This period also witnessed the global proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the “NGOization” of feminism, referring to the cooption and erasure of critical social movements. Beyond their temporal instantiation in the 1990s, postfeminism and NGOization converge and entangle in everyday practices of women’s NGOs and organizations. In this article, I examine such convergences and entanglements as they unfold in an NGO’s community-based program to prevent violence against women and girls in Mumbai’s urban poor neighborhoods. Such programs create new forms of femininity and womanhood among women who participate in interventions as frontline workers. These women navigate complex pressures of communitarian gender norms, disciplinary regimes of professionalization and quantification, and the vicarious harm of supporting survivors. Their affective caring labor, thus, is facilitated by and produces what I describe as  Over the last 3 decades, the term “postfeminism” has signified theories and practices that have moved away from the radical or critical promise of prior feminist interventions, a turn that has emphasized mediatization, performativity, and identity and agency . Around Entanglements between postfeminism and NGOization are not simply temporal; these have produced a global proliferation of actors and institutions, like non-governmental organizations (NGOs), that have emerged as key mediators in feminist contestations (and collaborations) with states under neoliberalism. Such entanglements have led to the expansion and deterritorialization of sites of feminist struggles, and have shifted focus toward embodied, affective and performative aspects of feminist practices. These entanglements have had contradictory or paradoxical effects in contexts such as Global South cities. On the one hand, they have led to women’s increased participation in the burgeoning social sector workforce, but on the other, they have also made their lives more precarious and even deepened other forms of social marginalization and precarity . And insDrawing on ethnographic fieldwork with women frontline workers engaged in an NGO’s violence prevention program in Mumbai’s urban poor neighborhoods, I explore how NGOization constitutes a form of postfeminist practice—particularly in how it unfolds, and is resisted, subverted and repurposed by frontline workers. It is a practice that not only embodies but also moves beyond the apparent contradictions in postfeminist theory and discourse, namely a reassessment of culturally-defined notions of femininity and gender relations. Inasmuch as both postfeminism and NGOization signify depoliticization and individuation , this article explores how their mutual entanglement signposts newer and unanticipated practices.I use the heuristic “interstitial intimacy” to refer to such postfeminist NGOized practices and negotiations. Interstitial intimacy points toward ways that feminist activists and agents—women frontline workers, in this case—are implicated in modes of neoliberal governmentality involving NGOs and the Indian state, as well as how they draw on their socially and culturally-inscribed positions of womanhood to resist and subvert such governmentality, and engender forms of collaboration and support. Interstitiality indexes the malleable, open-ended, and overlapping socialities and materialities within which NGOized interventions operate, especially concerning the importance of women and girls’ socially reproductive care work. Intimacy refers to the microsocial and microspatial nature of such socialities, especially in spaces like urban poor neighborhoods or slums—the site were many NGOized interventions are often located. Intimacy also critically evaluates how global and transnational flows of governance shape local encounters between NGOs, local communities, and women. It also challenges the normativity of globalized idioms, concepts and logics which privilege standardized and quantified indicators .This article is based on ethnographic research that I conducted with a local NGO that works toward preventing violence against women and girls across urban poor neighborhoods in Mumbai, India. I call this NGO Vinamrata. Vinamrata’s programs emerged in Dharavi, one of the largest urban poor neighborhoods in India and Asia, in the late-1990s—a decade which saw both, the global proliferation of NGOs and the wide-spread adoption of neoliberal and market-driven policies in India’s public healthcare and social sectors . HoweverThus, Vinamrata’s interventions foregrounded wellbeing, reciprocity, and care—responsibilities that are disproportionately borne by women as a form of socially reproductive labor. As I have argued elsewhere, frontline workers appraise such mobilizations of care in critiquing violence and gendered inequality in their communities , and at bastis as they are colloquially known—where Vinamrata’s programs are based. They identify and support survivors of violence in their neighborhoods and communities, work with Vinamrata’s crisis counsellors and police stations, and engage in local politics of urban commonsI devoted a substantial part of my fieldwork with Vinamrata’s women frontline workers. These frontline workers include both, staff members who are paid employees, and volunteers who are known as “sakhis” (the feminine word in Hindi for “friend”). Frontline workers live and work in the very communities and neighborhoods—or As they are situated within such postfeminist and NGOized convergences and entanglements, frontline workers’ everyday practices are predicated on the self-fashioning and assertion of gendered and feminized logics of care and intimacies, which also frame patriarchy and patriarchal power as deeply entrenched and unequal social structures that produce conditions of violence . InsofarThe rest of this article is structured as follows. In the next section, I provide a historical and conceptual background to postfeminism and NGOization, particularly their convergences and entanglements. I then provide a brief overview of the heuristic interstitial intimacy, and then discuss my ethnographic fieldwork with Vinamrata’s frontline workers. Following this, I present four ethnographic accounts. The first two are drawn from my work with sakhis, Vinamrata’s voluntary frontline workers. These accounts describe how two groups of sakhis, living in two different neighborhoods, presented expressedly divergent perspectives on their gendered and feminized social locations and dispositions. Next, I synthesize these accounts to further develop the idea of interstitial intimacy, stressing how it reflects convergences and divergences in NGOized interventions, and attends to wider social, material and historical processes.The two ethnographic accounts that follow are drawn from my work with Vinamrata’s community workers who, like the sakhis, are also urban poor women, but are part of an increasingly professionalized workforce. In particular, these accounts describe pressures of quantification and professionalization that these women deal with. I show that, despite Vinamrata’s intervention program incorporating diverse institutional and community actors, the underlying logics of NGOization produce further divergences in their instantiations of interstitial intimacy. Yet, having shown how postfeminism and NGOization converge and entangle, I argue that frontline intervention work is deeply inflected with care, which materializes as a form of emotional and caring labor. In so doing, frontline workers’ interventions go beyond restrictive critiques of NGOization; instead, they assert the importance of the semantic instability between languages of “projects” and “movements,” and underscore the importance of adopting hybrid forms of engagement that go beyond conventional political strategies.While hard to define, scholars generally agree that postfeminism emerged in the late-1980s and 1990s as a departure from past forms of radical and socialist feminisms of the 1960s and 1970s. This departure, in part, has been understood as a “backlash” against feminist politics, as well as a generational divide between older and younger feminists . PostfemAs In contrast, While these scholarly interventions are generally situated in the North American cultural and political context, Sherry Around the time that debates on postfeminism emerged in the Global North, issues like gender justice, women’s rights, and prevention of gender-based violence—especially in the Global South—were steadily becoming a global agenda in the decades between the 1970s and 1990s. During this time, the United Nations’ World Conferences on Women culminated with the Beijing Conference in 1995, which widely recognized the importance and legitimacy of institutions like non-government organizations (NGOs) in global gender justice movements . Yet, suLike postfeminism, NGOization too is a contested term. While some critics like Thus, the convergence and entanglement between postfeminism and NGOization not only underscore how feminist practices and theories have transformed over the last 30 years, but also point toward emergent modes of practice that unsettle prior assumptions as well as engender new forms of engagement. From this vantage point, it is necessary to both historicize neoliberalism, which is itself an unruly and ambivalent concept , and forStill, as Critical feminist and anthropological research, however, have problematized these trajectories by exploring how local NGO worlds and practices are marked by complexity and diversity . While oI use the heuristic “interstitial intimacies” to refer to how frontline workers are, at once, part of complex, overlapping social structures, and how they draw on these multiple, refracted social identities and logics to negotiate violence. As I have discussed elsewhere, frontline workers’ performance of care is a form of interstitial labor which aligns Vinamrata’s organizational processes and outcomes with the needs and expectations of communities, and overcomes disjunctures in the form of precarity produced by pressures of professionalization and sociomaterial vulnerability in urban poor neighborhoods . My use My use of “intimacy” draws on feminist and anthropological discussions that move away from reducing intimacy to relations of sexuality and conjugality, and instead focuses on how globalization both shapes existing, and produces new, intimate spaces and encounters , and howAt the same time, my use of the word “interstitial” is inspired by urban studies and the anthropology of emotion and affect. In urban spaces, interstices go beyond dichotomous social and material formations, like core–periphery or center–margin. In his introduction to an edited volume on urban interstices, Brighenti  argues against the dominant tendency of viewing interstices as empty or gaps; instead, interstices are an active component of the urban fabric, emerging through complex processes of urbanization. My use of interstitial intimacy also draws on the work of Interstices, however, are not simply in-between spaces; nor are frontline workers simply in-between or liminal actors , shiftinBetween 2014 and 2019, I conducted over 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Vinamrata’s frontline workers. During this time, I was associated with their violence prevention program in Dharavi, one of the largest urban poor neighborhoods India and Mumbai. I collaborated with them as an independent research consultant and applied anthropologist, conducting several formative and evaluative studies on their frontline workers and various community groups.contextual and comparative analysis to generate anthropological theories  over the years they were involved with Vinamrata. One woman described herself as a “saheli” (friend), whereas another said she felt like a “social worker.” Another woman added, “First, I would think about only my family, but now there has been sudhar (improvement).” She continued, “Earlier, life was boring, but now