Po • deijuk (Po • diyu or The Last Dance, Anselm Chan, 2024) became the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in the history of Hong Kong cinema as of December 7, 2024. The Last Dance’s popularity is attributable to its ability to address the anger and frustration accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic (overtly) and the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (A-ELAB) protests in 2019–20, two events that are considered the crystallization of the problematics of Hong Kong’s postcolonial governance. The way the film does so, I argue, is by reopening and rewriting networks of affective flows that have been blocked not only by the recent sociopolitical traumas but also by the interpersonal infrastructure that most Hong Kongers have failed to address. In this light, the film tests the limits of how we have been understanding contemporary Hong Kong cinema in juridico-judicial terms (coloniality-postcoloniality). Instead, it requires a renewed understanding of the interdependent relationships among human beings. In this article, I use Thích Nhất Hạnh’s concept of «interbeing» as a framework to rethink how such interdependent relationships and kinship could be understood. For Thích, each being is best understood as a point of convergence of all beings, and what we call an individuated being is already an «interbeing». For me, the concept of interbeing is helpful not only as a hermeneutic model but also to reimagine how Hong Kongers could move beyond the city’s oppressive postcolonial conditions by releasing them from their affective blockages and attachments.
Ellen Dissanayake (RockIsland,1936) is an independentwriterand researcherwith a professional affiliationtothe University of Washington. The focus of her research is transdisciplinary, incorporating evolutionary biology, ethology and neuroscience, among other fields of study. Over the years, combining her interest in the arts with evolutionary biology, and using her own experience from living for more than 15 years in non-Western countries, Ellen Dissanayake has developed a new way of looking at the arts as a normal, natural and necessary component of our evolutionary nature as human beings.
On February 10, 1997, a large number of trans and transvestite women's organizations, together with Laura Bonaparte, member of Madres de Plaza de Mayo, carried out an artistic intervention in the Buenos Aires City Courts to denounce the repression exercised illegitimately by the Federal Police. Through the extension of two-dimensional cardboard silhouettes, as well as rag dolls filled with foam rubber, which replicated the real size of a human body, they carried out a day of protest that sought to make visible the stories of trans women and transvestites who had been victims of repressive violence since the democratic transition in Argentina. This paper, then, aims to analyze the creative strategies from which trans and transvestite activists occupied the public space, interpreting the creative appropriation of the silhouette, a tool of historical representation in the field of visual politics of the Human Rights movement, as a displaced use of this matrix of artistic and political representation. From the particularized analysis of the plastic resources and performative modes in which they carried out this action, we analyze the strategic use of trans and travesti femininity as a gender difference from which the protagonists sought to expand the margins of representation of enforced disappearances, while critically tensing the historicity of the return of democracy and state violence.
From the perspective of popular feminism, women in stigmatized downtown areas temporarily forgotten by real estate capital in the world's major cities, configure new radical imaginaries, powerful resistances that question and transgress the institutional violence of urban regeneration policies and the absence of housing policies. The aim of the article is to make visible the urban imaginaries in counter-projects of poor, migrant and elderly women to obtain housing, denounce racism and generate powerful actions to fight against urban extractivism in the cities they inhabit. These are invisible stories that should be part of the feminist memory against neoliberalism and its emancipatory imaginaries. As a theoretical framework, an approach to the definition of urban extractivism and imaginaries of feminine resistance against neoliberalism will be made from urban counter-narratives in the world, then a qualitative analysis through a case study in the Raval, Ciutat Vella after the crisis. It focuses on the representations, discourses, places, imaginaries, transgressive strategies of women exiled by neoliberalism that temporarily radically change the landscape by configuring counter-projects to avoid being expelled. It is concluded that it is necessary to weave counter-hegemonic narratives as a feminist register against neoliberalism, struggles that are re-imagining other ways of living the city, creating places of life in inert spaces, emptied by their high real estate and tourist value.
