Sociology Research Seminar
Towards a developmental ethology: exploring Deleuze’s contribution to the study of health and human development
19 November 2009, 12-2pm Menzies Building W10.10 Monash Clayton Campus (PSI Library)
Abstract
This paper explores the work of French thinker Gilles Deleuze and argues for the application of his central ideas to the study of health and human development. Deleuze’s work furnishes a host of ontological and epistemological resources for such analysis, ushering in new methods and establishing new objects of inquiry. Of principal interest are the inventive conceptualisations of affect, multiplicity and relationality that Deleuze proposes, and the novel reading of subjectivity that these concepts support. This paper introduces a developmental ethology in exploring Deleuze’s contributions to the study of human development and its varied courses and processes. Taken from a Deleuzean perspective, human development will be characterised as a discontinuous process of affective and relational encounters. It will be argued further that human development is advanced in the provision of new affective sensitivities and new relational capacities. This course is broadly consistent with existing approaches to human development – particularly those associated with Amartya Sen’s capabilities model – with the considerable advantage of offering a more viable working theory of the ways in which developmental capacities are acquired, cultivated and maintained. A provisional research agenda consistent with this developmental ethology is offered by way of conclusion.
Biographical note
Dr Cameron Duff’s research explores the application of the work of Gilles Deleuze to the study of health and human development. Duff’s research interests include the body, space, affect and relationality and their impacts on the course and process of human development in various settings. Duff has explored these research interests in studies of youth development, substance use and mental health in both Canada and Australia.
Please RSVP: mark.davis@arts.monash.edu.au