it is haribhari (colorful)!”Niharika held up a poster that she and her group had drawn on a chartpaper moments ago as part of a training workshop, while her companions recounted how they experienced Niharika was a sakhi with Vinamrata’s violence prevention program, one among the 150 voluntary frontline workers that they had trained over the years. The audience, largely comprised of other sakhis like her, cheered on encouragingly as they awaited their turn to present posters they had made. We were all seated in small groups on the floor of an auditorium at the municipal hospital in Dharavi, where Vinamrata’s offices and crisis counseling centers were located. This was in July 2015. Niharika, the other sakhis and Vinamrata’s community workers all lived and worked in Dharavi’s various bastis.phugri (where they held hands and spun around in a circle) and langdi .At this particular moment, the pace of the workshop had somewhat quietened and taken a contemplative turn, as the sakhis were asked to present their individual and collective experiences of change. The workshop began with about an hour of physical activities and games, something that these sakhis, as middle-aged women living in bastis, had hardly ever engaged with in decades. While nervous at first, the sakhis had enthusiastically come forward to play games like hum” (“we/us”). At this point, the trainer who was facilitating the workshop, softly interrupted Niharika. “Why are you saying hum?” she asked, and then instructed Niharika and the other sakhis, “Don’t say hum … say mujhe!” Mujhe being the singular pronoun, “I”—which I felt was her way of encouraging the sakhis to assert their individuality. Niharika smiled and awkwardly agreed, after which the other groups took their turn to present their posters.When Niharika and her group concluded their presented, she narrated her own story of change, and how she had managed to educate her daughters with Vinamrata’s help. She thanked them and the community workers, but used the plural pronoun “zindagi” , as though she was “living in another’s hand” (kisi aur ke haath mein). But now she said that she could “give nyay” (justice) to others,” and had her rights and happiness. Leela characterized her transformation thusly, “At first I was a murgi (chicken), but now I am a tota (parrot)!” Surbhi spoke of how she now possessed himmat aur hausla (courage and resolve) to intervene in conflicts by being bindaas (without any inhibitions).Neerja said that before she was a sakhi she lived a “half sanstha’s (organization’s) hand reaching out to our homes.”Finally, Noori, a transwoman sakhi, spoke. She had not known about Vinamrata at first but said that she was here today after sakhis and community workers told her about the program and the work they did. “Abuse against women is wrong,” she continued, and having witnessed incidents like domestic violence and burnings, she “had to do something.” She then presented her poster . A buildIn December 2018, I was at one of Vinamrata’s field offices in Shivaji Nagar, a large basti located in Mumbai’s M-East ward in the eastern suburbs. Vinamrata’s violence prevention program has been active in this area for the last 4 years. Their office was a small mezzanine room located in the premises of the local police station, which served as both a crisis counseling and community center. I had tagged along with some colleagues who were about to conduct a training workshop with a group of sakhis. At the time, I was developing training material for Vinamrata’s work with community men who were part of their intervention as allies. Having heard about this group of sakhis, who had been involved in several community actions, I wanted to conduct a short workshop with them to gain insights to incorporate into their work with male allies.aadarsh samuday), which we could then use to engender accountability among male alliesAbout eight sakhis, some with small children, were seated on the floor of the mezzanine room, with some Vinamrata project workers. After their training concluded, I joined them on the floor, and greeted them—some of whom I had met in a previous event in this neighborhood. The purpose of my workshop was to discuss their vision of an “ideal community” (bimaar),” she reasoned. For her, this underscored that men do engage in care work, even if under constrained situations. Troublingly, another sakhi added, “Men should see women as (their) sisters or mother.”To my surprise, however, the discussion veered away from how I had anticipated it would unfold. Instead, what I heard from these sakhis was their version of an ideal conjugality. From the very beginning, the sakhis were hesitant at assigning blame—or even responsibility—of gender inequity and violence to men in their community. One sakhi tried to establish some sort of parity between women and men. “Men are concerned (for their wives) when we are ill  … (They) come home after a long day at work.” She then critiqued the young men in the neighborhood, many of whom are involved in petty crimes and hooliganism (dadagiri). Rather than resisting or challenging them, she said, “We should speak nicely to them … refer to them as aap,” a pronoun signifying rank or respect. “Then other men and boys would [realize] … they will tell others, “Speak to them with respect!” Another Hindu, middle-aged sakhi, agreed with this, and said that they have some faith in younger men in their neighborhood—many of whom participated in Vinamrata’s program. She reasoned that they have the potential to change, even more so than older men who appeared to have been set about in their ways.After a brief minute of silence, an elderly Muslim sakhi spoke. “Men and women are equal,” she asserted, but then added that as women—and wives, at that—“We have to talk to (our) husbands respectfully  and forms of social action available to actors, who nevertheless have the potential to act in ways that subvert these schemas. Moreover, given the prevalence of gendered violence and the sakhis’ everyday forms of actions to prevent violence, it is also important to draw attention to how gendered subjectivities and social structures are entangled in such Bourdieuian dispositions, what he referred to as “symbolic violence.”Following violence which is exercised upon a social agent with his or her complicity” , as well as how this itself is inculcated and embodied (273). The practices of institutions and individuals, to a great extent, naturalize and embody such violence. Contrary to its semantic formulation, symbolic violence “is exerted not in the pure logic of knowing consciousness but through the schemes of perception, appreciation and action that are constitutive of habitus” , and how Noori’s visual representation quite literally signified the intimate act of holding hands. In contrast, while the Shivaji Nagar sakhis’ interventions illustrate the problem of how such intimacies are imbricated in precarious lifeworlds, their allusions to and mobilizations of a different register of intimacy—marital conjugality—showed how NGO interventions nevertheless inflect these intimacies with critical notions of equality . At the same time, they also refracted domestic intimacy, along with attendant notions of mutual respect and responsibility, onto the public as a means of holding their community members  accountable.The affective, embodied, and convivial nature of the workshop in Dharavi was, in many ways, exemplary of the way that Vinamrata’s interventions engaged frontline workers . Crucialdomestication, “a polyvalent, organizing concept to detail the logic of double gendering,” which “operates within fields of power” (86). This process of domestication entails a feminization of poverty, where women’s work and wages are undervalued, and they are further discursively placed in a bounded home (which pivots on the public–private binary). In her ethnography, the discourses of working women disrupt these domestic imperatives, and thus, she argues domesticity is something that is negotiated “inside and outside the domus” (87). These negotiations, furthermore, undermine the “false binaries of work and household, production and social reproduction, public and private” (88).These two divergent but related forms of intimacy become interstitial precisely as they foreground connection; not only of drawing closer, but also pushing against. For one, both accounts underscore the material basis of urban poor women’s centrality in managing—and transcending—public and private dichotomies . Indeed,Yet, when urban poor women are part of interventions which explicitly foreground and mobilize affective modes of engagement, we see how negotiations of domestication also articulate desires of conviviality (among sakhis themselves), as well as intimacy and conjugality (in their relationships). This articulation of intimacy counters how urban scholars like hum” instead of “mujhe”—for which she was gently corrected by the workshop coordinator—reflected how the singularity of her experience was rather part of multiple, collective trajectories of other sakhis like her, who were all discussing and celebrating the entanglements of personal and collective experiences of change (badlaav). Similarly, the Shivaji Nagar sakhis’ emphasis on both, their conjugal and wider communitarian relationships, underscored the inherently social and suffused nature of their positionality as frontline workers. In order to work efficaciously to prevent violence—which we saw in their well-documented past actions—they re-signified the desire of intimate conjugality in opposition to erosion of social and communitarian respect, expressed in the notion of soch discussed above. Even as domestic intimacies were inflected with notions of equality, these were consciously framed and deployed to foreground (and possibly critique) their complicity in these structures (humari soch). This also indexed the collectives they were part of, albeit marked by specific communitarian experiences of marginalization,Evidently, this is not the case with sakhis in either of the ethnographic accounts. For one, their interstitial intimacy problematizes insider-outsider dichotomies, as they try helping survivors by being both, caring friends and neighbors and also frontline workers—which we saw in the first account. For another, both groups of sakhis were cognizant of the respective collectives they were part of. For instance, Niharika’s instinctive use of “chai. The daily team briefing had already started, when Nusrat, a community worker in her late 30s, arrived at the center. Dinesh, the team supervisor, reproached her for arriving late. Nusrat apologized, but her demeanor was calm and cheerful. As she took her place along the large circle in which we were all seated on the floor, she said she was late because there was a delay in the water supply that morning. “Usually water (flow) stops at 9:30,” she explained. Besides, she was also making arrangements for Ramzan Eid, which was only a few days away at the time. At one point she said, in her usual cheerful and calm disposition, “Don’t we (women) also have work (kaam) left at home?” And, in a move to placate Dinesh’s slight reprimand, she mentioned how she mobilized some basti women for that afternoon’s session along the way—a form of multitasking that other community workers, many of whom also lived in nearby bastis, engaged in.On a humid and cloudy July morning in 2015, I arrived at Vinamrata’s community center around 10:30 AM, the usual start of our workday. As usual, the team and I caught up while drinking hot As Nusrat settled in, the meeting resumed. Dinesh brought up the issue of assigning smartphones to the sakhis as part of Vinamrata’s efforts of using technology to map and monitor instances of domestic violence. However, he noted that despite giving smartphones to over a 100 women, there was not a commensurate rise in the number of expected case registrations—that is, when the sakhis identify survivors of abuse and violence and inform