The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism
The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism

Author: Erika Cudworth

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-08-29

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1317203224

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This is the first book to make the argument for an emancipatory project from within a posthuman framework. Responding to critics, Cudworth and Hobden argue that while some posthumanisms may be less critical, it is possible to develop a political programme from a posthuman perspective. Cudworth and Hobden develop such issues by addressing the following questions: How have ideas about emancipation been developed, and does the notion of emancipation still hold relevance for the contemporary world order? Is it possible to have a non-Utopian form of emancipation? What are the implications of differing posthuman/new materialist viewpoints for an emancipatory project? In a world typified by complexity, how is it possible to pursue political projects? The chapters consider various interpretations of the term ‘emancipation’, looking at work that has appeared within the posthumanist framework such as Bruno Latour, William Connolly, and Jane Bennett. The authors develop their own account of posthumanism, demonstrating how it avoids the problems that have been found within this framework, and considering the possibilities for emancipatory projects and public policy. It will be of great interest to postgraduates and scholars of International Relations, Political Theory, Environmental Studies, and Sociology.

The Posthuman Pandemic
The Posthuman Pandemic

Author: Saul Newman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1350239089

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With the COVID-19 crisis forcing us to reflect in a dramatic way on the limits of the human and the implications of the Anthropocene Age, this timely volume addresses these concerns through an exploration of post-humanism as represented in philosophy, politics and aesthetics. Global pandemics bring into sharp focus the bankruptcy of the neoliberal economic paradigm, the future of the arts sector in society, and our dependence upon political forces outside our control. In response to the recent state of emergency, The Posthuman Pandemic highlights the urgent need to rethink our anthropocentrism and develop new political models, aesthetic practices and ways of living. Central to these discussions is the idea of post-humanism, a philosophy that can help us grapple with the crisis, as it takes seriously the unstable ecosystems on which we depend and the precarious nature of our long-cherished notions of agency and sovereignty. Bringing together international philosophers, political theorists and media and art theorists, all of whom engage with the posthuman, this volume explores a range of vital subjects, from the inequality revealed by COVID-19 survival rates to museums' role in spreading human-centric understandings of a world struck by human fragility. Facing up to the realities that the coronavirus outbreak has uncovered, The Posthuman Pandemic combines both breadth and depth of analysis to take on the posthuman challenges confronting us today.

Social Work Theories in Context
Social Work Theories in Context

Author: Karen Healy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-07-28

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1350332755

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This popular and innovative core text book explores contemporary social work theories and perspectives in a systematic way, using an integrated and flexible framework to link context, theory, and practice approaches. Healy expertly provides an applied guide to social work theory across a range of organisational contexts, showing social work as a diverse activity that is profoundly shaped by professional purpose, public policy, and practice locations. This edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect developments in the contexts and theorising of social work practices. This is ideal reading to support and develop undergraduate and postgraduate students taking modules on Social Work Theories and Methods on qualifying professional programmes. Its international breadth and supportive pedagogical features have ensured the book's value to students of social work all over the world. New to this edition: - New sections on post-humanism and eco-social work - Coverage of a broader range of critical approaches including feminist and anti-racial social work - Additional practice exercises drawn from realistic case studies.

Classical Literature and Posthumanism
Classical Literature and Posthumanism

Author: Giulia Maria Chesi

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1350069523

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The subject of the posthuman, of what it means to be or to cease to be human, is emerging as a shared point of debate at large in the natural and social sciences and the humanities. This volume asks what classical learning can bring to the table of posthuman studies, assembling chapters that explore how exactly the human self of Greek and Latin literature understands its own relation to animals, monsters, objects, cyborgs and robotic devices. With its widely diverse habitat of heterogeneous bodies, minds, and selves, classical literature again and again blurs the boundaries between the human and the non-human; not to equate and confound the human with its other, but playfully to highlight difference and hybridity, as an invitation to appraise the animal, monstrous or mechanical/machinic parts lodged within humans. This comprehensive collection unites contributors from across the globe, each delving into a different classical text or narrative and its configuration of human subjectivity-how human selves relate to other entities around them. For students and scholars of classical literature and the posthuman, this book is a first point of reference.

