Balancing on Quicksand

Abstract

This book explores the precarious nature of life, and the ways in which power, binary ways of thinking and Othering create personal, social and political difficulties. By exploring an array of different concerns -including loss and grief, our relationship to other animals, race and sexuality - contributors explore how attention to our own subjective experience and relational ways of thinking can help manage these difficulties. The many contributing authors go well beyond formulaic academic discourse. They adopt a far more personal and reflective approach to their topic areas. As a result, some chapters are emotional, others political, and some professional. Throughout, readers are offered examples of how useful a reflective stance can be, to understanding some of the more meaningful things in life, or as a corrective to our power based, normative, instructive discourses.