Nicole T Cook

University of Wollongong, Department of Geography and Sustainable Communities, Faculty Member

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I am currently researching and writing about spaces of urban and resident activism, urban social movements and planning. I have also undertaken research on the relationship between housing, resident opposition and planning, and housing and home
Address: Dr Nicole Cook
Lecturer in Human Geography
Geography and Sustainable Communities | Social Sciences
Room 249/Building 41 | University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
T +61 2 4221 3876 | F +61 2 4221 3102

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David Seamon

Kansas State University

Remo Caponi

University of Cologne

Catalina Ortiz

University College London

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Mehmet Penpecioglu

İZMİR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Zlata Vuksanović-Macura

Geographical Institute "Jovan Cvijic" of Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences

Besime Şen

Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar

Mona Harb

American University of Beirut

Emanuele Greco

Università Degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"

Maurizio Carta

Università degli Studi di Palermo

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Papers by Nicole T Cook

Bridging infrastructure: Conceptualising non-state organisations in complex refugee settlement service landscapes

Geoforum

This article conceptualises the work of non-state organisations in the refugee and migrant settle... more This article conceptualises the work of non-state organisations in the refugee and migrant settlement sector with a focus on universal services, bureaucratic process and social dimensions of settling in a new country. In so doing it augments conceptualisations of ‘social infrastructure’, to encompass the social, emotional and administrative dimensions of social connection in diverse societies. Drawing on analysis of non-state organisations in the settlement services sector in Melbourne, Australia, we reveal the crucial work of organisations in developing programs and initiatives that recognise the complexity of mainstream welfare services, engage with the intangible social and emotional aspects of service provision, and that contribute to the accumulation of knowledge and expertise of complex and opaque services landscape. Moving beyond conceptualisations of social infrastructure as everyday community spaces, we introduce the concept of ‘bridging infrastructure’ to denote the work of organisations in interpersonal facilitation of social networks that enable access to wider services; the creation of friendly and welcoming community spaces; and the development of knowledge and expertise about a complex services landscape. Recognising the crucial role of the non-state sector in the dynamic process of humanitarian settlement, we contend that limited conceptualisations of social infrastructure risk removing ‘the social’ from bureaucratic and non-state services landscapes that support settlement lifeworlds.

Actually existing intersectionality: The placebased and embodied politics of animal and human rights activism

by Esther Tordjmann (Alloun) and Nicole T Cook

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2023

Critiques of intersectionality as an additive and simplistic model of understanding identity poli... more Critiques of intersectionality as an additive and simplistic model of understanding identity politics has led to calls for renewed concepts that better grasp the complexity and potential of shared struggle. In this article, we contend that the experiences of activists attempting to practice an intersectional human and animal rights politics are a crucial yet overlooked resource in the development of such conceptual imaginaries and ethical practice. Drawing on an historical case study conducted with activists involved in the 1990s anarchist collective 'One Struggle' in Israel/Palestine, we argue that an ethic of shared human and animal rights struggle cannot be separated from place-based and embodied politics. We show that activists cultivating intersectional politics in practice must negotiate affective forces of discomfort, alienation and exhaustion that wear down and constrain the potential for intersectional coalitions and joint struggles. These affects are generated through state disincentives, violence the cultural politics of nationalism and incommensurable differences. In this context, intersectional politics are a precarious achievement, dependent on the capacities of activists to continue to compromise and negotiate affectively charged encounters in everyday settings. To better capture the precarious, contingent and provisional nature of animal and human rights activism, we therefore propose the concept of 'actually existing intersectionality', illustrating how intersectionality is retheorised via emplaced, embodied activist practices. In so doing we make visible the work through which intersectional politics coheres through negotiation by actors in particular places and times.

Nicole T Cook

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