Political economy? epistemology? Hoping to have good responses to IV, Arawn & Imper's questions....

The most straightforward ways of thinking about political economy and epistemology I know come from feminist theory and cybernetics, two legacies that I, perhaps too often, take for granted. Feminist often think of political economy as flows of money and power. See Nancy Hartsock's book Money, Sex and Power for one approach along those lines, emerging from an engagement with Marxism. And as many of you know, the cybernetic work of Gregory Bateson is also fundamental to many ways I tend to look at things. From Bateson I tend to think of epistemology as simply thinking about thinking, in a somewhat playful, exploratory way. Put these together and you get the quotation from anthropologist of science Sharon Traweek we started with last night, and the quotation from technoscience thinker Donna Haraway with which I ended my presentation.

Comment by Katie King (SL Katie Fenstalker) on August 5, 2009 at 6:37am: Traweek: "I have become interested in how these massive shifts in political economy affect the kinds of questions intellectuals begin to find interesting..., the kinds of resources assessed to investigate their questions, the kinds of curricular and pedagogical changes generated, and the new modes of investigation. That is, what else is going on when there is a change in what counts as a good question, an interesting mode of inquiry, way of teaching and learning, and the infrastructure needed for pursuing these emerging forms of knowledge making...." (2000 : 23)

Haraway in email 2009: "I think Sharon's fabulous question is directly relevant to what has been happening in animal studies. BIG shifts in political economies and all sorts of ecologies re animals in multitudes of old and emergent categories--pet, agricultural, endangered, wild, domestic, feral, public health menaces, therapy companions, rights bearers, cultural signifiers, evolutionary story bearers, race surrogates, etc etc. Lots of species and lots of money involved, and there have been and are ongoing seismic shifts in practices and communities of practice re animals in the last 50 years on one scale and practically every minute on another. Commodities of all sorts are at issue, including transgenic pharming, big time. Think spider goats and Dolly the Sheep spin offs. Think bird flu; think mad cow; think the different but convergent Michael Vick and Aryan Nation fighting dog scenes. Perfect egs of scaling and scoping all over the place here! Not to mention pastpresents. Lots of locals and globals and lots of transdisciplinarities and posthumanisms/posthumanities in your terms."

Comment by Katie King (SL Katie Fenstalker) on August 5, 2009 at 7:10am: PS. Oh I did log the chat but forgot to ask permission. I am so sorry. If anyone objects please let me know right away. If no one objects, I will share it with those present as they ask for it.

Comment by Thomas Adam Koszoru on August 8, 2009 at 7:35am: Katie, THANK YOU FOR SAVING THE LOG CHAT, no objections here. I will read the references you have on this page, and in your presentation. Please send me a copy of the chat.

Political economy? epistemology? Hoping to have good responses to IV, Arawn & Imper's questions....

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