the community workers and counsellors. Dinesh said, “If sakhis aren’t being active … if they are not being vigilant, you (community team) have to work (harder) on cases!”A few community workers responded that many sakhis informed them of problems over using smartphones, and that many did not understand their role within this restructured intervention. Bhavana, an experienced community worker and team supervisor, said that even though many sakhis were not filling the form on the smartphone application, cases of violence were still being reported offline. She said, “We need to take action (about this).” Dinesh added that supervisors need to stay abreast about the changes that occur with the smartphone application. We ate lunch around noon, after which each community worker proceeded to their respective areas to conduct sessions with sakhis and other women.chawl (working class neighborhood), but when a few residents heard we were from Vinamrata they refused to let us use the space .That afternoon, I joined Kalpana and Nazreen for the group activity they were about to facilitate. Kalpana was a team supervisor, and Nazreen was a community worker who had recently joined the team. By the time we reached the neighborhood, it had started raining heavily. We took shelter at a large open-air community space that had a high overhead roof. Nazreen was supposed to facilitate a session with a relatively new women’s group in the jhopad-pattis (slums), and had distributed food to them without giving any to the local residents. Kalpana was at pains explaining the difference between the programs, but the residents did not relent, and we had to eventually cancel the session.One senior resident, a retired army man, was especially vocal in his opposition. He cited a previous instance where Vinamrata’s health and nutrition program—a different “vertical” at the organization—had held an event in this very space but had invited Muslim women from nearby As I noted above, sakhis, community workers, and crisis counsellors are part of the interlinked ecology of services and support that Vinamrata offers to survivors of violence. After sakhis or community workers identify and refer survivors to the counseling center, it is counsellors who work closely with them, providing psychosocial, therapeutic and legal support, particularly when working alongside institutions like courts. In crucial regards, counsellors too share and embody the critical consciousness of their community counterparts; many of them are trained in social work, and usually start their careers with grassroots work. I had the chance to interview some counsellors at the program during fieldwork in 2015, where our conversations covered their motivations, personal and professional trajectories, and experiences with the legal system.The counsellors—who worked in offices located at different urban poor communities across the city—had just finished a day-long training workshop. I sat with them across a large, round table located in the hallway, for a group interview. In our conversation, the counsellors conceptualized gendered violence as relational and structural. One of them said, violence was having “control over another’s life,” like placing someone in “custody,” and not letting them “live like a human being.” They also linked violence to power relations, social systems, and everyday norms and behaviors which normalized injustice and “socialize a woman to violence.” Similarly, one of the counsellors who worked with the court systems presented a complex picture of the legal landscape, acknowledging that laws “can hurt … women.” Some of the main challenges she mentioned included inaccessibility of legal resources for urban poor women, delays in the judicial system, lack of non-legal supportive structures, economic dependency on abusive partners, and burdening survivors with the onus of responsibility.Frontline workers and counsellors share these affective and critical understandings of inequality and violence. But in everyday life of the intervention they come to be positioned differently, as frontline workers also face pressures to meet their monthly case targets—something we observed in the previous ethnographic account, as well. In countless morning meetings I observed during fieldwork, questions like “Why aren’t cases visible?” or “Why is (the) work not showing?” were commonplace. In one meeting, for instance, community workers spoke of “high pressure cases”—those which involve serious self-harm or risk to survivors—and how sometimes there are gaps between their work and that of counsellors. Common refrains they heard from community women included “We come and go (but nothing happens)!” At times counsellors were also unable to undertake home visits, often due to high volume of cases .“This makes me feel that there is something lacking or wanting in me,” one community worker had said, explaining her dissatisfaction with such pressures of quantification. Another community worker shared an instance of a case-sharing meeting where a sakhi had asked “If there’s less violence, isn’t it a good thing?” The community worker continued, “We don’t give people anything (benefits), so we have to compete with other NGOs .” Despite this, everyday work in the community extracts as much energy, if not more. During one particular meeting, for instance, a community worker tried to lighten the mood by remarking how it now appeared that they would have to instigate quarrels among couples to meet their targets—commenting on the stereotype held by men towards women’s organizations. Despite this, experienced workers like Bhavana reasoned that even though they witnessed partial stories and that someone “would be unhappy,” their work had to continue.chawl residents confronted Kalpana and Nazreen over what they perceived to be infractions by members of another program, their critique actually marked out differences between them and the “other women”—signified by their religion and status—thus effectively drawing social boundaries.The two ethnographic accounts discussed in this section outline the work that Vinamrata’s community workers were engaged in. Although they share social and gendered locations similar with that of sakhis—as urban poor women—community workers are also part of the social sector workforce. This workforce is highly feminized and, over the last 2 decades, has steadily experienced increased pressures of professionalization, quantification and precarity . We saw Like the previous section, these accounts also show the salience of domestic intimacies in professionalized frontline work, signifying how women’s socially reproductive care transcends public–domestic dichotomies and ties together with neighborly socialities. As chawl where Kalpana and Nazreen faced opposition, neighborly intimacies can often be fractured along lines of religion and community. The residents’ objections were inflected with both, majoritarian anxieties and biases (in opposing “Muslim slum dwellers”), and urban socialities and political networks, such as patronage or reciprocity (“We did not receive any benefits”) —problematize the very intimacies they facilitate in the first place.Still, these neighborly socialities are not a priori; as we saw in the Challenges to engendering interstitial intimacies also emanate from within organizational structures of NGOs, as we saw in both ethnographic accounts, though more explicitly in the second one. Even though community workers, sakhis and counsellors are part of a largely integrated and holistic response, such interventions come to diverge along organizational hierarchies. These observations raise important questions regarding the efficacy and legitimacy of NGOized interventions. How can we understand the scale and depth of the problem of violence against women when those entrusted with caring for and supporting survivors face such pressures? How do such pressures coexist with—or constrain and contract—the arduous, painstaking emotional and affective labor of building relationships with women?Anthropologists writing on global paradigms of neoliberalism, quantification and NGOization, particularly in the domain of gender violence, focus their critiques on the following fronts. First, as Sally Engle Conversations and dialogue with the team showed that such pressures were deeply felt in gender justice activism in India, especially after the neoliberal reforms of the Indian state in the 1990s. As political anthropologists like authority, and the rhetoric of the NGO, or social organization, to negotiate legitimacy in the rural communities. Similarly, Writing on the theme of NGOization, for instance, Within the wider landscape of neoliberalism and NGOization outlined so far, the import of interstitial intimacy lies in the fact that it engenders, and is engendered through, care. Frontline workers’ care and support to survivors of violence is a deeply intimate form of “caring labor,” a term I borrow from Susan Indeed, the centrality of care in frontline workers’ interventions keeps open possibilities of affective and ethical engagement. In a focus-group discussion I held with the team toward the end of fieldwork in 2015, Dinesh, who was also an experienced social activist, explained that as a result of neoliberalism many women’s organizations were accused of being “communist.” Turning a critical lens on organizational practices he was embedded in himself, he acknowledged that NGOs were able to benefit many people owing to structural limitations of the state—which was exemplary in urban poor neighborhoods, as such organizations and collectives maintained harmony after the 1992–93 anti-Muslim riots  and resiThe depoliticizing effects of NGOization and neoliberalism, ironically, can work toward making frontline work and gendered logics of care possible in the first place. Indeed, the language of projects can also be framed in gendered metaphors. For instance, across several conversations I have had with Bhavana and Kalpana, they observed that the very form and structure of NGOs meant that they were viewed as relatively neutral providers of services (and were thus often subject to claims of entitlements). Similarly, even though the segmented structure of interventions produced divergences between frontline workers and counsellors, community workers like Bhavana believe that such structures nevertheless enable certain forms of surveillance and vigilance. This was important so as to not let women’s groups go astray and work for the harm of the communities—which happened a few times in the past when former sakhis had started “settling” cases for sums of money .sabke saath). But she also recognizes that “Vinamrata won’t be there forever,” so building alliances with political classes and accruing social capital through NGOs is crucial, since it becomes a means towards an end, which always remains “working together with and helping people” (logon ke saath mein madad karna).This illustrates a deep and reflexive understanding that frontline workers have toward the contexts they are a part of. But they also highlight the excesses of the same, for instance, which prevent them from operating (in) these contradictions, or undercut the metaphors and shorthands they use in everyday interventions. Kalpana, for instance, frames her NGOized work as beyond or ahead of electoral politics. Accordingly, if she “joins politics,” she will “have only one way (to work).” In contrast, she sees her present work as working “with everyone”  of heterosexual relations, and the expression of expressedly feminine virtues and affectations.I have used the heuristic interstitial intimacy to illustrate how the NGOization of feminist social work is a particular form of postfeminist practice that mobilizes frontline workers’ multiple, refracted and socially-inscribed and feminized identities. Interstitial intimacies enfold their domestic, affective and embodied intimacies with their neighborly, activist and professional engagements that are