‘Burning toda la mierda’: a schizo-affective poem

ABSTRACT

We gave ourselves permission to affect and to be affected. We listened to the voices of Chilean child welfare workers and embodied their experiences. We heard their doubts, contradictions, ideas, and yearnings. After a series of interviews, we created three poems with those voices. It felt wrong and incomplete. Vertical(ly)-Dry. We focused on the textual, but the workers’ voices demanded an Ontological change, an analysis from Affect theory that looked for the resonance of their experiences in us, with them. An Epistemological change was also needed. One that claimed there are other ways to create knowledge. In this case, we did it through poetry and by defying the anglophone academic vehicular language, presenting some nuances of English and Spanish. Finally, in the hope to contribute to the current Affect Studies, we present our Methodology, which has the shape of a schizo-affective poem called (and calling to) ‘Burning toda la mierda’.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• squizoanalysis
• writing differently
• child welfare policy

Acknowledgements

We deeply acknowledge the enthusiasm and dedication of every worker that was part of this research. Every time we think about our work together, we marvel at how much you taught us and how committed you were to this project. Your words and silences will be carved in us forever.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Notes

1 Murris and Bozalek (2019) state that a proposition is a new type of entity, a hybrid between potentiality and actuality, which is neither true nor false, simultaneously real and speculative. Unlike methods, propositions offer potentialities for research, as they present themselves as elements that have the capacity to affect those who experience them (the researchers) and to be affected back. The product of these affectations emerges from-and-in the encounter between the proposition and the researcher; that is, it does not pre-exist the relationships that constitute the research practice.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Project ‘Trabajo público en tiempos manageriales: prácticas cotidianas y formas de acción colectiva en contextos de alta rendición de cuentas y gobernanza financializada de lo público’ under the funding of the (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Proyecto FONDECYT Regular N° 1191015; and National Agency for Research and Development (Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, ANID) under Grant DOCTORADO NACIONAL/2020 - 21202092.