On the discrepancy between objects and things: An ecological approach

Abstract

The aim of this article is to develop a different approach to the study of the material world, one that takes seriously the seemingly banal fact that things are constantly falling out of place. Taking this fact seriously, the article argues, requires us to think about the material world not in terms of 'objects', but ecologically, that is, in terms of the processes and conditions under which certain 'things' come to be differentiated and identified as particular kinds of 'objects' endowed with particular forms of meaning, value and power. The article demonstrates the purchase of this ecological approach through the example of the Mona Lisa. It does so by exploring the rather extraordinary processes of containment and maintenance that are required to keep the Mona Lisa legible as an art object over time.

Ways of Knowing When Research Subjects Care

“…Care has a long history in feminist studies of science and technology as a model form of engagement that privileges the work of nurturing, cultivating, sustaining, and maintaining [37,103]. In this way, science and technology studies scholars pose care as a corrective to cultural emphases on discovery and invention -origin moments that neglect the ongoing labors and attention to the mundane that keep our material, technological, and social world going [46,84]. In the face of 'ethicopolitical' questions, care ethics do more than show concern for a techno-scientific controversy [96].…”

Tenuous blessings: The materiality of doubt in a Mongolian buddhist wealth calling ceremony

“…As the material world consistently resists stability, studies of materiality require a robust theoretical framework which includes doubt and uncertainty. Domínguez Rubio (2016: 59) argues that, rather than constituting stability, ‘things are constantly falling out of place’. Following from recent anthropological theory that attempts to avoid resolving uncertainties (Bubandt, 2014; Carey and Pedersen, 2017; Tsing, 2015), I argue that there is a productive interface between studies of materiality and recent ethnographic theories exploring uncertainty and doubt.…”

“…Following from recent anthropological theory that attempts to avoid resolving uncertainties (Bubandt, 2014; Carey and Pedersen, 2017; Tsing, 2015), I argue that there is a productive interface between studies of materiality and recent ethnographic theories exploring uncertainty and doubt. Both lineages of anthropological theory share the undertaking to question stable interpretations of neat symbolic orders and, in doing so, create messier representations of the changing worlds in which we inhabit, which Domínguez Rubio (2016) describes as the ‘relentlessness of things’.…”

Reparación de objetos domésticos como resistencia al diseño desechable

“…Nuestro entorno artificial permanece en un continuo deterioro por lo que la labor espontánea o premeditada de los reparadores tiene que ver precisamente con mejorar nuestro hábitat desde una labor invisibilizada. El estado "normal" de las cosas que pueblan nuestro ambiente son una consecuencia del trabajo de personas que impiden que las cosas se conviertan en residuos (Domínguez Rubio, 2016;Tironi, 2015).…”