This paper interrogates some of the extensive debates that have taken place in Argentina related to the construction and recovery of feminist and LGBTIQ archives. Against the background of an experience of oral memory construction in the city of Paran & aacute; (Entre Rios, Argentina), we recover, first of all, the contributions produced from the so-called negative affective turn, in its reinterpretation, displacement, interrogation and contemporary production around the processes of archiving and memory construction. These debates have shown that archiving is always a dispute over who archives, who is archived and where, what materials deserve recognition as public heritage and what the visual construction of archives implies for these historically invisible communities. In short, the never innocent dispute over how we think about the what, the what for, and the how of the archive. In this framework, we inquire into how LGBTI+ and feminist communities have contributed to the debate that questions the very idea of "document" and the difficulty surrounding its clarity as evidence. For this reason, we will dwell on the discussions that have arisen in the heat of different reconstructions of archives carried out by feminist and LGBTI activisms that have focused on the historical forms of "documentary evidence". Or, in other words, the deviations produced around the "queerization of evidence". Thirdly, we question the forms taken by the debate on contemporary subjectivation and its link between archives, property and market in the neoliberal present. Lastly, we will explore, with final open questions, some ideas linked to the usefulness of continuing to produce and build archives. Questions that, in this convulsive present from Argentina, continue to challenge our work as archivists and activists, not only to sustain our pasts but also the future we desire.
Autocoscienza was a key feminist practice in 1970s Italy. Based on Suzanne Santoro's artist book Towards New Expression/Per una espressione nuova (1974), this paper proposes that this practice can be traced not only through words, but also in visual language. Selected parts of this book are placed in constellation with feminist archival materials related to autocoscienza -such as magazines, fanzines and books-, as well as texts by Rivolta femminile, Marija Gimbutas, and Luce Irigaray, which inspired Santoro's research and creative process. The visual language of the studied objects engages in a dialogue with the European tradition of representing the female nude. Santoro's position is particular: on the one hand, she reveals what much of this tradition has concealed -the form of the female genitals-, without entirely breaking with it; on the other hand, she reformulates an archaic representation of the female sacred. In conclusion, the paper proposes to understand autocoscienza in visual language as a distancing from culturally internalized images of women. This occurs through procedures such as cropping, decontextualisation and recontextualisation of images, and the creation of new imagery.
This study analyses the emotionality embedded in the caregiving work performed by migrant domestic workers in Spain, highlighting the heuristic potential of emotions as a tool to understand the labour and social dynamics these workers face. The main objective of the research is to explore how emotions can provide a more complex and detailed understanding of caregiving experiences, making visible the gender, class, and racial inequalities that characterise domestic employment. The study employed constructivist grounded theory as its methodology. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 48 women in Granada, Madrid, and Oviedo, and the analysis focused on three key emotions: affection, resilient resignation, and sadness. The findings reveal that affection can humanise labour relations but also reinforces dependency and exploitation; resilient resignation enables workers to endure adverse conditions, thereby naturalising precariousness; and sadness and loneliness expose structural barriers that hinder social integration. The study concludes that analysing the heuristic potential of emotions constitutes an epistemic tool that shows emotions are not merely individual responses but are shaped by power structures that perpetuate subordination. This perspective makes visible and questions the structural inequalities affecting care work within domestic employment.
In recent years, some artists have explored the question of motherhood in their work, in what seems to be a renewed interest in this theme, which has not been much addressed in contemporary art in recent decades in Spain. Recent works such as those of Pili & Aacute;lvarez (2022), Raquel Friera (2019) or N & uacute;ria G & uuml;ell (2017), show a tendency to approach the maternal from the field of contemporary art that goes far beyond its mere thematisation to try to articulate and understand the complex relations that exist between reproductive work and artistic work, which transversalise both their lives and their artistic practices. Their proposals are part of an impulse to make motherhood and care work visible within the machinery of contemporary art, and are committed to stop hiding their burdens and their materiality. In this sense, they connect with the work of the illustrator N & uacute;ria Pompeia during the sixties, who in her book Maternasis (1967) responded to the invisibilisation of the material reality of pregnancy that contributed to its idealisation.
