Much attention has been devoted to the role substances, from bodily fluids, to food, in the creation of personhood and relatedness, and in imaginaries of wellbeing. In several African contexts, health and wellbeing are understood to rest on adequate flows of substances within and between bodies, and in ways that locate illness and social problems as the outcome of interrupted flows. If these flows are necessary—life-giving and life-nurturing—they can also be invasive and undesirable. In this panel, we propose to explore how this moment of unprecedented rupture is reshaping these dynamics, especially with regards to changing foodways and health landscapes. We ask how the growing prevalence of so-called “non-communicable diseases”, new forms of food insecurity, alongside globally circulating ideals of health and wellbeing are redefining everyday engagement with substances in the pursuit of wellbeing. Recognizing the prevention of blockages, like the control of flows, as socially productive processes, we approach these ruptures as disruptive, but also as opening up pathways for innovation and renewal. We are particularly interested in how people wrestle with competing understandings of wellbeing, and the part substances are understood to play in exacerbating and alleviating these tensions. Our broader aim is to reflect on what it might entail to think about wellbeing in and from Africa, at a juncture when imagining alternative futures is particularly urgent.
Please send the following information by March 11 to juliesoleil.archambault@concordia.ca
• Paper title
• Abstract (200-250 words)
• Short bio
Rupture, remake and the substances of wellbeing
