Donatella Alessandrini

GMOs and the Crisis of Objectivity: Nature, Science and the Challenge of Uncertainty

This article contributes to the current debate on the meaning and regulation of biotechnology by focusing on the role that the concepts of nature and sound science play in framing struggles against agricultural biotechnology in India. It contends that the political work of these concepts consists of limiting democratic deliberation by neatly separating facts from values and scientific certainty from politics. In particular, it aims to show that both the invocation of nature and reliance on sound science are counterproductive for the more interesting challenges opponents are already articulating outside the boundaries drawn by the nature/society, science/politics and facts/ values distinctions. Indeed, the political significance of the collective experimentations going on in India (as elsewhere) is that they signal a shift from a risk mentality, centred on ‘hard facts’ supposed to settle the debate, to novel approaches to uncertainty that recognize the increasing controversies surrounding GMOs. These approaches, it is argued, provide a more interesting space for thinking about the uncertainty surrounding biotechnological crops and the relations we (might) share with them.

Conceptualising the Economy-Society Nexus in Well-Being and Happiness Initiatives: Gross National Happiness in Business in Bhutan and Social Impact Bonds in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT This article explores how well-being and happiness (WBH) is conceptualised in different geographical contexts, and how this understanding is able to affect policymaking and engender socio-economic and legal change. Whilst WBH initiatives seemingly stem from a critique of gross domestic product as a measure of societal “progress,” we show how, in itself, such critique cannot be the basis for understanding WBH as a unitary transnational phenomenon that offers a radical re-thinking of the relationship between economy and society. By focusing on two concrete instances and specific sites, that of the Social Impact Bond in the United Kingdom and the “Gross National Happiness in Business” project in Bhutan, we argue that individual contexts and initiatives must be closely studied, and suggest that conflations between different well-being agendas need to be avoided to pay closer attention to the ways in which well-being can be co-opted or fashioned through policymaking and government initiatives.

Latin America and the Trans/National Debate: A Conversation Piece

This paper is the result of a conversation, started in 2008, about the significance of the struggles for gender and sexual justice taking place in Latin America and more broadly of the challenges global justice and solidarity movements (GJ&SM) are articulating at various national and international levels. Two themes are explored throughout: the extent to which the current Latin American experiments with diversity, plurality, connectivity and mutuality, starting with the ‘plural concept of gender and sexuality’, challenge existing divides between gender, sexual, social and economic justice and the extent to which they simultaneously question the North/South divide. We also reflect on the problems and challenges that such approaches might present or encounter. Este documento es el resultado de una conversación iniciada en el 2008, sobre la importancia de las luchas por la justicia de género y sexualidad, realizadas en Latinoamérica y en términos más amplios, el desafío de la justicia global y los movimientos de solidaridad (GJ&SM, por sus siglas en inglés) articulándolos en los diferentes niveles tanto nacionales como internacionales. Se han explorado dos temas: Por un lado, la medida en que los experimentos actuales latinoamericanos con la diversidad, pluralidad, conectividad y reciprocidad, comenzando con el ‘concepto plural del género y la sexualidad’, desafían a las divisiones existentes entre la justicia de género, social y económica, y por otro lado, el grado en que estos experimentos cuestionan simultáneamente la división norte/sur. También reflexionamos sobre los problemas y desafíos que tales enfoques pueden presentar o enfrentar. 本文是一项起始于2008年对话的成果，是关于正发生于拉美、为两性和性别正义而进行的斗争的意义，更广泛地说，也是关于正在国家和国际多个层面上发出声音的全球公正与团结运动所提出挑战的意义。有两个主题贯穿始终：一是当今拉美始于“性别与两性多重概念”而在多样性、多元性、连通性及相互性方面所进行尝试的程度，对性别、两性、社会和经济正义的现存分野提出了挑战，二是它们与此同时对南北分野提出质疑的程度。我们亦将反思拉美的此种路径可能提出或遇到的问题和挑战。