[Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Tue Apr 14 09:51:34 PDT 2020

Hello Greg! Thanks for your question.
The idea is to spread these questions and invite families, friends, colleagues, and people with meet here and there and who happy to chat, to describe what is essential for them and how it is connected with others here and there. The next step being to try to identify what it requires to preserve it, who are the "allies" and what dos it require.
Here in the University of Neuchâtel, as Laure Kloetzer has explained in a recent post, students of social sciences and staff have been invited to answer these questions. And when meeting is again possible, all this will be discussed.
I have also shared this questionnaire with people in other circles who themselves are trying to see how to share them and draw inspiration from the answers for further action.
Best wishes,
Anne-Nelly

Prof. em. Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
Institut de psychologie et éducation Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines
Université de Neuchâtel
Espace Tilo-Frey 1 (Anciennement: Espace Louis-Agassiz 1)
CH- 2000 Neuchâtel (Suisse)
http://www.unine.ch/ipe/publications/anne_nelly_perret_clermont

De : <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com<mailto:greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>>
Répondre à : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Date : samedi, 11 avril 2020 à 18:34
À : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Objet : [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Two things.

1. The Listserve is acting misogynistic - I didn't see Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont's OR Annalie PIstorus' original messages to the list, I only saw their comments below the male responses to their comments (Mike's to Anne-Nelly and Ulvi's to Annalie). Maybe the code of the listserve is actually literally structurally biased against women's voices? (I'm half-joking but I'm totally serious about not seeing their original posts).

2. The link that Anne-Nelly sent was to a Bruno Latour paper (link below) that included the challenge to think about what things we can give up or change when life goes back to "normal" so that we aren't still in the same mess that we were before. I wonder if folks on this list might be interested in having a go at the exercise?
I'm also curious if Anne-Nelly might be willing to share the thinking that her group has done on this?

Here is the list of questions:
Let us take advantage of the forced suspension of most activities to take stock of those we would like to see discontinued and those, on the contrary, that we would like to see developed.
I suggest that readers try to answer this short questionnaire for themselves. It will be especially useful as it will be based on a personal experience that has been directly lived. This exercise is not a question of expressing an opinion but of describing your situation and may be investigating. It is only later, if one were to give oneself the means of compiling the answers of many respondents and then composing the landscape created by their intersections, that one could find a form of political expression - but this time embodied and situated in a concrete world.
Answer the following questions first individually and then if possible with others:
Question 1: What are the activities now suspended that you would like to see not resumed?
Question 2: Describe why you think this activity is harmful/ superfluous/ dangerous/inconsistent and how its disappearance/suspension/substitution would make the activities you favor easier/ more consistent. (Make a separate paragraph for each of the activities listed in question 1).
Question 3: What measures do you recommend to ensure that the workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs who will no longer be able to continue in the activities you are removing are helped in their transition toward other activities.
Question 4: Which of the now suspended activities would you like to develop/resume or even create from scratch?
Question 5: Describe why this activity seems positive to you and how it makes it easier/ more harmonious/ consistent with other activities that you favor and helps to combat those that you consider unfavorable. (Make a separate paragraph for each of the activities listed in question 4).
Question 6: What measures do you recommend to help workers/ employees/ agents/ entrepreneurs acquire the capacities/ means/ income/ instruments to take over/ develop/ create this favored activity.
Now, find a way to compare your descriptions with those of other participants. Compiling and then superimposing the answers should gradually produce a landscape made of lines of conflict, alliances, controversy and opposition. This terrain may provide a concrete opportunity for creating the forms of political expression these activities require.

Here are links to the paper in 6 different languages:
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/852.html

Cheers,
Greg

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 9:51 PM mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu<mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>> wrote:
Hi Anna-Lisa. What you describe has great similarities what people in the US are experiencing with the exception that it is now clear for all to see that it is poverty, or the security of the vulnerable (same thing in my view).

Thanks very much for the Latium letter.  It is totally relevant right now.

Mike

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 9:38 AM PERRET-CLERMONT Anne-Nelly <Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch<mailto:Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch>> wrote:
Hello everybody!

Thank you so much for all the news and perspectives that are being shared from all over the Planet. Such difficult times, especially for those who can’t even send news...

Some news from Switzerland, a privileged country, yet with very serious contamination rates. Almost 4 weeks of confinement (rights to go out are very limited and only a limited number of professions are still working) that totally re-organize our private and public life.

The sun is shining wonderfully and it is very tempting  to move out for this Easter holiday. Nevertheless, most people are very disciplined and stay home in confinement.
It took a lot of time for the local, cantonal and federal authorities to decide on the confinement measures. Switzerland’s political traditions impose  bottom-up decisions. But the result of this (too slow?) process seems to be that most people agree and comply with this policy. Police forces try to do education and not  repression. But the peak of the tide of contamination has not been reached yet and hospitals are under stress.

The economic stress due to this long shut down arises a lot of fear on the side of trade unions and employers associations. Switzerland has very large multinational companies, but 90% of its firms are small or medium size business. Quite a number of them are now reaching the edge of  bankruptcy. If they should go bankrup,t this would totally disorganise the country, its daily style of life and more: small firms and their locations impact regional demography, resources, power (in a federation of cantons), etc.  after compulsory education, 60% of the young people attend dual education (i.e. half time in firms and half-time in school) and if firms shut down this education will fall apart. Government, banks and networks of citizens are lending money and trying to maintain these small firms alive. Unemployment rate is raising but rents have to be paid. Etc…

Switzerland is a country of pharmaceutical industry and engineers. But the panic in the hospitals is not over: equipment is insufficient, and drugs are starting to miss. Local enterprises have the know how to make them but …with ingredients that come exclusively from China and India. Hospitals have been afraid of losing 25% to 40% of their staff as nurses often come from the bordering regions of France and Italy. Finally, these countries have locked their borders but not for those professionals. This does not solve the problem on the long term, of course as these countries also need more medical staff. We hope that a growing awareness of the importance (and respect and salary) due to these professions will finally have the necessary impact. At 9 p.m., everybody goes at the window or balcony to give them a clap (or ring bells or even play music) for a minute to thank all the medical staff and other professions (e.g., cleaners) who likewise take enormous risks and make great efforts.

The number of beds in the hospitals has been seriously increased by creative means. The ultraliberal policy of the last decade had seriously cut down the number of beds in hospital and sent many many patients  to private practice and ambulatory treatment. But the government, when declaring confinement, has also declared that medical practitioners should only do online treatment and should close their practice. Result: 3 weeks later medical authorities are very worried: many patients in serious conditions or with severe chronic diseases don’t dare to call their medical practitioner and are afraid to go to the emergency services in hospital (fear of overloading them, fear of infection by Covid and fear of being cut out from their families (not allowed in the hospital). The pronostic is a possible wave of very serious cases needing urgent and heavy  treatment. This wave will put extra-pressure on the sanitary system already overburden. Meanwhile small medical units are close to bankruptcy : their have to pay the salaries of their staff but have no income to do so.

There is also a (still small) growing concern among social scientists that the teams that reflect on the pandemic and the confinement measures (and the planning of the end of the confinement) are made up of exclusively of epidemiologists and economists (with one or two specialists in ethics). Hence the psychic and social problems of the confined population are probably underestimated.
Little is known of the underprivileged part of the population, now unemployed, in small housing, with little outreach. Schooling has gone online in a fortnight (with absolutely no preparation) but many students don’t have connections or share the unique computer of the household with parents and siblings all supposedly on line.

This is only a few elements that characterise the situation. In parallel, many citizens are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of the total interdependence of the economy and of the ecological disasters that this creates. Sanitary disasters and ecological disasters are much more interrelated than expected (a very nice book to understand that biological processes and ways of life social life are interdependent: Rob Dunn "Never home alone. >From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live").

There are also plenty of many nice examples of solidarity, creativity, etc. They need to converge and be made visible.

We (MAPS in University of Neuchâtel)  are engaging in a large inquiry based on Bruno Latour’s call (March 29, 2020): "A little exercise to make sure that, after the virus crisis, things don’t start again as they were before" (see http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/852.html with already versions in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, German, Dutch).

Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont

<https://www.google.com/maps/search/Espace+Louis-Agassiz+1)+%0D%0A+CH-+2000+Neuch%C3%A2tel+(Suisse?entry=gmail&source=g>
Prof. em. Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
Institut de psychologie et éducation Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines
Université de Neuchâtel
Espace Tilo-Frey 1<https://www.google.com/maps/search/Espace+Tilo-Frey+1?entry=gmail&source=g> (Anciennement: Espace Louis-Agassiz 1)<https://www.google.com/maps/search/Espace+Louis-Agassiz+1)+%0D%0A+CH-+2000+Neuch%C3%A2tel+(Suisse?entry=gmail&source=g>
CH- 2000 Neuchâtel (Suisse<https://www.google.com/maps/search/Espace+Louis-Agassiz+1)+%0D%0A+CH-+2000+Neuch%C3%A2tel+(Suisse?entry=gmail&source=g>)
http://www.unine.ch/ipe/publications/anne_nelly_perret_clermont

Last publications:
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., Schär, R., Greco, S., Convertini, J., Iannaccone, A., & Rocci, A. (2019). Shifting from a monological to a dialogical perspective on children’s argumentation. Lessons learned. In F. H. van Eemren & B. Garssen (Eds.), Argumentation in actual practice. Topical studies about argumentative discourse in context (pp. 211-236): John Benjamins Publishing Company. Version électronique<http://doc.rero.ch/record/327354> Iannaccone, A., Perret-Clermont, A.-N., & Convertini, J. (2019). Children as investigators of Brunerian “Possible worlds”. The role of narrative scenarios in children’s argumentative thinking. . Integrative Psychological and Behiavioral Science, 53, 679-693. Version électronique<https://doc.rero.ch/record/327830?ln=fr>

Perret-Clermont, A.-N., Perret, J.-F., Pochon, L.-O., & Marro, P. (2019). Hommage à Jacques Perriault. Hermes, La Revue, 3, 226-226.

In J.-P. Fragnière (Ed.), Agir et penser avec Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont (pp. 71-107). Lausanne: Editions Socialinfo https://www.socialinfo.ch/les-livres/38-agir-et-penser-avec-anne-nelly-perret-clermont.html

--
Being a social scientist is like being a geologist who studies rocks in a landslide. Roy D'Andrade
---------------------------------------------------
For archival resources relevant to the research of myself and other members of LCHC, visit
lchc.ucsd.edu<http://lchc.ucsd.edu>.  For archival materials and a narrative history of the research of LCHC, visit lchcautobio.ucsd.edu<http://lchcautobio.ucsd.edu>.

--
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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