Developing the Vanishing Mediator as Theoretical Framework: Synthesis and Application

Abstract

The concept of the vanishing mediator is basically a theory concentrating on a mediation that ceases when its task is complete. However fundamental its function is, it still has nuances that are, when juxtaposed altogether, quite differing. What I intend to do in this paper is to develop the concept to be utilized as a theoretical framework for further researches. To do that, I will: 1) succinctly clarify theory both in its essence and its being a concept through symbolic logic; 2) review related literature and tabulate the recently cited related works on the vanishing mediator; 3) frame a structure or methodology and discuss its nuances based on the common references strategically extracted; 4) attempt to develop a refined version of it and its process through synthesis; and later, 5) present areas or topics in some selected disciplines where the concept can be applied as conclusion.

Subjective destitution, love, and rebellion in pandemic times: Theorizing with Hot Skull

“…Second, we have the concept of the vanishing mediator. Politically speaking, a vanishing mediator creates the conditions for a major shift, allowing activities to be rendered as universally necessary, beyond the contingent moment of their emergence (Jameson, 1973;Kahambing, 2019;Z ̌ižek, 1991). It theorizes in a dialectical manner, suggesting we look "for the affirmation of the future already latent in the present" (Jameson, 2017: 72).…”

Migration and indigenous health during COVID-19

“…The Mamanwa of Basey as a diasporic group views the mountains no longer as their homeland but as a prison. 3 The diasporic experience acts as a mediating agency 4 that questions the very notion of indigeneity as an attachment to a certain place and emancipates new identifications. 5 The reasons that are shown in the current findings report that emancipation becomes a desire to have more sustainable prospects of living, practically for resources, and ontologically, for a life that constantly develops.…”

Vanishing mediators in public health during COVID-19

“…Vanishing mediators are agents, interventions, historic syntheses or ideologies that disappear—because they facilitate or get integrated into the logic of the new structure—the moment their functions are already done. 4 Tracing these in public health can mean retroactively drawing the lessons of the past and present pandemics to enact a radical futurism. For Mueller, McCollum and Schmidt’s ‘COVID-19, the Vanishing Mediator, and Postcapitalist Possibilites,’ 5 the COVID-19 crisis politics itself or COVID-19-induced-wartime socialism (CV19 socialism) is a vanishing mediator, drawing inspiration from Žižek’s explication of war communism, necessitating stabilizations of the ‘unstable capitalist state’ through socialist political economies from above and mass mobilizations of environmental restoration from below.…”