This audiovisual work provides context for and commentary on the short film Quince Minutos, made by Maria Elisa Corona (Madrid, 1930) in 1955 during her second year of Film Directing at the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematogr & aacute;ficas (IIEC). Employing narrative and expressive audiovisual techniques based on archival research and interviews, this work examines the life and creative experience of Maria Elisa Corona from feminist perspectives during her time at film school. It reflects on the emancipatory value that these experiences could have had for a young woman during the Franco dictatorship. By creatively engaging with a figure from Spanish audiovisual heritage, the work celebrates the contributions of women to the culture of the moving image during the Francoist dictatorship.
Amidst the abrupt reconfigurations of the known world evident in the current historical cycle, marked by the electoral advances of the far right and the growing state of war and genocide on a global level, faced with a world in which the words and forms of political action we have historically used to imagine emancipatory possibilities appear snatched, appropriated, emptied, or denigrated, I do not expect (nor can I) undertake the pompous gesture of proposing a theoretical approach to nascent, fragile forms of resistance. But perhaps I would preferto attempt a limited personal writing exercise that accounts forthe facts and also the debates in which we are immersed, which hopefully will fuel a potential collective journal. I propose to share here the dizzying journey of a political experience that erupted in Argentina in the early months of 2025 in an unexpected and challenging way, outside of known logic and organizations (unions, political parties, federations of the LGBTQ+ community). It was clearly expressed in the massive February 1st demonstration (1F) in Buenos Aires and in many towns and cities in Argentina and around the world, with an estimated total mobilization of two million people that day. I share a series of notes written in the first-person singular as a direct participant and witness of this process, in a polyphonic dialogue with testimonies and analyses written by other people involved. I aspire to capture the coordinates of its dizzying development, the character of a public event it achieved, and also the limits and conflicts that are soon taking their toll on this exceptional experience. This personal chronicle feels written in the midst of urgency, without distance or calm. We are stunned and devastated by the magnitude and virulence of the attacks we are receiving. But at the same time, in the midst of this atrocious time, despite everything, we continue to collectively invent ways to confront such an escalation of hatred and sustain the possibility of dissident lives. Copyright: (c) 2025 CSIC. Este es un art & iacute;culo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los t & eacute;rminos de la licencia de uso y distribuci & oacute;n Creative Commons Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0).
This article argues that the functions of the financial system, and by extension financial inclusion, are relevant elements in the processes of social mobility, mainly intergenerational social mobility, whether upward mobility or preventing downward mobility. The central argument of this article is that the financial system contributes to upward social mobility through two channels. First, it can generate investment in human capital through savings and asset accumulation and risk hedging. The second is a necessary ingredient for entrepreneurship. This analysis allows us to link different areas of research, social mobility, whose antecedents come from sociology and more recently from economics, and recent studies of financial inclusion. This facilitates creating a bridge between fields and disciplines. This paper also provides quantitative empirical evidence with a descriptive analysis. Using Mexico's ESRU EMOVI survey, we present evidence for that country of a positive relationship between the holding and use of financial services and greater upward intergenerational social mobility.
This article contributes to clarifying the concept of social banking by analysing the different ways in which social and sustainable criteria are institutionalised in banking organisations. Its main contribution is found in the novel prioritisation of its determinants through identification of the necessary and sufficient characteristics that define social banking. With this objective, it develops a structuring of approaches that addresses its roots, development and evolution to then examine its specific characteristics and operationalise these in dimensions: triple objective (social, environmental and economic), social economy, inclusion, governance and practical banking. Through a qualitative comparative analysis, it analyses the non-financial reports of 19 Spanish banking entities in 2022, whose results reveal alternative equivalent configurations of these dimensions. These configurations are made up of the triple objective and participatory governance dimensions, alternatively combined with banking practice with criteria or financial inclusion or social economy. It concludes that different combinations of dimensions lead to alternative institutionalisations of social and sustainable criteria, empirically determining that the terminological diversity found around social banking refers to different configurations of the same social banking phenomenon.
