Plasticity is a concept that has multiple faces. It is used across a wide range of fields such as physics, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, politics, and art; yet each discipline has a unique perspective towards it.
This book on Plasticity is an exercise in cross-disciplinary integration when a unifying problem-solving subject matter of the multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary methods is void. It uses the plasticity – a concept that has multiple faces – as its grounding anchor that brings together scholars in a conversation out of their comfort zones; it requires them to peep out of their disciplinary trenches and dare to cross boundaries to contact and understand each other, to be intrigued and inspired by each others’ approaches without the illusion of complete epistemic agreement. Thus, plasticity might begin to take shape as both a pluralistic concept and a unified epistemic tool.
To do so, the book uses a non-standard format that combines two complementary formats.
Firstly, traditional scholarly chapters written by experts in their field, each providing a plasticity-related background and some analytical content that other scholars from other fields can read (and understand).
Secondly, Side-by-side with these chapters, commentators will write short reflection pieces that analyze and reflect on the use of plasticity in these other fields, and also suggest directions in which conceptual understanding of plasticity from these fields can influence and be integrated into their own disciplines. These intermezzo-like reflections are threaded together by the editors to form a non-unified whole. Each of these commentaries will be approximately 1000 words.
If you are interested in becoming a commentator and writing a commentary on plasticity, please read the invitation, review the chapter titles, read the Abstract-Book, choose a chapter that you find interesting, and contact us (contact details in the invitation).
Chapters List
| Authors | Affiliation | Subject | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) | Jerome Weiss | Institut des Sciences de la Terre (IsTerre), CNRS/ University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France | Crystal Plasticity / plastic deformation in materials | Plastic Deformation of Materials: From Mildness to Wildness |
| 2) | Dierk Raabe | Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials, Düsseldorf, Germany | Plasticity in mechanical continuum theory | Plasticity and Kinematics of Crystalline Metals: From Atomic-scale Defects to Complex Polycrystals |
| 3) | Maggie Horst | School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA | Chemistry | Plasticity in Chemistry Materials and Machines |
| 4) | Ray Noble1 and Denis Noble2 | 1Institute for Women’s Health, University College London, London, UK 2 Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK | Circular Causality | Circular Causality and Plasticity in Living Systems |
| 5) | Natal van Riel | Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University, The Netherlands | Plasticity in Metabolism | Resilience and Plasticity of Human Metabolism |
| 6) | Vasilis Kokkoris | Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment (A-LIFE), Faculty of Science, Section Systems Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Plasticity in the underground network system | Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Plasticity: From Cellular Dynamics to Ecosystem Functioning |
| 7) | Kaisa Kajala | Experimental and Computational Plant Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands | Plant Plasticity | Plants, Masters of Plasticity |
| 8) | Thomas Blankers Willem Frankenhuis | Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Chemical Ecology/ Phenotypic Plasticity | Evolution of Plasticity |
| 9) | Carla Gomez da Silva | Translational Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands | Plasticity in neurodevelopment | The plasticity of the Developing Brain and its Importance in Mature Functions |
| 10) | Lukas J. Volz1 and Gesa Hartwigsen2,3 | 1Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Germany 2Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany 3Research Group Cognition and Plasticity, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany | Plasticity in Neurobiology | Network-level Plasticity During Human Cognition |
| 11) | Elizabeth Holdsworth | Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Ohio State University, Ohio, USA | Biocultural anthropology and child development | Human Developmental Plasticity |
| 12) | Fathali M. Moghaddam | Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA | Political Plasticity | Political Plasticity and External Hardwiring |
| 13) | Jennifer Hawkins | Independent Scholar, UK | Plasticity in Education | Brain Plasticity is a Physical Reality that Enables and Affects All Aspects of Our Understanding |
| 14) | Terre Vadén | The Global Centre for Advanced Studies, GCAS College, Dublin, Ireland | Large Scale Energy Systems and Socio-Cultural Plasticity | ‘All that is solid melts, and tradition, while tradition weighs like a nightmare’ – Socio-Cultural Plasticity in the Age of Fossil Fuels |
| 15) | Ranjan Gosh | Department of English, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India | Plastic Turn, Comparative Literature, Comparative Philosophy, Critical and Cultural Theory | Plastic History |
| 16) | Samuel Lynch, Helen English, Nathan Scott, and Jon Drummond | School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia | Composing the Unfixed: The Plasticity of Musical Form | |
| 17) | Heather Davis | Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, New York, USA | Plasticity and Plastic | Chapter Reproduction from her book: Plastic Matter – Plasticity |
| 18) | Johanna Hoffmann | Independent Urban Planner, West Coast, USA | Urban Planning | Plastic Cities: An Updated Assemblage Theory For Urban Futures |
| 19) | Miša Stekl | Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University, California, USA | Plasticity in Trans Studies | Racial Plasticity and the Invention of Modern Homosexuality |
| 20) | Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang | Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands | Plasticity in Gender Studies | From Plastic Potential to Malleable Control: Race, Gender, and the Thorniness of Transgression |
