Page 156 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 156
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 5–6
its ambivalent role in providing resources, possibilities and opportunities
to reach further than one is destined for; its role, after all, to enable queer
use at the same time as disabling it.
In her analysis of university, S. Ahmed shows how the use of use,
when intertwined with usages of other (class-based, race-based etc.) ideas,
such as intended functionality or forness – what one is for, thus, what one
should aim and aspire to – results in what she names “institutional me-
chanics” (p. 151) that are supported by “institutional reluctance” (p. 149)
and “nonperformativity” (p. 153). This conglomerate of “what usually hap-
pens still happens” (p. 152), of an “institutional as usual” (p. 163), serves as
a barrier, a wall, to any attempts of (attempting a) change, a wall that is
usually visible only to the misfits who attempt to queer the use, the usu-
al, and the usual use (see the Conclusion for queer use). In her discussion
on misfits and queer use, on “how things can be used in ways other than
for which they were intended or by those other than for whom they were
intended” (p. 199), S. Ahmed focuses on queer(-ing) agents, putting aside
that institutions provide grounds not only for their own reproduction,
but also for their own transformation.
In her trilogy, S. Ahmed follows the words and ideas of happiness
(2010), wilfulness (2014) and use (2019). By tracing the idea of use along
the lines of – to remain with her use of the path metaphor (p. 40) – its
well-trodden paths, she trails the ways in which use as an idea and as an
everyday life practice shape institutions, brick by brick, and the everyday
life of social agents, wall by wall – but also arm by arm, by a support-
ive, change-enacting “army of arms” (2017, p. 84). Expressed differently,
she trails the paths that were used before by, for example, M. Douglas on
how institutions think (1986), and Bourdieu’s analyses (for example 1996;
2018), but which are in dire need of being used more, especially nowadays
when the educational field (still) seems to be failing to live up to its offi-
cial truth, meritocracy. Yet, failing to enact meritocracy is not the only
thing it does.
References
Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others.
Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional
Life. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2014). Willful Subjects. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press.
154
its ambivalent role in providing resources, possibilities and opportunities
to reach further than one is destined for; its role, after all, to enable queer
use at the same time as disabling it.
In her analysis of university, S. Ahmed shows how the use of use,
when intertwined with usages of other (class-based, race-based etc.) ideas,
such as intended functionality or forness – what one is for, thus, what one
should aim and aspire to – results in what she names “institutional me-
chanics” (p. 151) that are supported by “institutional reluctance” (p. 149)
and “nonperformativity” (p. 153). This conglomerate of “what usually hap-
pens still happens” (p. 152), of an “institutional as usual” (p. 163), serves as
a barrier, a wall, to any attempts of (attempting a) change, a wall that is
usually visible only to the misfits who attempt to queer the use, the usu-
al, and the usual use (see the Conclusion for queer use). In her discussion
on misfits and queer use, on “how things can be used in ways other than
for which they were intended or by those other than for whom they were
intended” (p. 199), S. Ahmed focuses on queer(-ing) agents, putting aside
that institutions provide grounds not only for their own reproduction,
but also for their own transformation.
In her trilogy, S. Ahmed follows the words and ideas of happiness
(2010), wilfulness (2014) and use (2019). By tracing the idea of use along
the lines of – to remain with her use of the path metaphor (p. 40) – its
well-trodden paths, she trails the ways in which use as an idea and as an
everyday life practice shape institutions, brick by brick, and the everyday
life of social agents, wall by wall – but also arm by arm, by a support-
ive, change-enacting “army of arms” (2017, p. 84). Expressed differently,
she trails the paths that were used before by, for example, M. Douglas on
how institutions think (1986), and Bourdieu’s analyses (for example 1996;
2018), but which are in dire need of being used more, especially nowadays
when the educational field (still) seems to be failing to live up to its offi-
cial truth, meritocracy. Yet, failing to enact meritocracy is not the only
thing it does.
References
Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others.
Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional
Life. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2014). Willful Subjects. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press.
154
