Conversations That Matter #2

Next week's conversation about quantum social change for a thriving world will be with political scientist Laura Zanotti. We'll talk about the role of ethics, agency, and entanglement in politics.

It’s time to talk politics. In the second in a series of conversations about quantum social change, I’ll be speaking with Laura Zanotti, a Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech University. Her research and teaching include critical political theory, international organizations, UN peacekeeping, democratization and the role of NGOs in post-conflict governance. And she is passionate about quantum social science.

I came across Laura’s work while writing You Matter More Than You Think, and later I had the pleasure of visiting her at Virginia Tech. In reflecting on why agency matters, I was drawn to this quote from her book Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations - Exploring the Crossroads:

Agency exists as a way of life, a reiterative activity of opening or foreclosing different possibilities of materialization of matter, not as a relation of push and pull aimed at imposing force on a mass. We are entangled with, constituted and transformed by the very processes we aim to transform.

Her work helps us to re-imagine how we as humans inhabit the world, and it nurtures an ethos of responsibility. At a time when ethics is astoundingly absent in U.S. politics, Laura’s work helps us to better understand what it looks like in practice, and why it is critical.

Laura’s research is grounded in practice. Before becoming an academic, she worked in the United Nations, both in administration and as a political officer for Peacekeeping Operations. Her work is also informed by several years in the field, in Haiti and in Croatia. In a recent article, Laura links quantum social theory with Native American ways of knowing, emphasizing that relational orientations can transform the way we engage with other human and non-human beings and how we address political matters.

Conversations That Matter is an offering to paid subscribers, but if you are interested in joining the conversation, just let me know. The recording will be available to all afterwards.

Conceptualizations of who we are and how we relate to the world are relevant for the way we theorize how we make a difference in it.
— Laura Zanotti