amitié, 1994), this edited collection gathers 23 critical chapters that revisit this underappreciated text. Engaging closely with Derrida's text, the contributors analyse, extend and critique the work. They reconsider the place this book occupies in Derrida's political philosophy and its potential for contemporary politics, when the promises and perils of political friendship have reappeared