Massey Documents by Type

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Posthuman Affirmative Business Ethics: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations Through Speculative Fiction
(Springer Nature B V, 2022-07) Sayers J; Martin L; Bell E
Posthuman affirmative ethics relies upon a fluid, nomadic conception of the ethical subject who develops affective, material and immaterial connections to multiple others. Our purpose in this paper is to consider what posthuman affirmative business ethics would look like, and to reflect on the shift in thinking and practice this would involve. The need for a revised understanding of human-animal relations in business ethics is amplified by crises such as climate change and pandemics that are related to ecologically destructive business practices such as factory farming. In this analysis, we use feminist speculative fiction as a resource for reimagination and posthuman ethical thinking. By focusing on three ethical movements experienced by a central character named Toby in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, we show how she is continually becoming through affective, embodied encounters with human and nonhuman others. In the discussion, we consider the vulnerability that arises from openness to affect which engenders heightened response-ability to and with, rather than for, multiple others. This expanded concept of subjectivity enables a more relational understanding of equality that is urgently needed in order to respond affirmatively to posthuman futures.
From dough to wheat : a posthuman performance practice with companion species : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, College of Creative Arts, Toi Rauwharangi, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2022) Trigg, Madaleine
This creative-practice-led doctoral research follows a question: What is it to practice Posthumanism? (Or, “what can Posthumanism do?”) The research joins a recent wave of enthusiasm, curiosity and speculation on Posthumanism, which finds contemporary scholarship traversing feminist studies, social and political sciences, and the humanities both informing and being informed by the arts. As such I follow, and am beholden to, figures such as Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, Astrida Neimanis, Stephanie Springgay and Tarsh Bates. Building upon my experience and training across performance, theatre, costume, movement studies and photography, I use an iterative and process-oriented mode of inquiry centred on learning in the making and critical reflection upon one experimental work to shape and score the next one. A series of performances framed as contact improvisations has assisted my realisation of the expansive agency of yeast as it exerts itself in alternative methods of mixing, kneading, rising and baking processes. These range from cultivating seeds, wearing and cooking dough, and preparing bread for consumption. In this context, the physical, social and chemical boundaries of all bodies, including technological bodies, blur, converge and multiply; they are guided and activated by literal and conceptual gestures of touch. One of the central tenets in this transdisciplinary field of concern is exploring humankind’s relation to the environment, unhinging the root causes of human hubris, habits of waste, control and dominance at the expense of other bodies and, hopefully, to stall or prevent the destruction of the earth and inequities resulting from the misuse of power. I am one of many artists exploring what happens when binaries are abandoned—when humans let go of their self-importance—to reignite a co-living model with other species. Resting on the prospect of making contact with, building a relationship with, communicating with another material body, a non-human body, the research wonders what a new relationship between humans and “other-than-humans” might be.
Entanglements and disentanglements : a posthuman approach to mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Antioquia, Colombia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2016) Robertson, Thomas Jonathan
This research uses qualitative research techniques and posthuman theories to investigate the dynamic relationship between artisanal and small-scale gold miners and mercury in the context of Antioquia, Colombia. This is done to contribute to understandings of, and inform potential solutions for, the global environmental problem that is mercury pollution from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Miners come to know mercury through practices, and through these practices, mercury comes to be co-constitutive of an informal ASGM industry. Mercury provides an easy yet profitable mode of gold extraction with limited capital expenditure. Eliminating the use of mercury means a re-constitution of ASGM as a formal industry with higher levels of capital investment, new actors and a shift to a more representational approach to knowing materials. The use of toxic mercury and an increase in the enforcement of mining legislation are framing miners as illegal. Formal, responsible mining is becoming a dominant reality, and informal miners who resent being labelled illegal are working to transition to this reality. Miners’ experiences of this transition vary greatly, and this variation can be explored through the lens of ecological habitus. Many miners are using mercury elimination to perform good citizenship by mining responsibly, introducing a performative aspect to formalisation. Nevertheless, miners still face significant challenges to formalisation. As a result, many miners have had to become subcontractors for large-scale mining companies, entering exploitative relationships with which mercury, through its absence, is complicit. Taking this approach towards understanding the relationship between miners and mercury has helped to resolve the conflict between material and social deterministic views of the practice of mercury use, and linked mercury to a wider political context, which is a necessary consideration for a collaborative approach with miners to eliminate mercury. Keywords: Artisanal and small-scale gold mining; ASGM; mercury; Colombia; anthropology; posthumanism; entanglements; politics of materiality; performativity; informality.

Massey Documents by Type

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results