predicated on fostering collectives through intimate encounters, like training workshops and supporting survivors of violence. However, such intimacies are also affected by violence and marginalization—which not only necessitates interventions but also poses challenges to frontline work. NGOized work, with its pressures of professionalization and quantification, also constrains the ways that such intimacies engender open-ended and affective collectives.Yet, as the ethnographic accounts presented in this article have shown, and as the convergences and entanglements between postfeminism and NGOization also demonstrate, frontline workers tend to appraise such overlapping and malleable ties between femininity and feminism  as cruciFor instance, we see postfeminist inflections most clearly among the sakhis at Shivaji Nagar. Rather than articulate critical insights, like their peers in Dharavi, these sakhis asserted the importance of conjugality and domesticity. Yet, when we contextualize their articulations in wider social and biographical narratives and contexts, we see more nuanced logics emerge. The importance of conjugality and domesticity, for instance, have more complex histories in urban poor neighborhoods, relating as they do with the feminization of poverty and social and political marginalization . The expAt the same time, sakhis’ and community workers’ close involvement with crisis counsellors embedded them within complex therapeutic regimes, as well as disciplinary practices of professionalization and quantification. Not only do these pressures lead to vicarious harm, but they profoundly unsettle the intimacies frontline workers share with community women and survivors of violence. Nevertheless, despite being part of a precarious workforce, frontline workers mobilize existing forms of socially reproductive care, wherein the at-times contradictory conjunction of care and professional social work lead to new forms of local practices. These practices have engendered unique forms of politics that exceed logics of neoliberal subjectivation, and reassert commitment to foundational feminist values and ethics, like care, relationality, and critique of patriarchal power.


In this article, we argue that a careful examination of human microbiome science’s relationship with race and racism is necessary to foster equitable social and ecological relations in the field. We point to the origins and evolution of the problematic use of race in microbiome literature by demonstrating the increased usage of race both explicitly and implicitly in and beyond the human microbiome sciences. We demonstrate how these uses limit the future of rigorous and just microbiome research. We conclude with an outline of alternative actionable ways to build a more effective, antiracist microbiome science. We are a transdisciplinary group of researchers—a microbiologist, a geographer, an anthropologist, and an evolutionary and microbial ecologist—who are committed to antiracist scholarship and to the effective and ethical future of microbiome science. In this article, we argue that the use of race and other racial proxies as “ghost variables” in most current human microbiome research is problematic and requires interrogation. We examine how racial categories are used in the microbiome literature and conclude with alternative, actionable ways to build equitable and antiracist microbiome science.Race has no coherent basis in biology. Human groups have extensively shared genetics over time and space through migration and forced displacement. As a result, while there are some geographic signatures of genetic variation, human populations are highly interconnected . There i2–The microbiome sciences are often complicit in contributing to racial disparities by attributing findings to racial or ethnic differences without referencing racism or by using ghost variables of race. By ghost variables, we are referring to complex, historically loaded racial categories used in microbiome research without explicitly naming race . StudiesIn this article, we combine Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s definition of racism, the production and exploitation of “group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death,” with Paul Farmer’s use of structural violence, the normalized, interacting political and social structures that cause injury, injustice, and oppression, to examine race in studies of the microbiome , 12. If How did race come to occupy an important role in microbiome research? The advancement of genomics along with the initial findings of the Human Genome Project stoked enthusiasm for personalized medicine and the idea of a postracial science. Findings suggest that humans are more genetically similar than historically assumed, making biological justifications for racial categories untenable. Yet, biological understandings of race reemerged in studies of genetic ancestry –15. For –18–Among the human microbiome literature archived in PubMed Central (PMC) between 2000 and 2020, there are 14,103 results that mention race or ethnicity. Representative examples of this type of widely cited scholarship describe race as one of the strongest host phenotypes associated with the microbiome , 22–24. 22–25–With increased recognition of the problems associated with using race as a category of analysis in microbiome science, we must also examine how often race is used as a ghost variable. Human microbiomes are categorized as “Western,” “industrialized,” or belonging to “Europeans” and “Americans” and compared against the microbiomes of racialized Indigenous and global South populations whose microbiomes are presupposed to be “underdeveloped,” “modernizing,” and closer to “pure” or “natural” states –36. Assu–Throughout this kind of microbiome research is the assertion that BIPOC populations are less developed and have “wild” or “natural” microbiota and that “modern,” “disturbed,” “Western/white” microbiomes must be “rewilded.” In some of these studies, racial categories are implemented to address differences in health outcomes, but they fail to acknowledge social history and complexity, or the ecological intricacy of the microbiome itself. For example, studies looking at racial differences in vaginal microbiomes briefly consider correlated socioeconomic differences, but they do not account for the effects of stress and toxic exposures associated with structural racism , 20. FurRace as a ghost variable also extends beyond the human microbiome. In studies of the microbiome of the built environment, spaces are racialized but analyzed without explicit mention of race or structural racism. Studies investigate urban built environments and draw connections between microbiota and higher rates of asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, and even affective and anxiety disorders—but race or ethnicity is rarely mentioned , 39. The40–This article is focused on how race is used as an explicit or implicit category in microbiome research. But race is a “ghost” in other important ways—a lack of diversity and representation in researchers and study populations and a lack of meaningful community research engagement prevent important questions from being asked.We have traced how race in many iterations has been operationalized in microbiome science. Historically and presently, microbiome sciences either harmfully ignore systemic racism and its effects or unreflectively reproduce racial thinking—with far-reaching implications for the study of human, environmental, animal, and plant microbiota.From the global pandemic to uprisings against racial injustice, this is a transformative moment. Microbiome researchers have the opportunity to make significant changes to the ways science addresses race and simultaneously improve the quality and precision of this important work. An emerging literature is calling for microbiome science to address racial disparities , 45, 46,47–.1STEM fields and microbiome sciences in particular continue to lack representational diversity , 63. BIP.2As we endeavor to challenge racism, we assert that social science-microbiome science partnerships are central to this work. We use “transdisciplinary” to highlight the need to work across disciplines, types of knowledge, and expertise, integrating natural, social, and health sciences and transcending the boundaries of those fields . Anthrop.3Prioritize community engagement and community-led research that utilizes local knowledge in research design from the conception of each project.Solicit community and individual input on health and environmental priorities.Secure formal consent from each community/tribe/sovereignty/nation for sampling, land use, and community access.Participate in socially responsible sampling, management, and fair ownership of data .Actively account for social determinants of human and environmental health in scientific data, which could include systemic barriers like poor access to health care, jobs, housing, and education.Ensure equitable benefit-sharing of translational interventions developed from the scientific research for research participants and their communities.Legally protect subjects, their samples, data, and land against commercial, scientific, medical, and cultural exploitation .As mentioned above, microbiome science has failed to attend to an “ethics of care” in regard to marginalized people and environments . To workWe propose an integrated three-part approach to create antiracist microbiome science. We build upon work in Indigenous science and technology studies and literature on race and genomics to suggest actionable solutions for microbiome science –61. Firs–We are very aware that what we are proposing is extremely difficult and that the practices we have outlined are not currently supported by funding structures, study designs, or institutional hierarchies. Which is precisely why, for instance, future human microbiome grants must add field-inclusive funding strategies that support equity initiatives. We challenge microbiome researchers using racial categories to ask themselves, what is the function of race in my study? What am I using it for, and is there something more precise and equitable ? This ar


