Affective ontologies: Post-humanist perspectives on the self,feeling and intersubjectivity

At this particular historical juncture of the Anthropocene it is becoming increasingly clear that, as Val Plumwood puts it, the survival of our species depends upon how our relationships with earth others are reconfigured . Yet as the human is once again placed at the centre of our planetary life, this time as a geological agent, a growing body of scholarship has taken up the challenge of rethinking the human and its limits (see for example the special issue of the journal Angelaki 16(4), 2011). This special issue seeks to contribute to this body of work from the perspective of posthumanist explorations of affect, and thereby to open possibilities for articulating non-solipsistic and non-anthropocentric notions of the subject.     

Cyborg intentionality: Rethinking the phenomenology of human–technology relations

This article investigates the types of intentionality involved in human–technology relations. It aims to augment Don Ihde’s analysis of the relations between human beings and technological artifacts, by analyzing a number of concrete examples at the limits of Ihde’s analysis. The article distinguishes and analyzes three types of “cyborg intentionality,” which all involve specific blends of the human and the technological. Technologically mediated intentionality occurs when human intentionality takes place “through” technological artifacts; hybrid intentionality occurs when the technological actually merges with the human; and composite intentionality is the addition of human intentionality and the intentionality of technological artifacts.

Positive youth development as a guiding framework in sport research: Is it time to plan for a transition?

Positive youth development is a popular guiding framework for studying the psychosocial development of youth. In sport research, for more than two decades, this framework has enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms involved in successful shifts from youth to adulthood. Nonetheless, scholars have recently taken a more critical stance on the positive youth development framework by elucidating some of its shortcomings. To help determine whether it may be warranted to plan for a transition from the positive youth development framework in sport research, a critical commentary is offered. The purpose of this commentary lies in situating three ontologically distinct arguments that depict the shortcomings of the positive youth development framework, namely the operationalization argument, the social justice argument, and the posthumanist argument. This paper is offered as an open invitation to instigate dialogue on what may come next for youth development in sport research and whether planning for a transition is warranted.     

Intra-active signatures in Capoeira: More-than-human pathways towards activism

This paper is informed by interdisciplinary research, practice and activism (Allegranti and Silas 2014; 2016, 2017) combining dance movement psychotherapy, cognitive neuroscience and the Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira. Framed by feminist new materialism and posthumanism (Manning 2013; Harraway 2012; Barad 2007), and as an antidote to our global crisis, this writing foregrounds conceptual and political discourses that work towards counterhegemonic understandings of bodies, affect, brain activity and relating. Here, we present case studies arising from our ‘Capoeira Lab’ a hybrid laboratory, dance studio and psychotherapeutic space that demonstrates more-than-humanism in action, and what happens when insights from psychotherapy, neuroscience and capoeira are read through one another. To paraphrase Barad (2007), we propose Intra-active Signatures: a distributed and dynamic process between bodies, technology and environments – typified by the capoeira exchange. This more-than-human focus dislocates the centrality of the human and the cognitive bias instead, yielding ecologically renewable and neurodiverse ways human-environment relating and enacting ethical change. Ripples of movement in relating evolve micro acts of activism.     

Pleasure principle and perfect happiness: morality in Jacques Lacan and Zhuangzi

Jacques Lacan studied Chinese classics and received much inspiration from Zhuangzi. This paper concentrates on the comparative study of morality in those two thinkers from three connecting levels, namely, nature as the source of ethical codes, reason as the means to arrive at the ethical state, and pleasure as the ultimate purpose of morality. The investigation into the topic is enlightening for posthuman morality. Zhuangzi’s idea of the poetics of oneness inspires the Lacanian concept of the Real and ushers us into a new territory to rethink animal rights.