This is a presentation on the Performative Turn of knowledge for social and ecological justice. Given at the Transformative Learning for Social Justice Symposium at Fielding Graduate University. To read more, see: http://tiffanyvonemmel.wikispaces.com/Publications%2C+Articles%2C+and+Presentations

1. Knowledge Revolution
The performative turn towards social and environmental justice
Presentation given at Transformative Learning Symposium, Fielding Graduate University, 2005
Tiffany von Emmel, Ph.D.

2. Representational knowledge…
1. Disappears multiple ways of knowing
….When less of the body’s knowing is
engaged, less of the collective’s knowing is
engaged.
….Good for control, not so good for life….

3. 2. The far senses keep things at a distance
Ocularcentrism and Verbocentrism
...Knowledge as ‘ownership’ makes
commodification and control more possible

4. 3. ‘Deforested perception’
• passivity (Alaine Touraine)
• shallow perception (Laura Sewell, David Abram)
• ‘impoverished imagination’ (David Orr, Maxine Greene)
• fragmentation and industrialization (Susan Griffin, Tulku)
...perpetuates consuming/producing ‘modes of desire’
(Peter Mclaren)

5. It’s a vicious cycle……
Controlling patterns of knowledge-creation
interfere with life’s dynamic balancing of relationship….

6. Linguistic turn  Performative turn
• representation  participation
• mind  embodied
• subject/object  action
• value subjective  value-specific
• interpretation  activism
• data-centered  relationship

7. Tiffany von Emmel
http://vonemmel.com
@tiffanyvonemmel
facebook.com/tiffanyvonemmel