Given that disparate mind/body views have interfered with interdisciplinary research in psychoanalysis and neuroscience, the mind/body problem itself is explored here. Adding a philosophy of mind framework, problems for both dualists and physicalists are presented, along with essential concepts including: independent mental causation, emergence, and multiple realization. To address some of these issues in a new light, this article advances an original mind/body account—Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism (DiCoToP). Next, puzzles DiCoTop reveals, psychoanalytic problems it solves, and some empirical evidence accrued for views consistent with DiCoToP are presented. In closing, this piece challenges/appeals for neuroscience research to gain evidence for (or against) the DiCoToP view. Frontiers Research Topic, Psychodynamic Neuroscience, calls for a deepening dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. This is exciting, just as it stands. However, one further participant discipline, the philosophy of mind, could offer much toward addressing the conflicting mind/body views inhibiting progress both in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. It is within this added discipline that I attempt a contribution to this collection. The article consists of four sections, and then a final discussion, with conclusions and summary.1. Although the DiCoToP account resolves some of the issues associated with the mind/body problem, Section Three grapples with new puzzles that this particular mind/body account reveals and entails. Section Four, the final section, has two parts. In Part One, I aver that DiCoToP can go some distance in explaining two matters endemic to clinical psychoanalytic work but heretofore quite vexing. These are: (a) working through; and (b) the mechanism of therapeutic action after patients gain new knowledge through interpretation. Part Two, acknowledges that even if I am correct about these and more general aspects of DiCoToP’s explanatory power, much more than such coarse correlations are needed. Hence, after providing a brief account of some existing empirical studies whose findings can be taken to clearly support DiCoTop, the close of Part Two is essentially an appeal  to neuroscientists. Can neuroscientists apply cutting edge neuroscientific methods to explore in humans whether or not features of DiCoToP could obtain? Whatever the outcome, I would hope that this sort of empirical investigation would be a thoroughly interdisciplinary adventure, totally worth taking, as is the current research topic itself.Section One explores essential problems embedded within the mind/body problem, arriving in Section Two at the view I devised  and now 2 must consider—this, especially when dualism seems so appealing. Dualism’s appeal owes to its rather elegant solution to some basic and difficult mind/body problems for physicalists —that of independent mental downward causation. Thus, as reductive physicalists maintain, (a) there is nothing over and above the physical (and the laws thereof), and (b) everything mental is at base physical; how then can mental goings-on—familiar processes of the mind, like qualia, beliefs, desires—be genuine causes of behavior, rather than just epiphenomena? Relatedly, dualism allows a clear, unproblematic grasp of such important concepts and phenomena as the Self, subjective first personal accounts, and even consciousness itself.‘‘Why physicalism?’’ is the first question every physicalistAnd yet, for physicalists, dualism presents its own insurmountable problem: If one embraces the most prevalent scientific view of a physical-only universe, the very nature of the mental—ontologically, metaphysically, as well as epistemologically—has not been, and perhaps cannot be, satisfactorily accounted for. Nonetheless, and notwithstanding this problem, there are two famous and compelling arguments for dualism. I will discuss them both in the section below, along with my claim that they do not work!The Knowledge Argument was advanced by Frank Jackson in 1982. The main character is Mary, the color scientist. This argument, although clever, compelling, and even convincing to many, is (on my view) fatally flawed. Indeed, one can assume Mary did not know what it’s like to experience color. But then comes the problematic part. For the argument to go through, one must also assume that knowing-what-it-is like type knowledge—so called acquaintance knowledge (or know-how knowledge)—is not part of physical knowledge. In other words, the argument assumes at the front end, exactly what it is trying to prove: namely that there exists knowledge that is non-physical.The Zombie/Conceivability Argument is presented concisely by …will look identical to a normal conscious being from the third-person perspective. In particular…brain processes will be molecule-for-molecule identical with the original, and their behavior will be indistinguishable. But things will be different from the first-person point of view. What it is like to be…a…zombie will differ from what it is like to be the original being. [For] there is nothing it is like to be a zombie.The next step in the Zombie Case, according to Chalmers (p. 107), is to acknowledge that since such zombie systems/beings are coherently imaginable with “no contradiction,” it can be inferred that they are a metaphysical possibility: “From here, it is inferred that consciousness must be non-physical. If there is a metaphysically possible universe that is physically identical to ours but that lacks consciousness, then consciousness must be a further, non-physical component of our universe.” Again, quoting Chalmers (p.107):(1)It is conceivable that there are zombies.(2)If it is conceivable that there are zombies, it is metaphysically possible that there are zombies.(3)If it is metaphysically possible that there are zombies, then consciousness is non-physical.(4)Consciousness is non-physical.This argument for dualism too, is very appealing. And yet, there are serious problems embedded within its structure. Several authors, including (1)Person-X and Zombie-X are molecule-for-molecule/neuron-for-neuron identical;(2)Person-X’s consciousness is no more than a physical arrangement of these molecules/neurons;(3)Zombie-X has the same arrangement of these same molecules/neurons;(4)Hence, if Zombie-X does not have consciousness, this must be due to some consciousness-blocker.(5)3.Any blocker must itself be physical, subject to physical laws (6)The upshot: Either Zombie-X is not a zombie, and is conscious; or Zombie-X is not conscious, but not identical with Person-X.With the hope that these refutations of two great dualist arguments have had some sway, let’s move on to some physicalist views.Non-reductive physicalism has promise. It is a physicalist/materialist view, and yet holds  that the mental is not reducible to the physical. It follows that non-reductive physicalism holds many of the advantages of dualism, while avoiding dualism’s biggest challenge—the ontologic nature of the mind and its mental goings-on. For non-reductive physicalists, the mind is strictly material/physical ontologically; but mental properties, e.g., qualia, the experience of sensations, the content of beliefs, consciousness itself, can neither be reduced to, nor explained by physical processes, not even physical laws. On the plus side, as with dualism, non-reductive physicalism allows such mental entities as Self, first person subjectivity, qualia, conscious attitudes and their contents (like beliefs and desires) to have real and independent downward causative powers.4However, there is a sizeable minus side too. If a physicalist maintains that there is nothing  beyond or over-and-above the physical, what does the non-reductive solution really amount to? How is non-reductive physicalism different from property dualism? Next, and more important than the classificatory issue is the question of how these mental goings-on—irreducible-to-the physical—actually effect their novel, independent  causative powers? What laws of nature apply?2O molecules combined constitute a macroproperty, emerging from a combination of many single H2O molecules—the microproperties. Note that the macroproperty, water, has properties, different and novel, from the underlying microproperties—the single H2O molecules. Here the macroproperty, water, is a fluid, a liquid, it is wet. These are emergent properties, and water is causally autonomous and independent from those of the underlying single H2O molecule microproperties.Emergentism might help the non-reductive physicalist. In simplest terms, emergentism holds that “macroproperties” arising from a number of “microproperties” conjoined, can have autonomous causal effects. For example, many HApplying this to the mind/body puzzle—emergentists aver that mental macroproperties emerge from physical microproperties. …consciousness is a causally emergent property of systems. It is an emergent feature of certain systems in the same way that solidity and liquidity are emergent features of systems of molecules. The existence of consciousness can be explained by the causal interactions between elements of the brain at the micro level, but consciousness cannot itself be deduced or calculated from the sheer physical structure of the neurons without some additional account of the causal relations between them.5.This kind of sanctioned emergence Searle calls “emergent1” and he (p.112) makes a sharp distinction between such allowable emergent1 phenomena and another sort of emergence which Searle abjures. Here is Searle (p.112) on “… a much more adventurous conception, call it ‘emergent2.’ A feature F is emergent2 iff [if and only if] F is emergent1 and has causal powers that cannot be explained by the causal interactions a, b, c…’’ Searle continues (p.112), ‘‘If consciousness were emergent2, then consciousness could cause things that could not be explained by the causal behavior of the neurons.’’ This would be an impossible outcome that Searle rejectsBut Searle’s important discussion of emergentism has not actually solved the problem. Yes, Searle acknowledges that the existence of consciousness is reductively accounted for physically, but to repeat the last clause of his last quoted sentence just above: “…but consciousness cannot itself be deduced [reduced to] or calculated from the sheer physical structure of the neurons without some additional account of the relations between them.” This is true, but Searle does not answer two questions that immediately follow: What are these accounts? And more broadly, can consciousness indeed be deduced or calculated from additional accounts of the relation of neurons, even in principle? If yes, then reductive, rather than non-reductive, physicalism is rescued; but is its cost too high with respect to autonomous mental causal powers? On the other hand, if consciousness cannot be so calculated, the notion of independent mental causation seems vindicated; but do these autonomous mental powers arise in the forbidden emergent2 fashion?2O molecules?In the next section, I will present my own view, which features mental goings-on as emergent1 phenomena, along with the sort of independent causal powers seen with other emergent1 macroproperties, such as the familiar example of water’s liquidity and HIn continuing to explore reductive physicalism, there is first another terminological issue: Reductive physicalism/materialism can also be called identity theory. Next, there is a substantive categorization matter: There are two sorts of reductive physicalists—type and token physicalists. J.C. Type materialism is like token materialism in claiming that sensory [mental] events are identical with physical events. However, [different from token materialism], it also claims that there is a set of physical characteristics with which qualitative [mental] characteristics are universally and lawfully correlated…” Continuing, Hill (p.35) goes on to assert that “…type materialism is simpler than dualism because it postulates fewer events…[and] type materialism is simpler than double aspect theory because it postulates fewer facts [Hill’s italics throughout].” And as far as type materialism over token becoming the more popular view, it is understandable because type materialism brought a universal, lawful regularity to the vexing mind/body problem: predictable mappings of mental state types of a certain character onto brain states types of a certain character. What could go wrong? The answer is multiple realization, the topic of the next subsection.Now as to type vs. token physicalism, Hill (p.11) explains: “First articulated in a seminal article by … [Since] any psychological event-type can be “physically realized” or “instantiated” or “implemented” in endlessly diverse ways, depending on the physical-biological nature of the organism or system…it [is] highly implausible to expect the event[-type] to correlate uniformly with, and thus be identical with [or reducible to] some “single” type of neural or physical state.H–P) and human type brain circuits ; these not necessarily similar to mollusk type pain  and mollusk nervous tissue ; and Martian type pain  and Martian type physical type pain realizer ; all of these also not necessarily similar to one another.This conclusion from the MR argument made a deep impact upon those working on the mind/body question. But, as I remarked in 2013  and paraphrase here: MR is problematic even for species-specific type physicalists. Neuroscientists have long established that among different individual humans there are various brain circuits involved in the same mental property—sometimes even gross differences in brain areas. Along with these micro and even macro brain differences across individuals, all