Open AccessOn Happiness and Critique. From Bouquet V to ´possible elsewheres´
Author(s) -
Claudia Schumann
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
studier i pædagogisk filosofi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2244-9140
DOI - 10.7146/spf.v6i1.102948
Subject(s) - happiness , sociology , epistemology , diversity (politics) , inclusion (mineral) , reflection (computer programming) , critical reflection , economic justice , injustice , social justice , psychology , aesthetics , social psychology , law , gender studies , philosophy , law and economics , political science , pedagogy , computer science , anthropology , programming language
The paper explores the relationship of happiness and critique. It is a reflection on a decade of being trained in and practicing philosophical critique. It is a reflection on experiences I had during teaching on social justice, inclusion and diversity; and it is a reflection on the on-going debate on negative vs. affirmative forms of critique within feminist philosophy. It is also an exercise in imagining a transformation of our critical practices, where the embrace of more affirmative (rather than destructive-negative) modes of critique does not entail overlooking or turning a blind eye to the barriers that unjustly restrain some movements and allow for others' privileges to persist. I suggest that a diffractive approach to critique would allow for joyfully interchanging and alternating appropriate modes of debunking, of being the killjoy against sedimentations that weigh some of us down, with other modes of critique which allow us to augment and lift up examples of already on-going structural change.