Building Response-able Abstractions with Gullah/Geechee Nation

Abstract

In this article, I think with a decade-long, ongoing collaboration with the Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank to consider whether and how we can build abstractions in a scholarly way that resource Gullah/Geechee self-determination. Building on Haraway’s concept of “response-ability” I propose the concept of “response-able abstractions” as an approach to scholarly knowledge for transformative social change. I sketch out the concept of “Long Reconstruction” as an example of a response-able abstraction that can bring into relief the sociopolitical relations and space–times of environmental governance in Gullah/Geechee Nation, and as a way of producing scholarly forms of knowledge that resource Gullah/Geechee self-determination.

根据我与“Gullah/Geechee可持续发展智库”持续十年的合作, 我思考了是否以及如何以学术的方式去构建抽象, 从而支持Gullah/Geechee的自主。基于Haraway的“反应能力”, 我提出社会变革所需的学术知识——“可反应抽象”。作为可反应抽象的实例, 我勾勒出“长期重建”概念, 从而缓解Gullah/Geechee环境治理中的社会政治关系和时空, 构建支持Gullah/Geechee自主的学术知识。

En este artículo analizo la colaboración continua durante una década con el Tanque de Pensamiento sobre Sustentabilidad Gullah/Geechee, para considerar la posibilidad de que podamos construir abstracciones de forma académica que fomenten la autodeterminación de los gullah/geechee, y cómo hacerlo. A partir del concepto de Haraway de “capacidad de respuesta”, propongo el concepto de “abstracciones con capacidad de respuesta”, como enfoque del conocimiento erudito para un cambio social que transforme. Hago un esbozo del conceto de la “Larga Reconstrucción”, como ejemplo de abstracción susceptible de respuesta que puede poner de relieve las relaciones sociopolíticas y el espacio-tiempo de la gobernanza ambiental en la Nación Gullah/Geechee, y como manera de producir formas eruditas del conocimiento que validen la autodeterminación Gullah/Geechee.

关键词:

• 抽象
• Gullah/Geechee民族
• 长期重建
• 反应能力

Palabras clave:

• abstracción
• capacidad de respuesta
• Larga Reconstrucción
• Nación Gullah/Geechee

Key Words:

• abstraction, Gullah/Geechee Nation, Long Reconstruction, response-ability

Acknowledgments

This article is one expression of an ongoing collaboration between the University of Minnesota and various members of the Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank. People interested in learning more about Gullah/Geechee people and the place and culture can visit www.SaintHelenaGullahGeechee.com to view a collaboratively authored StoryMap, led by Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head of State of Gullah/Geechee Nation and the University of Minnesota 2020 Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts. Queen Quet, Elder Carlie Towne, and Representative Glenda Simmons-Jenkins have been ongoing interlocutors whose insights have deeply influenced all aspects of my thinking on how to do scholarship with and for people fighting for freedom and self-determination. Thanks also to Robert Nichols and Joshua Barkan for serving as sounding boards. Of course, all errors are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kate Derickson

KATE DERICKSON is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the politics and epistemology of knowledge production for transformative social change. She is a member of the Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank.