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Disjunctive Constellations (on climate change) Open Access version.pdf (172.62 kB)

Disjunctive constellations: on climate change, conjunctures and cultural studies

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 22:15 authored by Ben HighmoreBen Highmore
The planetary scale of climate change challenges forms of conjunctural analyses that are based around the scale of national politics and culture. Global warming insists on planetary dimensions and invites us to treat humankind as a species that has developed a taste for fossil fuels. Critical Cultural Studies, and the human sciences more generally, seem founded on the principle that culture and society has historically worked to differentiate humans, and that the task of a critical practice is to investigate this process within and across specific geographical locales. How do we reconcile what seems to be an unreconcilable difference between Cultural Studies and climate change? Below I argue that alongside the necessary work of conjunctural analysis we should remember that the critical human sciences have other capacities that are more suited to negotiating the monstrous diversity of scales that global warming and the micro cultures of the everyday articulate. Alongside conjunctural analysis I argue for the relevance of an approach that would posit ‘disjunctive constellations’ as objects for attention. While it might seem counter-intuitive, the disjunctive constellations I have in mind are at once more modest and (potentially) more expansive than a conjuncture. In my understanding, disjunctive constellations are not in opposition to conjunctures; they may well be the critical kernel at the heart of a conjunctural sensitivity.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory, Politics

ISSN

0950-2378

Publisher

Lawrence and Wishart

Issue

3

Volume

102

Page range

28-43

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-11-23

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-11-23

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-11-21

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