Refusing to fail: hope/aspiration as labour
Dear colleagues,
Apologies for cross-posting!
Call for Papers
Refusing to fail: hope/aspiration as labour
part of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK 2020 conference: Responsibility <https://www.theasa.org/conferences/asa2020/>
at the University of St Andrews, UK (24-27 August 2020)
Convenors
Yang Yang (University of St Andrews), Catrin Evans (University of Glasgow)
Discussant
Dr Ana Gutierrez Garza (University of St Andrews)
Abstract
Various forms of deprivation, from lack of citizenship to economic disempowerment, leave a vacuum of rights and capital in many people's lives. These people are engaged in political, economic and affective struggles. In these moments hope has been argued to provide a method (Miyazaki), a futural momentum (Knight), an intentional ethical action (Zigon), and intersubjective bonds between individuals (Marcel). Aspiration has also been positioned as a site for psychological deliverance and potential empowerment (Appadurai) and contested thereafter. Drawing on these discussions on hope/aspiration and Andrea Muehlebach’s notion of affective labour as an exploitable pathway to belonging, this panel will explore how the regimes of hope/aspiration can dismiss marginalised people's affective labour as their means of coping with vulnerability and marginality. Examples might be the empathic labour enacted by individuals within the UK asylum system as part of a performance of integration, or the aspirational labour undertaken by art practitioners against a backdrop of precarious living and economic austerity in the UK. We invite contributions exploring the following questions:
1) How and where do various forms of affective labour manifest themselves, responding to various forms of institutionalised marginalisation?
2) How are 'who fails' and 'who refuses to fail' contested when struggling persons refuse to perform their labouring role?
3) What are the limits of terms such as hope and aspiration in understanding the life-projects and life-struggles of our contemporaries?
To apply, please see: https://www.theasa.org/conferences/asa2020/cfp
Deadline: 23:59 GMT, 15 March 2020
Problems viewing the abstract? please click: http://bit.ly/38JReyd
We look forward to reading your work!
Best regards,
Yang & Catrin
Yang Yang, PhD Candidate
Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews
Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom
Current research: The endeavours and motivation of art practitioners in the UK
bit.ly/2P79HwY
st-andrews.academia.edu/OstickYang