Call for Papers
We are pleased to invite abstract submissions for our panel “‘Not doing’ in times of crisis: agency and the urgency of pause and restraint” (open panel #124) at the 4S_EASST conference<https://www.easst4s
Convenors
Annelieke Driessen (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
Simon Cohn (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
Abstract
Agency and action are considered to be inherently interlinked. And, by definition, they are commonly used in combination to define what an actor is. But the problem is, through narratives that stage action as positive, urgent and productive, forms of non-doing and absences (of people, actions, matter, ideas) tend to be conceived, by default, as negative, unimportant or simply as failings. As a consequence, at a time of ecological and political crises, important calls to “act now”, non-action (e.g. to consume less, reduce our use of resources, or not participate) can often emerge as paradoxical imperatives.
This panel invites ethnographic engagements that not only describe but think with such delays, pauses, restraints, hesitations, inactions, and silences. The papers will collectively explore their traces and effects, and how they might contribute to theoretical discussions on agency, ontology and methodology.
We welcome contributors to address questions concerning the making and unmaking of absences, about alternative enactments, and the role they can have constituting change and shaping the otherwise. We thereby hope to generate a conversation that will enrich the STS vocabulary of ‘agent’, ‘action’ and ‘practice’, and question any fixed binary between absence and presence by extending existing conceptualisations such as ‘absent-presence’ and ‘active-passive’.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
* deliberate ways of not doing (something)
* absences (of people, actions, matter, ideas)
* acts that make non-acts possible
Abstract submission
Abstracts can be submitted until 29th February 2020 via 4S/EASSTs website<https://convention2.al
After you log in, click ‘Submit A New Proposal’, and then ‘Papers For Open Panels’. Scroll down through the list of open where you will find ‘Not doing in times of crisis’. Abstracts are limited to 250 words.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions:
Annelieke.Driessen@lshtm.ac.uk
We look forward to your proposals,
Simon and Annelieke