1‘There is such a need for an aesthetics and politics of the unplugged, of letting go of the habitual forms of doing and imagining things, of disconnecting the familiar setups and designs of everyday life, of questioning the normal and normalities, of queering’ (Steyaert, this issue). Chris’ words resonate strongly with the spirit of the unplugged section, even if we haven’t always stayed true to it.
2Lévi-Strauss (1962) highlighted that the ‘science of the concrete’ (or savage mind) did not aim at useful knowledge (for impact) but more prosaically the beauty of knowing and an aesthetics of comparison. Usefulness would come later from contingency and would then command skills of bricolage and temporary arrangements for knowing. Unplugged… alternatives may be formed far from the tumult of the world.
3We cling to this principle of conversation to develop our research, our articles, above all in search of legitimacy. The world, as it is becoming unlivable, is disconnecting from this endless logorrhea. Lives are more and more unlivable. Staying out of legitimate conversations and deconstructing the frames imposed on research by academic capitalism. Unplugged… alternatives may be formed in the tumult of the world.
4Being in the margins does not suggest being like independent cinema: a simple instrument for the renewal of established practices. Margins cannot be only a learning ground or the site of an avant-garde that the crafty researcher would spot before his or her peers. There is an essential relationship between the center and the margins, which is about survival, about radical transformations (hooks, 1984). Unplugged… alternatives may be formed for the tumult of the world.
5Words are scar y. Words are at the hear t of the contemporary struggle. Words are held hostage. But words are resistance.‘Carte blanche’was the very first format of the unplugged section. The last unplugged I deliver is made up of words that we sometimes deny but need to protect, in society and in this academic world that we cherish and that deserves to hear complaints from the margins (Ahmed, 2021).