realizing the same mental property/event, there are variations within a single individual—this even more problematic for type physicalists. According to Undoubtedly the brain’s degeneracy and its plasticity are of great import for survival and for evolutionary success. Yet, these current scientific developments severely compromise any type physicalist view of the mind/body question. It becomes increasingly apparent that even the more limited local species-specific type physicalist cannot rely on type-type identity or type-type reduction even within the brain of a single individual, much less across the brains of an entire species. No one-to-one physical type to mental type correlation can be found to exist.The usual reaction among philosophers to this daunting challenge to type materialism has been to turn back to a non-reductive version of physicalism, neglecting token materialism, which in my view deserves much further investigation. Indeed, in the next subsection another issue will be presented, which while seemingly problematic, also admits of possible solutions offering potential advantages for token physicalism.An understanding of multiple realization leads to another potential problem for physicalist-identity mind/body solutions, token as well as type. That is the issue of scale. There is an obvious mismatch between a mental process/event—e.g., a particular belief—and the myriad of neurons that underlie such a belief, even in a single person at a single time. The brain processes are much more fine-grained. Now add to this the fact that the same specific belief can be realized on a number of different occasions, each with its own neuronal assembly. Some such assemblies are found within degenerate mappings, as described above See also . But eveGiven this mismatch, how can token physicalism—which essentially holds that one particular mental event is identical with a physical event—hold up? Stephen 6 until its current instantiation in 2021, the New York Yankees are a conjunction (not a composite) of all of the New York Yankee teams during those years. On the other hand, all of the players playing for a specific Yankee team, e.g., 1960, comprise a composite—the 1960 New York Yankees. But, interestingly if one, two, or even all the players had been traded, the 1960 New York Yankees would still have been the 1960 New York Yankees, still a composite, but a different one, consisting of different parts, and different tokens.The idea of a single determinable with multiple determinates raises another interesting matter. Is a determinable a composite of all of its determinates? Is it a conjunction? Is it different for various determinable/determinate combinations? The question is hard to answer for a determinable like blue—but blue seems to be more of a mixture of the different blues; a composite, rather than a conjunction. The question is more easily settled for another sort of determinable, The New York Yankees. Since its inception as the team called ‘‘The New York Yankees’’ in 1913,Of course, the question here is how do these matters apply to the mind/body problem and token physicalism. I will attempt to answer this in the next subsection.7) occurring at time-t, exists as a brain event at time-t, consisting of an assembly of neurons, along with whatever neurochemical processes facilitate their connection. This is a reductive token physicalist view, which as such means that at time-t, synchronically, there is nothing over and above these brain goings-on as far as the specific mental event is concerned. Further, each additional singular instance of the same mental content (each token)—take for example, “My dog is fun”—is populated by a different network of neurons, perhaps even a different neuronal network, because it occurs at a different time, in a different place, and within a different context. Sometimes the neural assemblies at times-t and t + 1 or t + 20 vary only slightly; sometimes they are quite different. In any case, the sum of all of these instances of this content, i.e., all of their variable neuronal assemblies—neurons, networks, circuits—the conjunction, over time, diachronically, constitutes the mental content.I have posited  now with the DiCoToP model in hand, a solution  to this overarching puzzle might be achievable. But, what is more certain, is that emergent1 processes viewed in terms of the DiCoToP mind/body model, can add substantial evidence for autonomous mental causation. Recall that macroproperties consisting of collections of microproperties do have real and novel causal powers. A big collection of H2O molecules to the wet fluid we know as water, on the other. The difference, I aver, is that physical chemists know how the multiple molecules of H2O, when accumulated give rise to wet water. They can understand the organization of the many molecules within a structure, the Brownian movements of the molecules under temperature and pressure conditions, etc., On the contrary, even if DiCoToP proves to be correct, we would still have no good understanding of the “how” relation between mental contents as a macroproperty and the myriad neuronal assemblies that are its microproperties. Hence, the final subsection of this work will essentially be a mixture of plea and challenge to neuroscience colleagues to work on the “how” within the DiCoToP account. But first, in the section just to follow are some new puzzles the DiCoToP view brings to light.But, to be fair, this account of Ms and Ps is not a universally endorsed. 2O molecules “really” owes to the perceptual capacity of the subject experiencing the wetness. In other words, suppose that for a very different sort of experiencer  only two or three H2O molecules would suffice as a sufficient microproperty base for the emergent1 macroproperty, water, to arise—this, with its liquidity, wetness, and most importantly, its independent causal powers. The parallel question immediately presents itself: Would a small number of neural assemblies, even just two, allow this imagined tiny experiencing subject to experience consciousness, and allow mental independent  causal efficacy?With Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism in place, new puzzles come to the fore. To demonstrate, let’s start with a thought experiment. Suppose that water’s liquidity/wetness which seemingly owes to a very large collection of H9. Now let’s apply this first to the uncontested macroproperty, water. How many H2O molecules are necessary for us to perceive H2O as wet, liquid water? Next, how many neurons and neuronal assemblies are necessary for consciousness to be recognized as such? In addition to the ‘‘recognized-as-such-by-whom’’ problem outlined just above, we now have introduced the notion that the very concept of consciousness might be vague, unspecifiable10,11.Related to this is the Sorites Paradox, a paradox demonstrating the inherent vagueness (lack of specification of the extension) of certain concepts. Here are two simple examples involving the concepts “baldness” and “the heap.” If someone is bald and gets 1 more hair, is he still bald? What about 2? What about increasing by 1 hair iteratively? Likewise, does 1 grain of sand constitute a heap? No, what about 2? What about increasing 1 grain-at-a-time for n-times? Which specific hair makes the difference between baldness and no longer bald? Which grain is the one that constitutes the heap? No one of them can be that potent, and yet at some point there is a heapBoth of these problems might lead one to the panpsychism family of materialist mind/body views, in which (a) physicalism holds; (b) conscious experience is the only thing we really know for sure; and (c) even the most basic physical particles (including their subatomic constituents) can be mental/conscious  that the “how” of liquidity/fluidity can be understood in terms of the principles of physics and physical chemistry.Given (a) that many HQ: Can a similar understanding about how the myriad neural assemblies align/combine in emergent 1 fashion to yield consciousness?So far no, but eventually, with more advances in neuroscience, couldn’t the answer evolve: first to “not yet” and later to “yes!”? Meanwhile, the Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalist view does now allow some explanation for some heretofore perplexing aspects of psychoanalysis. It is to these I next turn.“Working-through” is a concept familiar to psychoanalysts. It represents an important process present in almost every psychoanalytic treatment. Working-through is especially significant theoretically as it can be seen as a shorthand version of perhaps one of the least understood problems for clinical psychoanalyses—namely, what is the mechanism of therapeutic action after interpretative work facilitates new knowledge? To the extent this is the case, comprehending working-through will aid in understanding this second more extensive problem. But even the “simpler” mechanism of working-through, specifically how it actually takes place, has not been well grasped. Thought to be related to grieving, the basic notion is that reviewing/re-working painful, problematic or neurotic contents from different angles helps to effect actual change. The mind/body account I’ve advanced here and originally in 12 insofar as it occurs at a different time and likely a different place. The sum of all of these instances of this content, i.e., all of their slightly variable neuronal networks (the conjunction), over time (diachronic), comprises the mental content.To review what I’ve said above , on the DiCoToP account, every singular mental event  exists synchronically (at a time) as a brain event consisting of an assembly of neurons, along with whatever neurochemical processes facilitate their connection. Further, each singular instance of the same event/same mental content (each token) is constituted by a slightly different population of neurons, a slightly different neuronal assembly,Now, let’s take a neurotic belief with a clear and simple mental content “All spiders are dangerous and should be avoided.” How would the working-through process actually occur according to the DiCoToP model of mental events? It seems clear that dealing with the phobic pathology that this specific mental content represents would require much re-aligning over a great number of neuronal assemblies, networks, and circuits, all summed over time. In other words, considerable experiential re-workings of the particular mental content would be needed—this, in most of the myriad contexts in which the neurotic belief appeared.Working-through more complex neurotic symptoms, composed as they are of diverse and variegated neurotic beliefs, would clearly entail more realignments, more re-workings, more time, much of it taking place after gaining new knowledge from even the most successful interpretations. Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism is then a mind/body view that can help explain not only working-through and the post-interpretative mechanism of therapeutic action, but also why analyses take so long, and why post analytic self-analysis is rarely optional.There is actual neuroscientific evidence for the sort of neuronal assemblies underlying mental processes that the Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism (DiCoToP) model proposes See ; visual 13 as well the more familiar specific neuronal membership shifts.Note that in the experiments cited, the methods employed to study the neuronal assemblies—including their original formation, their variability, and resultant stability amidst the changes—have involved sophisticated two-photon calcium imaging/optogenetics and complex statistical modeling. With these tools, researchers documented important aspects of neuronal assemblies, including variability sometimes seen even in their synaptic connections,However, all of the optogenetic imaging and their encouraging results, were of necessity gathered on non-human animal subjects. What are the implications for human consciousness? The statistical modeling studies, on the other hand, were directly applied to human mental goings-on, and they are certainly informative. Returning to the animal studies, the subjects were clearly conscious in their responses to perceptual stimuli and various learning tasks. This means that the fine-grained  imaging results do reflect mental activity, which should be generalizable to human animals. And yet…Here is one possibility offered by this author  in order to test DiCoToP more specifically. Could the research methods described above (optogenetic imaging) be employed to study particular mental contents more directly in appropriate non-human animals? For example, two simple belief-like attitudes for a mouse might be selected: (1) “that is frightening;” and (2) “that is appealing.” Then, many versions of each of those content-rich beliefs would be delivered to each mouse-subject  in many iterations (20) during a single session, and then in succeeding sessions over some duration of time ? Would imaging results compared within subjects and between subjects—both with regard to trials at-a-time, and those over-time—prove revealing?And now, for the real point of this section, really of this whole article: I wrote it in the hopes of providing a challenge and registering a plea to neuroscience colleagues to devise human experiments offering empirical brain-based  evidence for or against DiCoToP (as well as other competing mind/body views).Any investigation of the perpetually vexing mind/body problem should not exclude a philosophical exploration, especially in light of the claim that neuroscientists and psychoanalysts hold clashing positions inhibiting their interdisciplinary collaboration. Thus, this article adds the philosophy of mind to the endeavor set forth as the “Frontiers Research Topic: Psychodynamic Neuroscience.” This piece begins with a series of questions: Why should one be a physicalist, when dualism can seem so right? Why should one be a reductive physicalist, when non-reductive physicalism has the appeal of dualism, without some of its major problems? And finally, why token physicalism, when type physicalism has been much more popular?Asking and answering these questions provides a review of some of the most important aspects of the mind/body dilemma. Among the issues taken up was the matter of independent causation. If the mind and the mental are properly reduced to the physical, how can mental goings-on have real autonomous, downward causal power? Are they not just epiphenomena? Emergence as a possible solution was discussed, along with the problems it does not resolve. Next, multiple realization, a concept that is truly pivotal for neuroscience and mind/body physicalists, was explored, and found to be particularly relevant as it has become a central feature in the mind/body view I developed in 2013, and outlined in the current article. Termed Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism (DiCoToP), this account can resolve many of the outstanding mind/body problems. True, the DiCoTop account also brought to the fore a few new vexing philosophical puzzles. But after wrestling with these, the article took a more practical turn.Several empirical studies, of two sorts—statistic modeling of neurological phenomena at the level of the neuron and neuronal assembly; and imaging studies on non-human animal subjects on fine-grained brain processes—were seen to provide evidence for essential aspects advanced by the DiCoToP account. This article ends with a challenge that is at the same time an appeal: Can neuroscientists devise empirical experiments with human subjects in order to gain evidence for (or against) the Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalist mind/body account?The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. 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Background: Many children are not engaging in sufficient physical activity and there are substantial between-children physical activity inequalities. In addition to their primary role as educators, teachers are often regarded as being well-placed to make vital contributions to inclusive visions of physical activity promotion. With the dramatic increase in popularity of wearable technologies for physical activity promotion in recent years, there is a need to better understand teachers' perspectives about using such devices, and the data they produce, to support physical activity promotion in schools.Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 UK-based primary school teachers, exploring their responses to children's physical activity data and their views about using wearable technologies during the school day. Interview discussions were facilitated by an elicitation technique whereby participants were presented with graphs illustrating children's in-school physical activity obtained from secondary wearable technology data. Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed.Results: Most teachers spoke positively about the use of wearable technologies specifically designed for school use, highlighting potential benefits and considerations. Many teachers were able to understand and critically interpret data showing unequal physical activity patterns both within-and between-schools. Being presented with the data prompted teachers to provide explanations about observable patterns, emotional reactions—particularly about inequalities—and express motivations to change the current situations in schools.Conclusion: These findings suggest that primary school teachers in the UK are open to integrating wearable technology for measuring children's physical activity into their practices and can interpret the data produced by such devices. Visual representations of physical activity elicited strong responses and thus could be used when working with teachers as an effective trigger to inform school practices and policies seeking to address in-school physical inactivity and inequalities. Physical activity is important for children's physical and mental well-being, cognitive and social development, and for providing strong foundations for future health,  What do teachers believe to be the potential benefits and concerns about the use of wearable technologies within schools?, (2) How well do teachers understand visual representations of physical activity data from wearable technologies?, and (3) How do teachers respond to physical activity data from wearable technologies?This project received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Approval Committee for Health at the University of Bath (EP 19/20 046). Participant information sheets were provided online, and consent obtained, before arranging interviews at participants' convenience. Before being able to explore teachers' perspectives on the use of wearable technologies it was first necessary to collect and analyse children's in-school physical activity, producing a series of illustrative graphs. These graphical visualizations were then used in the empirical phase of this study as a basis for discussion within qualitative interviews.It was important to ensure that the data visualizations being presented to teachers were derived from an authentic data set using reliable physical activity measures. Anonymised physical activity data was obtained from Moki Technology®  of teachers spoke positively about the use of wearable technologies specifically designed for schools. For example, one participant said, “it's more positive than anything; I think it would be a good way to track and trace” (Teacher 11) and another said, “I would really like to be able to introduce them within schools” (Teacher 23). When further explaining these positive evaluations, participants described a range of potential benefits. For most teachers (n = 21), the devices could provide valuable information:The majority n = 18) thought that data could be used to identify children with lower levels of activity and illuminate periods of inactivity. For example, one teacher thought that wearable technology data “would definitely make me as a teacher realize, ‘okay so on Mondays we don't have this activity, let's make sure we do this.”' (Teacher 19)Similarly, many participants (I think the kids would love it”—Teacher 1), or would increase motivation because pupils would have a new sense of what “enough” physical activity means , or become competitive . Several participants (n = 10) suggested that the bands could be effective if used as part of individual or team goal-setting activities . A minority of participants (n = 3) also suggested that the activity bands could aid classroom learning. As one teacher said, “I could see the children using their own data from a week to then plot graphs in maths … they'd really love that, because they like to use themselves for data.” (Teacher 19)Teachers thought that activity bands would impact pupils in various direct ways, believing that the bands would be stimulating and enjoyable  believed that teachers' support and involvement in wearing activity bands would be important for successful integration. For example, one teacher thought that “children would buy into it if staff also bought into it” (Teacher 24) and another asserted that “if the children are wearing them, the staff need to wear them” (Teacher 12). Teachers explained that compared to other wearable devices on the market, those without a screen, with the capacity for teachers to manage and involve all pupils, would reduce concerns relating to class distractions, unequal access to devices, development of obsessive behaviors and negative competition among pupils. The following two examples illustrate these perspectives:Teachers however, placed caveats around some of the potential benefits discussed. Several participants …I feel that if everyone in the school, or class, had them, then that would be better than, for example, using their [branded device]. Because obviously everyone can't access [branded devices] or watches like it. (Teacher 15)I think the concept is a great idea … my only qualm with it would be, would it have longevity?” (Teacher 18). Even in the short-term, some (n = 6) showed skepticism about accuracy and reliability . Irrespective of accuracy, teachers (n = 7) commented that children may lack the understanding of step counts, and why data is being collected .Teachers raised important concerns; the most widely held, was that the activity bands could be a “fad” or “novelty.” As one teacher put it, “n = 7) worried that using activity bands could make teaching more challenging if they caused disruption. As one participant said, “just from a physical band perspective, [they] would need to be interesting enough for a child to wear, but not distracting. Because otherwise I'd have a collection of them on my desk!” (Teacher 13). Moreover, teachers (n = 10) suggested that the cost of devices would be an issue for schools  which was important because some teachers anticipated that children “will lose them and break them” (Teacher 6).Concerns over the additional time and responsibility burden on teachers was talked about by almost half of those interviewed. Participants . This discomfort was related to fears about the development of obsessive behaviors  as well as the harmful impacts of social comparison and competitiveness . A few also mentioned minor concerns about the health and safety risks of wearing bands during physical education because they could be a “catching risk” (Teacher 5).Some teachers expressed concerns about the potential adverse effects on children themselves. Nine participants expressed discomfort about controlling, monitoring, or policing physical activity in schools Similarly, when presented with Graph 10, illustrating the intersect of pupils from the most and least active school in the sample, a different participant responded:Wow. So, in your setting you might think that you're doing really well, but then your most active children are only doing stuff [physical activity] at the same [level] as those at the least. Or you can put it the other way, can't you, well our least active are at least doing the same as some children who are the most active. n = 6) were more critical in their understanding, acknowledging that MVPA is a more challenging intensity to reach, and that certain activities would be below this threshold, despite being of value:Whilst some teachers believed data regarding their school would be different across some of the graph metrics, no teacher explicitly disputed the information depicted. Some teachers using things like the wearable tech to carry out studies, I guess you kind of want them to use it in the same way.” Indeed, there were also comments about either sensitivity, reliability, or reactivity when using activity trackers:Similarly, 11 teachers in this study commented on data collection considerations, such as time of year, and how monitors were used , indicating a deeper level of scrutiny about the data. Teacher 13, said “It depends on what the trackers are picking up in terms of movement … the sensitivity of that tracker. (Teacher 3). the fact that they might not keep it on the whole time and then I don't know how that would affect the data. (Teacher 21)n = 9) found at least one of the graphs challenging to understand and required clarification. These challenges included requiring further explanation of MVPA (graph 1) and difficulty differentiating between graph 3 and 4 . Furthermore, there were also difficulties for some teachers in understanding a bell curve (graph 10),  or finding the multiple lines plotted on a single graph confusing (graph 11 and 12), .None of the 26 teachers in this study misunderstood, or needed further explanation of graphs 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 13. However, a proportion  those that offered explanations to the data; (ii) responses that were emotional, involving feelings of sadness, pity, or surprise, and (iii) responses that suggested a motivation to change the current situations in schools. Although we present these responses separately, within the transcripts they were often intertwined and overlapping as participants made sense of the data.Teacher 14 explained: “I do think there's a lot of expectations from the government for the curriculum, there's a lot of content … and I can see why children are not moving very often.” School uniform, particularly girls', was highlighted as a barrier, with some teachers acknowledging that it needed to be changed to be “fit for an active day” (Teacher 5). Participants also rationalized that the physical environment was also a contributing factor, highlighting the importance of space, school structure, weather, and equipment. Space was an important factor when discussing the gender disparities; teachers highlighted that football often dominated the playground space, limiting girls' ability to engage in other physical activities. For example:Responses that offered explanations of the data contained claims relating to policy, the physical environment, the social environments in and outside of school, opportunities, and pupil characteristics. Many participants used all these factors at some point to explain the data, suggesting a high degree of agreement on the determinants of physical activity. Policy-oriented explanations included government policies, academic pressures, and sedentary classroom learning. As We have a massive playground and then there are other schools who have a playground the size of a postage stamp and even if those kids wanted to be active, they couldn't be because you can't actually get out of breath running across their playground.” (Teacher 5)… otherwise they would just take over the whole field … and you'd look out and the whole field had boys running around playing football and all around the edges were the girls” (Teacher 9)“… they both have the same opportunities in their day-to-day schooling hours.”—Teacher 8), whilst others believed girls were disadvantaged, .All teachers acknowledged that the opportunities available to children would influence their physical activity. Examples spanned across break times, P.E., sports clubs, active travel, opportunities within the curriculum, and family/community opportunities. Some teachers felt that all children had the same opportunities within the school day, The boys are quite dominant. They're a lot more skilled than the girls would be if they tried to join in. It's a bit of a vicious cycle, cause the boys are better cause they play more. (Teacher 22)It is not our intention to assess the validity of these claims here, only to report that presenting physical activity data to teachers is likely to initiate these kinds of reflections.n = 22). Expressions of shock were evident after seeing graphs depicting low levels of MVPA, small proportions of children meeting guidelines, or differences between groups or schools. Teacher 4 said “I'm quite shocked by that. That's not very good at all” (Graph 1) and Teacher 18 said “It's a large proportion of girls that are not . Bloody hell” (Graph 7). Noticing the gender differences in physical activity brought about a feeling of disgust for Teacher 14 who said, “the rest of the boys are a high proportion more active than girls on all of them, especially number 30. That's quite disgusting” (Graph 13). Sadness was expressed when graphs depicted individual, gender, or school disparities. For example, “you kind of know that it is true. It's just sad” , or “you look at that orange line and feel sorry for those kids who don't get those opportunities either.” The second kind of response we observed was emotional, involving feelings of shock, sadness, pity, and surprise about the observed patterns (n = 10), exposure to new information not only resulted in increased awareness but, crucially, seemed to trigger feelings of being enlightened. Feelings of this nature can be seen in responses like, “well until we were talking about it now, I haven't really thought about it being an issue” . Some responses suggested that participants might have shifted toward a belief that physical activity ought to be taken more seriously. Examples included:The third kind of response observed were those that suggested a motivation to change the current situations in schools. For some teachers With data like this you start to think along different lines because at the moment it's very much the status quo is fine, they [children] all seem to be quite happy, but actually when you see statistics like this then it's actually they [children] might be quite happy doing what they're doing, but it's not necessarily the best thing for them. Something that often followed from these responses was an enthusiasm to be more proactive about promoting physical activity. Eleven of the teachers expressed sentiments about being more enthusiastic and proactive:Looking at all this data that you've got, it is scary and it's making me think actually, I need to do a bit. (Teacher 25)I am not P.E. orientated, I have a passion for foundation, so it's making me really think about outdoor curriculum use and the positive impact on their physical activity levels. (Teacher 12)It's definitely made me…think about movement a bit more, especially on those rainy days and especially on days where you don't have any activity. (Teacher 19)Our main aim was to better understand teachers' perceptions about the use of wearable technologies within schools and investigate how teachers understand and react to data visualizations derived from wearable technologies. Overall, the findings showed teachers believed that the use of wearable technologies, specifically designed for schools, was feasible and acceptable. We also found that physical activity data from wearable technologies can be used to communicate children's physical activity to teachers. Teachers were able to provide potential explanations for within-and between-school patterns and differences, and their responses to data included emotion, heightened awareness, and motivation to change the current situation in schools. Thus, these results highlight the promise data derived from wearable technologies has for informing teachers' and schools' understanding of pupils' physical activity, with the potential to influence school practices.Overall, teachers were positive about the use of devices specifically-designed to measure physical activity within schools, believing they could be used to highlight inactive periods of the school day, or identify less active pupils, and ultimately positively impact pupils' physical activity. Previous research has demonstrated the benefits of wearable technologies for monitoring the fidelity and effectiveness of physical activity interventions  were perceived to be more difficult to interpret than others. Since the use of data will be limited if communication is unclear Hornik, , it willThe data shown to teachers came from multiple UK schools, and it is possible that personalized school-specific data for each participating teacher may have prompted different responses. Teachers may have been more critical about (other) schools because of the lack of personalisation but, equally, reactions could have been stronger if they felt personally connected to data from their own schools. Teachers may also have been more confident explaining patterns in physical activity data if it was specific to their school. Future research should investigate the use of technology and data, and teacher interpretations and responses, within the context of interviewees' school settings. Such a study could also investigate if initial enthusiasm and motivation arising from in-school physical activity data leads to subsequent changes in teacher attitudes or practices.Whilst efforts were made to recruit a diverse range of participants, teachers with a greater interest in physical activity were more likely to have participated due to the nature of the project and could be more enthusiastic than others about the potential use of wearable technologies. Furthermore, the use of digital communication technologies for the interviews may have excluded some participants who were apprehensive about using this software. It is also possible that interviewing in a global pandemic, which caused disruptions to normal practices, may have impacted teachers' priorities or outlooks relating to physical activity within schools.To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to investigate the potential for physical activity data-driven insights to advance teachers' understanding and practices. Teachers were able to interpret the types of data produced from wearable technologies. Furthermore, findings suggest that primary school teachers in the UK are open to integrating wearable technologies for measuring children's physical activity into their practices. Visual representations of pupils' physical activity elicited strong responses from teachers and could therefore be used to inform teachers' behavior, school practices and policies ranging from whole-school changes to encourage physical activity, through to targeted approaches to tackle specific physical activity inequalities.The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Research Ethics Approval Committee for Health at the University of Bath. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.The study was designed by GKW, OP, and DT. Data was collected by GKW. Data preparation, analysis, and drafting of the paper was done by GKW and GW. All authors provided support for data interpretation, feedback on drafts, and approved the final manuscript.This research project did not receive any direct funding. GKW is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), training grant number ES/P000630/1.DT declares a financial interest (shares) in the company which provided the source data used to develop the visualizations. Neither the company nor DT were involved in data analysis which was undertaken by GKW. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.