Bothar Bui Writing Retreat

Co-producing worlds, co-producing politics
 
The Authority Research Network spent seven days retreating in the spectacular Beara peninsula, West Cork, Ireland. Stationed in Bothar Buí from June 4th-11th we read, discussed and wrote about the cruelty of attachment, the possibilities for more-than-human collaboration in capitalist ruins, and the re-enchantment of hopeful (humanist?) politics at a time when surviving seems to mark the limit of what is thought possible. These themes, and the tensions between them, will be the scaffolding of a forthcoming collection of essays entitled: ‘Problems of Hope’. We hope to have it finished by the autumn.
 
The readings we discussed included:
 
Day # 1 Co-producing more-than-human worlds
* Chapter 5 from Cruel Optimism, Lauren Berlant, 2011
* Part I from The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing, 2016
 
Day # 2 Co-producing ethics/politics
* Chapter 4 from The Spirit of Revolution Beyond the Dead Ends of Man, Cornell & Seely, 2016
* Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power OR Interview (‘Re-enchanting Humanism’) with Sylvia Wynter
 
Optional extras
On writing:
* Star, S. L., & Bowker, G. C. (2007). Enacting silence: Residual categories as a challenge for ethics, information systems, and communication. Ethics and Information Technology, 9(4), 273-280.
* Chapter 'On Writing' from Light in the Dark, Anzaldua, 2015
On Simondon:
* Marie-Pier Boucher (2012), Infra-Psychic Individualization: Transductive Connections and the Genesis of the Living Techniques. in A. De Boever, A. Murray, J. Roffe, A. Woodward (Eds.) Gilbert Simondon. Being and Technology. Edinburgh University Press.
On participatory turn as a global multisite construction place:
Remaking Participation: Science, Environment and Emergent Publics 2016 Edited by Jason Chilvers, Matthew Kearnes
On Commons & Infrastructure:
Lauren Berlant paper based on AAG keynote, ‘The Commons: Infrastructures for Troubling Tiimes’, 2015.
On materializing justice:
* Papadopoulos, D. (2012). Worlding justice/commoning matter. Occasion: interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, 3(1).
 

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