From Extractivism to Adjacency. A Research Manifesto

Authors

Margarita Palacios, Birkbeck, University of LondonFollow
Anette Baldauf, Academy of Fine Arts ViennaFollow

ORCID

Margarita Palacios https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6458-9745

Keywords

adjacency, aesthetics, diffraction, extractivism, decolonization, white innocence

Document Type

Commentary

Abstract

This essay concerns with the ways in which extractivism continues to be reproduced in academic frameworks despite innumerous initiatives of decolonization. Engaging with artistic research and embracing a materialist approach that emphasizes embeddedness and embodiment, as well as acknowledging the affective-aesthetic flows that accompany research, the authors locate the heart of the problem at the disjuncture between critical epistemology and research practices. This disavowed space of knowledge production, they argue, is where the logics of extractivism and its racialized epistemic dualism are reproduced. The authors put forward the notion of adjacency, as in their view, dwelling on the power of ‘excessive proximity’ that informs experiences of contamination, vulnerability and accountability has the potential to destabilize the violence of epistemic dualisms and white innocence.

Recommended Citation

Palacios, Margarita and Baldauf, Anette (2023) "From Extractivism to Adjacency. A Research Manifesto," Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol2/iss1/9