Questioning New Materialisms: An Introduction

Abstract

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Body pedagogics, transactionalism and vélo identities: Becoming a cyclist in motorised societies

“…Dewey's transactionalism resonates in part with recent vitalist, performative, affectual and other theoretical developments, often associated with the 'new materialism' (Gamble et al, 2019), that emphasise the 'liveliness' of the environment in which people are embedded and explore the 'mutual constitution of entangled agencies' that follows from this situation (Barad, 2007, p. 33). One of the limitations of these latter perspectives, however, is that they sometimes conflate the properties of humans and other 'actants'; a move that can problematise sociological research (Devellennes & Dillet, 2018;Elder-Vass, 2015). The advantage of Dewey's approach, in contrast, is that his recognition of individual-environmental exchanges exists within an enduring concern with the creative capacities of humans to reproduce and change the environments in which they are embedded (Dewey, 1927).…”

Sustainability, feminist posthumanism and the unusual capacities of (post)humans

“…The other principal criticisms of the new materialisms are that they de-politicise social justice struggles by sidelining essentialist models of identity; that the absence of any conception of social structures, mechanisms or systems undermines capacity to analyse power, resistance and inequalities; and that their 'newness' is only in relation to Western and Eurocentric ontology. For overviews of the new materialisms and discussions of these issues, see (Fox and Alldred, 2018;Coole and Frost 2010;Cudworth and Hobden 2015;Devellennes and Dillet 2018;Rosiek, Snyder, and Pratt 2019). 6 The claimed positive relationship between economic development and environmental protection has been queried by other scholars, who argue that indeed it is economic development and the capitalist model of production and accumulation that has led to the current environmental crises (Baer 2008;Moore 2017;Rees 2003;Wallis 2010).…”

Ihminen osana luontoa : ekologinen realismi ja kestävä taloudellinen organisoituminen

“…Jos toimijuuden määritelmä on niin laaja, että se menettää merkityksensä, on vaikea nähdä miten se edesauttaa ekologisen tuhon pysäyttämisessä (Hornborg 2016;Malm 2018). Jälleen hieman kärjistäen jos "kirjaimellisen konstruktionismin" johtopäätös on, että ihminen voi muokata luontoa miten vain, uusmaterialistinen ajattelu osoittaa kohti toista ääripäätä: ihmiset eivät voi tehdä käytännössä juuri mitään tuhoisan kehityskulun pysäyttämiseksi, sillä emme pyri tekemään eroja toimijuuden tai toimijoiden kesken (Devellennes ja Dillet 2018;Malm 2018).…”