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RESOURCEFUL citizens
This theme explores the politics of adapting to changing times.
We ask: How and in what ways do ordinary people prepare for extra-ordinary happenings? Many narratives (in and outside the patent archive) focus on heroic tales of triumphing against adversity and prevailing in hostile conditions. The dominant norm is that of an individual heroically beating the odds, succeeding against adversity, conquering the unknown. Yet, there are many other ways of living with issues or as Donna Haraway writes “staying with the trouble”. 2
To be resourceful is to be “able to meet situations”. 3 This might involve occupying in-between spaces, reframing problems into responsible collective relations or attempting to resist repeating damaging colonial relations. 4 And, while there will always be unexpected things that cannot be planned for, there are an ever-increasing range of challenging issues right facing the world that cannot be ignored. Climate crisis, global pollution, war, ongoing pandemics and decimation of earth’s resources and the needs of asylum seekers to name just a few.
Examples of patents to be explored in this theme:Shipwreck, Fire, Exposure, Displacement, War, Tsunami, Atomic fallout, Pandemic.
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2 Donna Haraway. Staying with the Trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. (Duke University Press, 2016)
3 See Merriam-webster.com for definitions
4 See for example writings on pollution in Max Liboiron, Pollution is Colonisation,Durham: Duke University Press, 2021. And Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Harvard University Press, 2011.