This article analyses the Fintech ecosystem in Spain using a survey-based quantitative methodology. The main objective is to identify the sector's key characteristics as well as its practices and narratives concerning groups frequently faced with social and financial exclusion. The findings reveal that in a highly banked context like Spain, Fintech companies do not significantly facilitate financial inclusion for these groups. Instead, they view these people's access to financial services as an opportunity to expand their own business model to traditionally excluded segments, rather than prioritizing inclusion as a central goal, despite their institutional rhetoric. From an economic sociology perspective, the article concludes that financial inclusion does not automatically result from increased competition in the financial services market or expanded access to more affordable services. Rather, it depends on implementation of specific and structural practices designed to address the needs of partially or entirely excluded groups, ensuring these initiatives are effectively integrated into the sector's strategies.
This article proposes a review of two perspectives on listening, one personal and the other environmental. Approaches from psychology, art and philosophy are brought together in a methodological hybridisation that brings us closer to different treatments of the subjectivity inherent in listening. On the one hand, we will review the proposal of Carl Rogers, an American psychologist and therapist, who proposes a person-centred approach to listening. On the other hand, we will see that listening is amplified by devices that communicate a personal reception with the other of oneself, extending the internal dynamics of subjectivity. From a production of self-referentiality, with full meaning in the second half of the 20th century, to its critique based on Rolnik, Haraway, Deleuze, Guattari, we will see that active personal listening projects reference systems that are harmful to the health of the environment and its cohabitants. In their study, we will identify how the out-of-field concept of listening favours an opening of subjective self-production through an operation that induces a transformation in communication; thus, listening goes beyond a subjective self-referentiality to try to weigh the forces of the world. The ludic mechanisms that the article offers allow us to trace ways of constructing new referential systems that facilitate social development on the basis of active co-involvement of its cohabitants.
This study analyses the therapeutic landscape and hospital gardening from different perspectives that depict their transdisciplinary nature and construction as cultural manifestations, as well as the interest that, as an object of study, they have created due to their impact on human beings, in general, and on hospital patients, in particular. Likewise, the aim is to illustrate the scope, at different levels, these places already have in the care framework itself, where they are especially beneficial, not only for hospitalised patients, due to their vulnerable situation, but also for professionals and companions. This information allows us to trace an appropriate theorical frameworkto reasonably analyse the interior patios of the Hospital Central Universitario de Asturias (HUCA) as examples of hospital gardening in Asturias. Finally, the conclusions raised are accompanied by some current considerations and references to other projects currently under development in the principality of Asturias.
The interpretation of the origin and structuring of the Cuban nation has been made, most often, from a historical perspective. The studies concerning nation-building in Cuba have not sufficiently addressed the impact of the visual, the visible in this process. Thus the relevance of this research, which proposes an approach to the links between the categories of race, visual culture and nation with the aim of describing and assessing how images have structured visual narratives that support or legitimise national historical-political narrations. To write this article, the theoretical-methodological guidelines of Art History and Visual Culture Studies have been followed. In this case, an approach is made to the formation process of the visual narrative inherent to the Cuban nation, taking the image of the Black hero in the urban historic centre of Santiago de Cuba as the main reference for the analysis. From a sample of 76 images of heroes in the city indicated, it was found that 24 of these images represent Black heroes. The hypothesis of the research is that these images turn out to be correlates of the historical-political narrations of transcendence or racial harmony, recurrent in Latin American and Caribbean nations classified as racial democracies, pigmentocracies or colour-blind nations. The idea of a colour-blind nation establishes a planned and desirable dialogue between the visible and the invisible, between the seen and the hidden. The busts, statues and monuments that have been analysed in this study allow us to conclude that the historical-political narration of a harmonious Cuba, in racial terms, had its counterpart in the field of the visual, starting with the creation of what could be called a bronze race"
This paper aims to provide insight into the final stage of Gustavo Bueno's thinking, specifically his theories regarding the Spanish nation and empire, given their influence on a segment of historians who, despite being outside the historiographical field, hold significant sway in the publishing market and in the context of today's ongoing culture wars. Our thesis begins with the premise that these theories from the philosopher from La Rioja cannot be understood without considering the body of work he built starting in the 1970s, nor can we disregard his progressively marginalized position in the philosophical arena. Therefore, we have adopted the methodology of the sociology of philosophy, which integrates both the internal and external history of intellectual production, seeking greater reflexivity within the framework of transdisciplinarity.
