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Social Sciences for an Other Politics AnaCeciliaDinerstein Editor Social Sciences for an Other Politics Women Theorizing Without Parachutes ForewordbyJ.K.Gibson-Graham Editor AnaCeciliaDinerstein DepartmentofSocialandPolicySciences UniversityofBath Bath,UnitedKingdom ISBN978-3-319-47775-6 ISBN978-3-319-47776-3(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-47776-3 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016956659 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Coverillustration:©MelisaHasan Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Thisbookis dedicatedto Berta Cáceresand Jo Cox,two greatwomen brutallysilencedfortheirresistancetopowerandtheirhopeinaworld that cancontain manyworldsin it. ‘Unrayo partióla blancurade latierra enmil pedazos’, (María AliciaGutiérrez Punto que simulafijo, 2014,p. 41) ’ E P DITOR S REFACE Every book has a story behind it. The story of this book begins with an intuition.IhadanideathatmademehappyandIhadtopursueit.AsIwas walkinghomefromworkthatday,Iwassmilingalone,duetothejoybrought aboutbythesimplethoughtthatotherswouldfeelthesameandwouldjoin in.Ithoughtofseveralfemaleacademic-activistswhoIadmire,readandcite inmyownwork,whoIknowinpersonorwhoseworkIfollow,andwhoIfeel closeto.Ibelievedthatwewerealldoingsomethingverysimilar,despitethe obviousdifferencesinthetopicsorareasofstudy.Whatwasit?Iconsidered severalideas.Clearlywewereallcritical,committed,responsible,interesting. Wewerealldiscussingnewformsofcriticalthinking,prefiguration,etc.Allof whichwastrue.ButIwasnotconvinced.Afterawhile,nowhavingdinneron myown,Ithoughttomyself:whatwearedoingis‘venturingbeyond’.Ilove thisexpressionthatBlochusesinhisThePrincipleofHope,thatis,‘thinkingis venturingbeyond’.Ihaveusedthisexpressionbefore.Venturingbeyondthe given.Másallá...and‘venturingbeyondthewire’asametaphordrawnfrom theMovementofRuralLandlessWorkerswhentheytrespassbycuttingthe wire of a fertile but unoccupied land, to then occupy and plant their seeds. Andyet,Ithought,aswomen,wearenotsimplyventuringbeyondbutour venturingbeyondisalwaysedgy,becauseourtheorisinghappensinaworld that is not completely ours. Venturing beyond means verging, as mothers, writers,activists,lovers,workers...‘Womenontheverge’!Asthereadercan guess, this name comes from the title of the hilarious film Women on the VergeofaNervousBreakdown.Unlikethosewomen,wewerecategorically notonthe‘vergeofanervousbreakdown’but...WhatdidImeanthenby ‘Womenontheverge’? vii viii EDITOR’SPREFACE Toputmyintuitionintowordswasnoteasy(itisstillnoteasy).Thisis not surprising: words can hardly express and translate emotions and hunches. I had a brief conversation with Palgrave Macmillan’s female staffataconferencestandbeforesendingthee-mailandtheyseemed to understand and like the idea. I went ahead and tried my best to com- municatemyideasinane-mailsenttothewonderfulwomen,allscholar- activists,whobecamecontributorstothiseditedcollection.Wouldthey embrace the idea of being ‘women on the verge’ and write for this collection? My electronic message began with the usual ‘Dear all: Apologies for contacting you out of the blue like this’. This polite introduction swiftly triggered an enjoyable process of communication, sharing,thinkingandwriting.Yes.Ourworkaddressesdifferentareasof thesocialsciences,butreflectsadeterminationtocritiquetheknowledge produced by such social science, for it constantly restricts and oppresses us,andisunabletoaccountfortheemergingstrugglefortheprefigura- tion of alternatives realities, new sociabilities, relations, identities, orga- nisations, politics and policy from below, by a myriad of collective subjectivities worldwide. Social science but also critical theory are over- looking them, misunderstanding them, subjugating them under old ideas and old tools. We understand. Yes. Fantastic! And that we should write freely indicating the path we think theory should take. Yes. Thatallcontributorsarefemalescholar-activistsisthennotanaccident.Ina patriarchalsociety,theorisingisamale-dominatedactivity,whichalsorepro- ducescolonialpatternsofdomination.Thisdoesnotmeanthatwomendonot theorise.Butwithexceptionsitisabigdealforustogetthroughthenetof deterrents – adverse or amicable – that are in place. Women’s theorising is constantlyinvisibilisedordiminished.Lookatyourbookshelves.Whatdoyou see?Doesitmatter?Theoryistheory,right?Well.No. At atime when the conditions forthe socialreproduction of life in the planet are deteriorating at unimaginable speed and levels, the ‘warm stream’ of critical theory that women can provide (I am paraphrasing Bloch when he distinguishes the cold and the warm streams of Marxism (1959/1986, pp. 209–210)) seems essential in order to renew the dry, cold,rational,negativeexistingtheoryproducedinboththeacademicand activist worlds. The warm stream of critical theory is in no way naïve or weak,romanticorsuperficial.Rather,itprovidesanembodiedcritiqueof capital, coloniality and patriarchy. This theorising is attuned with life, affect, commonality, nature, utopia, possibility. This is not then a book on feminism, or feminist theory, although we are feminists and we use EDITOR’SPREFACE ix feminist theory. We are women thinking and writing. The collection is a vindication of critical theory written by women. This book aims to con- tributetotheexistingprocessofdevelopinganticipatory,engaged,critical, open,ecological,decolonial,anti-oppressiveformsof‘theorising’asatool againstcapital,patriarchyandcoloniality.Arewe‘radicalhumanists’then? Well.Shouldradicaltheorynotbeabouthumanity?Whatelsecoulditbe about? Theorising without parachutes means to engage with traditions and existing radical thought such as anarchism, Marxism, Feminism, but suchthatwearenotprotectedbytheirestablishedframeworksofanalysis. By ‘critique’ we understand a constant opening towards the discovery of possibilities that rejects the present state of affairs and navigates through the conflicts that emerge out of the process. It is also the critique of criticism for its permissiveness and resignation in contributing to the naturalisationofanoppressivesociety.‘Withoutparachutes’meansuncer- tainty and ambivalence in the practice of theorising (Gibson-Graham 2006, p. xxxi). We struggle with, against and beyond capital, the law, the state. But to confront them we start from the space of nonbeing’ (Gibson-Graham 2006,p. xxxiii). We explored the meaning of being ‘Women on the Verge’ (WOV) collectively in several ways. Marina Sitrin said ‘we are not those women pushed to the edge, overreacting, and caricatures of ourselves as in Almodovar’s film, but we are on the edges of doing, of thinking, challen- ging our own perceptions and stereotypes, tired of being constrained by specific patterns and models required by academia’. As women, we are always ‘verging’, claim Sarah Amsler. Besides, argued Sara Motta, ‘the idea of us becoming “women on the verge” is not related to a particular positionality, but rather to an epistemological embrace and practice of becomingmultiple...“womenontheverge”suggestsatonceacommon- ality that is troubled by our very real differences in praxis, experience, cosmologies’. Raquel Gutiérrez envisaged what she understood by ‘womenontheverge’:‘wearejumpingoutofaplaneflownbymainstream critical theorists and political figures. We jump with hope and determina- tion, but hesitationandfeartoo.Oneofthe womenistryingtoget rid of the parachute provided by the male crew. It is big, heavy and uncomfor- table. It would be better to jump out of this plane than to continue reproducing ideas driven by social science’s establishment and its critics. Theirapproachesandconceptsareconstrainingourcapacitytothinkfreely, toimagine,toprefigure.Astheyjumpoutoftheplanewithoutparachutes x EDITOR’SPREFACE somestartweavingacollectiveparachute.Othersrealisethattheycanfloat intheairandthattheyarebecoming“flyingseeds”’. Between 8th and 14th August 2016 some of the contributors to this collection attended the workshop ‘The Ethics and Politics of Possibility: Principles and Practices of Prefigurative Knowledge and Research’, spon- sored by the Independent Social Research Foundation (2016 Residential Research Groups) convened by Sarah Amsler at the University of Cambridge, UK. As Sarah wrote, ‘the workshop aimed to be a space for fruitfulandjoyfuldiscovery,andtooffertimeoutfromthefrenziedpace ofknowledgeproductionthatoftengovernsbothintellectualandpolitical work’. Sarah Amsler, Emily Brissette, Raquel Gutiérrez, Lucia Linsalata, Mina Lorena Navarro, and myself attended the gathering at Girton College (Emily Davis’ college). Keri Facer (Bristol University, UK) and Kelly Teamey (Enlivened Learning) joined us. We talked, shared and connected. We also discussed some aspects of this book, in particular the introduction,forwhichIamgrateful.DuringthemeetingatCambridge, theorisingaspraxis,andtheprospectiveofconstitutingtheWomenonthe Verge(WOV) groupbecame areality. Thebookfeaturestheworkofwonderfulwomen.Thefinalproductof this amazing journey reflects, as I imagined, our efforts to push the boundaries of critique beyond its demarcated limits by forcefully challen- ging ourselves too, risking ideas in an uncertain terrain, experimenting, contributing.Whetherwehaveachievedourambitionornotisuptothe readersto decide.Enjoy. Bristol,August30, 2016 AnaCecilia Dinerstein F OREWORD What a joy it is to greet this inspirational book of engaged feminist political theory. I love the image of our thinkers floating down from on high, some free flying, some with parachutes entangled into webs of collectivity, all, aiming to land on an earth that has been trans- formed by their courageous work. J. K. Gibson-Graham applauds this daring stunt! She recognises herself in the commitments that guide this collection – to a realistic hopefulness, to performative concepts, to prefigurative actions that will bring other worlds into being. And she welcomes the company of so many others in that space ‘on the verge’. When I surveyed the chapters of this book, I was reminded of the wonderful book-length collections that documented feminist research methods that I had relied on so heavily when I was catapulted into teaching Women’s Studies in the early 1990s. The similarity was with thecommandingarrayoftopicsdisplayingthebreadthoffeministengage- ment. At the same time, the differences were also striking. Importantly, there was no mention of feminism in any of the chapter titles! This is a collection of edgy political theory so saturated with a feminist sensibility that has become unremarkable. And yet remarkable it surely is. The feminist thinkers who have contributed to this book have the weight of theworldontheirshouldersandthechallengeswefaceasinhabitantson this precious planet squarely in focus. They are leading the way by com- biningcriticalthinking,astuteappreciationofwhatwehavetoworkwith, xi

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