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6 Creative survival as subversion I Solidarities and creative tactics against ‘conditions of death’1 n the DRC, the exercise and consolidation of state authority does not necessarily imply social transformation or a real commitment of the state to impose itself but, rather, the management of state absences and state presences through a plurality of authorities. Still, the patterns of coercion and extraction that have followed from the 20 years of conflict, with the different state-making and peacebuilding processes, determine the conditions for the
6 Europe as a force for creative reconciliation President Pat Cox Introduction As he reminded his audience, when Pat Cox delivered his lecture on ‘Europe as a force for creative reconciliation’ on 26 April 2004, the reunification of the continent with the accession to the European Union of ten new members was only six days away. As President of the European Parliament, he was privileged to watch this historic development from a unique vantage point. In June 1989, when he was first elected to the Parliament, such a development was barely imaginable. The European
Introduction Artist–academic collaborations are becoming increasingly popular in socially engaged research. Often, this comes from a drive to ‘have impact’ outside of academia, as creative pieces are often seen as more engaging and accessible for non-specialised audiences. The impact on collaborators (both on the collaborating ‘researchers’ and ‘creatives’) also comes into play here, as interdisciplinary work could be a form of re-thinking how we
field report submitted by Sara Wong on the artist-academic collaborative project PostiveNegatives and the Drugs & (dis)order project foregrounds the questions of authorship, knowledge production and power relations suggested in the research articles. The report reflects critically on one of the group’s creative collaborations – part of the Drugs and (dis)order project in Colombia – and particularly on the interpersonal relations and questions of capacity building and learning which form part of
life and live out the fascistic dream. That doesn’t mean to say the threat of violence ever truly dissipates from the relationship. Once the power over life is normalised, the spectre of violence is in fact omnipresent. It has to be that way or else the still existent capacity to resist might result in a reversal of fortunes. In the absence of violence there is an absence of fear. And in the absence of fear life can live affirmatively, creatively, resistively in the primary and ontological sense of these terms, with all the public and joyful expressions of difference
and a tight timeframe, yet they managed to respond creatively to the peculiar situation in Vienna, where huge empty office buildings had been allocated to shelter new asylum seekers during the ‘summer of migration’ in 2015. The architects had focused on adding simple furnishings that created a more homely environment, articulating a careful, human-centred approach that had interpreted shelter not as four walls and a roof but as a calming and secure internal space. The aim
was very confused – a mixture of creative narrative and academic historiography– as I sought to position my experiences in context. It was all a lengthy, unedited mess to be honest, but at least I had finally ‘got it out of my system’. RR: Did you have an imagined audience in mind while you wrote the book? Did that influence how you approached the writing? TR: I had three audiences in mind. First, I wanted my colleagues, both academic and clinical, to accept the contents, and at times criticisms, as a true and fair reflection of the events that they either
have. This is not a problem until a situation arises which presents an existential threat and a paradigm shift is required purely for survival, which was of course the rationale that the original ALNAP study gave for innovation. This rationale draws on the idea of creative destruction, the phrase coined by Joseph Schumpeter to describe how the ‘fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers’ goods, the new methods of production or transportation
the NGO for which he worked had a policy against the use of military escorts. Yet, in a context where, due to the insecure nature of the field environment, the use of military escorts was ‘the only way authorities would accept movement’, they reached a creative solution by which the NGO travelled behind the armed convoy, ten minutes later. Another interviewee described similar dynamics at play during a hostage situation. The NGO he worked for had a policy precluding payment to secure hostages’ release, but in practice during hostage negotiations, the organisation
particular, networks forged by years of being there on the ground. As a journalist I am alone, and in the best-case scenario I have a vehicle and three phone numbers that a colleague held onto from a previous assignment. Creative use of these limited resources and, above all, the war reporter’s isolation – which allows a more independent, yet fragile, view of the violence – are mentioned by Adrien Jaulmes, a Le Figaro reporter and ex-soldier (he was a lieutenant in the Foreign