Re-Thinking Agency
Re-Thinking Agency

Author: Joanna Godlewicz-Adamiec

Publisher: V&R unipress

Published: 2024-10-07

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 373701762X

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The book explores the multi-faceted nature of contemporary reflections on agency, focusing on various discursive practices that shape the posthumanist approach to the relationship between the human and non-human world from a planetary perspective. The chapters delve into critical human-animal studies, examine new non-anthropocentric identity constructs, and offer analyses that reinterpret meanings through semiotic inversions and challenge static cultural patterns. The book concludes with discussions on decolonization practices that aim to liberate agency from oppressive systems, particularly those dominated by imperial phallogocentrism.

International Relations in the Anthropocene
International Relations in the Anthropocene

Author: David Chandler

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-20

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 3030530140

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This textbook introduces advanced students of International Relations (and beyond) to the ways in which the advent of, and reflections on, the Anthropocene impact on the study of global politics and the disciplinary foundations of IR. The book contains 24 chapters, authored by senior academics as well as early career scholars, and is divided into four parts, detailing, respectively, why the Anthropocene is of importance to IR, challenges to traditional approaches to security, the question of governance and agency in the Anthropocene, and new methods and approaches, going beyond the human/nature divide. Chapter 9, “Security in the Anthropocene” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Identity, Institutions and Governance in an AI World
Identity, Institutions and Governance in an AI World

Author: Peter Bloom

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-01-10

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 3030361810

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The 21st century is on the verge of a possible total economic and political revolution. Technological advances in robotics, computing and digital communications have the potential to completely transform how people live and work. Even more radically, humans will soon be interacting with artificial intelligence (A.I.) as a normal and essential part of their daily existence. What is needed now more than ever is to rethink social relations to meet the challenges of this soon-to-arrive "smart" world. This book proposes an original theory of trans-human relations for this coming future. Drawing on insights from organisational studies, critical theory, psychology and futurism - it will chart for readers the coming changes to identity, institutions and governance in a world populated by intelligent human and non-human actors alike. It will be characterised by a fresh emphasis on infusing programming with values of social justice, protecting the rights and views of all forms of "consciousness" and creating the structures and practices necessary for encouraging a culture of "mutual intelligent design". To do so means moving beyond our anthropocentric worldview of today and expanding our assumptions about the state of tomorrow's politics, institutions, laws and even everyday existence. Critically such a profound shift demands transcending humanist paradigms of a world created for and by humans and instead opening ourselves to a new reality where non-human intelligence and cyborgs are increasingly central.

Handbook on Climate Change and International Security
Handbook on Climate Change and International Security

Author: Maria J. Trombetta

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2023-12-11

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 178990644X

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This topical Handbook explores the emergence of climate change as an international security issue, the threats it poses, and the political and academic debates it has prompted. Framing climate change as a security issue, it explores the ways relevant actors, states and international organizations have conceptualized climate security and its associated threats.

Posthumanism and the Massive Open Online Course
Posthumanism and the Massive Open Online Course

Author: Jeremy Knox

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-01-29

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1317377966

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Posthumanism and the Massive Open Online Course critiques the problematic reliance on humanism that pervades online education and the MOOC, and explores theoretical frameworks that look beyond these limitations. While MOOCs (massive open online courses) have attracted significant academic and media attention, critical analyses of their development have been rare. Following an overview of MOOCs and their corporate means of promotion, this book unravels the tendencies in research and theory that continue to adopt normative views of user access, participation, and educational space in order to offer alternatives to the dominant understandings of community and authenticity in education.

Embodied Humanism
Embodied Humanism

Author: Jeff Noonan

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1793636958

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There are many answers to the question of why life is worth living, but they all presuppose that good lives are sensuously enjoyable. Time seems to stand still in the moment when we enjoy food and drink, peaceful, laughing relationships with friends, or lay quietly, allowing the beauty of nature and human creations to unfold before us. Embodied Humanism: Toward Solidarity and Sensuous Enjoyment explores ways that enjoyment is also political. The history of political struggle is a history of fighting back against silencing, hunger, and violent domination, but also fighting for social peace, need-satisfaction, voice, and democratic power. Tracing the values of embodied humanism across history and across cultures and identities, the book finds a more comprehensive universal humanist ethic around which old and emerging struggles can be unified. Ultimately, Jeff Noonan argues, these struggles can be directed towards creating institutional structure and individual dispositions that will secure the social conditions in which our capacities for receptive openness and delight are satisfied for each and all.