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This article explores the historical transformation of mindfulness, through a process of transculturation and commodification, into a biopolitical tool and analyzes possible future scenarios in which this tool will acquire even greater biopolitical strength through the integration of technological devices and artificial intelligence applications, particularly focusing on the growing divide between mindfulness-based therapies and traditional meditation. While both methodologies share the common objective of providing health and psychophysical benefits, they differ fundamentally in their theoretical frameworks, with mindfulness being egolatric and performance oriented while traditional meditation emphasizes transcending psychophysical identity. The development of mindfulness has been influenced by the sociocultural context of neoliberal and capitalist societies, resulting in a model that fosters self-regulation and emphasizes social control. The article also examines the potential biopolitical risks arising from the integration of AI-powered tools into mindfulness-based therapies. The increasing use of digital devices and applications for monitoring physical and mental health may contribute to a society characterized by constant self-surveillance and self-monitoring, reinforcing biopolitical control of the body. Consequently, this raises critical questions regarding the limits of surveillance and the potential exploitation of vulnerabilities through the incorporation of AI-powered tools.

The strongly varying benthic δ18O levels of the early and mid-Miocene (23 to 14 Myr ago) are primarily caused by a combination of changes in Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) volume and deep-ocean temperatures. These factors are coupled since AIS changes affect deep-ocean temperatures. It has recently been argued that this is due to changes in ice sheet area rather than volume because area changes affect the surface albedo. This finding would be important when the transient AIS grows relatively faster in extent than in thickness, which we test here. We analyse simulations of Miocene AIS variability carried out using the three-dimensional ice sheet model IMAU-ICE forced by warm (high CO2, no ice) and cold (low CO2, large East AIS) climate snapshots. These simulations comprise equilibrium and idealized quasi-orbital transient runs with strongly varying CO2 levels (280 to 840 ppm). Our simulations show a limited direct effect of East AIS changes on Miocene orbital-timescale benthic δ18O variability because of the slow build-up of volume. However, we find that relative to the equilibrium ice sheet size, the AIS area adapts significantly faster and more strongly than volume to the applied forcing variability. Consequently, during certain intervals the ice sheet is receding at the margins, while ice is still building up in the interior. That means the AIS does not adapt to a changing equilibrium size at the same rate or with the same sign everywhere. Our results indicate that the Miocene Antarctic Ice Sheet affects deep-ocean temperatures more than its volume suggests.

Abstract: In the flourishing entertainment culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women were omnipresent on stage, showcasing their physical prowess as dancers, acrobats, trapeze artists, and animal tamers. However, the extent of their involvement behind the scenes remains relatively unknown. This paper explores the often-overlooked contributions of women in the management and workforce of the nineteenth-century funfair business in Western Europe, shedding light on their pivotal role in shaping and driving the success of these captivating spectacles. Within the funfair context, women were engaged at various levels, occupying positions as roundabout proprietors, stallholders, and managers of traveling shows, including theaters, menageries, wax museums, and puppet booths. Their involvement spanned across multiple facets of the funfair, encompassing both the administrative and operational aspects of these diverse attractions. Through a comprehensive analysis of historical sources and records, this study aims to unveil the significant influence wielded by women in an era where their participation in the public domains was limited.

Abstract The late nineteenth-century harbour districts, or so-called ‘sailortowns’, are generally depicted as deterritorialized ‘enclaves’ of heightened globalized transience. However, these neighbourhoods were just as much shaped by semi-durable local labouring communities. This article studies lodging houses as facilitators of global and local entanglements in harbour districts from a socio-cultural perspective, with Antwerp in the late nineteenth century as a case-study. Analysing the spatiality, materiality, sociability and people of the lodging phenomenon, it reveals that next to the highly transient seafarers, sailortown accommodated a diverse yet largely local population of small entrepreneurs and their families right between transience and permanence.

Abstract: This is the dataset for the article 'Projecting the World. The Mediated Geography of the Projection Lantern in Belgium c.1900-c.1920' with Thomas Smits. The dataset contains announcements and reviews of lantern lectures published in Belgian newspapers. The studied newspapers provide an accurate overview of the Belgian newspaper landscape in three sample periods (1902-1904, 1914-1918, and 1922-1924). We considered the different ideological backgrounds (Catholic, liberal, and socialist) and the language of the publication (French and Dutch) and focussed on the two largest cities of Belgium at that time: Antwerp and Brussels. Using different search strings, we identified 8,230 announcements and reviews for lantern lectures, published in 45 different newspaper titles. We included all types of performances (travel, economic, religious, etc). Next to the geographic references, we also recorded: the newspaper and its production date, the date of the performance, the speaker and their profession, the location of the performance, and, when available, information on which images were shown and the reaction of the audience. Taking into account that some lectures were announced and discussed multiple times, our final dataset consists of 5,673 unique lectures of which 2,570 have a spatial reference (45%). We identified three levels of spatial references: continent, country, and city. If the announcements mentioned a place in one of the last two levels (country or city), we completed the parent levels. For instance, we filled in Europe and France for lectures that mentioned Paris. We recorded place names as they were mentioned in the newspapers but also normalized the spatial references to modern-day cities and countries (see methodology). This is an abbreviated version of the dataset collected for my doctoral dissertation 'From 'Magic' to 'the Masses' Mapping the Lantern Lecture Circuit in Antwerp and Brussels, c.1900-c.1920' (University of Antwerp). You can e-mail me for the larger dataset. In the article, we analysed the dataset using Jupyter Notebooks which can be found in the GitHub repository: https://github.com/tpsmi/projectingtheworld

AbstractParticipatory and collaborative approaches in sustainability science and public health research contribute to co-producing evidence that can support interventions by involving diverse societal actors that range from individual citizens to entire communities. However, existing philosophical accounts of evidence are not adequate to deal with the kind of evidence generated and used in such approaches. In this paper, we present an account of evidence as clues for action through participatory and collaborative research inspired by philosopher Susan Haack’s theory of evidence. Differently from most accounts of evidence for use in policies and interventions, our account combines action-oriented (the how) and actors-oriented (the who) considerations. We build on Haack’s theory and on the analysis of examples of participatory and collaborative research in sustainability science and public health research to flesh out six procedural criteria for the generation and mobilization of evidence in and from participatory research. Action-oriented criteria invite to look at evidence from a (a) foundherentist, (b) gradational and (c) quasi-holistic perspective. Actors-oriented criteria point out that evidence generation and utilization are (d) social, (e) personal, and (f) embedded. We suggest that these criteria may reinforce participatory and collaborative approaches to evidence co-production when addressing complex problems in sustainability science and public health allowing for the generation of a kind of practical objectivity.