(Re)Thinking Design with New Materialism: Towards a Critical Anthropology of Design

Somatechnics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-373
Author(s):  
Michaela Büsse
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Human Material ◽  
Design Theories ◽  
Critical Anthropology ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Human Centred Design

The article proposes an empirical and discursive understanding of design as engaging and intensifying uneven power relations. By affiliating with the ontological turn in anthropology, such re-defined reading of design acknowledges design's complicity with extractive capitalism while aiming to open up possibilities to think design otherwise. In recent years, inspired by the resurgence of materialism, abstract notions of design as mediating practice between human and environment have gained popularity. Yet, these more-than-human-centred design theories tend to obscure the material and immaterial infrastructures that still shape human and nonhuman realities. By utilising the example of sand's transformation into land and tracing its journey across sites, actors and continents, the infrastructures of planetary transformation – as well as what eludes them – are investigated. Turning matter into medium emphasises thresholds and ruptures in the human-material relationship and thus transcends both a socially constructed and material reading of reality. Through a historical and empirical relocation of the current more-than-human-centred design discourse, the research presented in this article aims to support the establishment of a critical anthropology of design.

Werewolf Wollstonecraft

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-274
Author(s):  
Chris Washington
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Dynamic Power ◽  
Karen Barad

The judicial bestiary at the heart of eighteenth-century politics has long been evident in Enlightenment social contract debates, as Michel Foucault’s and Giorgio Agamben’s theories of biopolitics show. In this essay, I argue that Wollstonecraft is nonetheless the first thinker of ‘true’ werewolf out-lawry in her final novel, Maria, Or the Wrongs of Woman and in her letters to Godwin. In the novel, Wollstonecraft leverages what we now call new materialism as a feminist critique of heteropatriarchal society. Wollstonecraft’s new materialist thinking also scrambles gender across even human and nonhuman distinctions. To counter microcosmic familial and macrocosmic state heteropatriarchy, Wollstonecraft theorizes what I am calling, following the example of wolves and werewolves, not a family but a ‘pack’. The pack manifests as new spacetimes through what Karen Barad terms “quantum entanglements” that produce love between subjects and subjects but that never strives to reproduce binaristic pairings that reproduce the sovereign family. A pack, as Wollstonecraft’s texts demonstrate, emerges from processes of co-creation that iterate new subjects and objects without dynamic power structures structured around stable gender identities or human and nonhuman power relations.

Framing Nature: First Steps into the Wilderness for a Sociology of the Landscape

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Bell
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
The Media

We give a sociological reading of the landscape as a formation not primarily of the natural world but of the social. Landscape is best seen as a terrain on which socially constructed and historically determined significatory practices are at work shaping our perception of nature. Accordingly we must attend to the media forms and practices through which landscape has been represented if we are to understand the inter-textual nature of our experience of nature. We explore in particular sociological attempts to understand tourist representations of the landscape. We engage with Urry's postmodern analysis of picturesque tourism and argue that a more historically informed analysis is needed that links representations of landscape to power relations in colonised societies.

Legitimacy and Legitimization in Low Turnout Ballots

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kirkland ◽  
Matthew Wood
Keyword(s):  
Current Literature ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Uk ◽  
New Research ◽  
Western Democracies

Declining voter turnout has been highlighted as problematic for a number of western democracies. However, in this article we argue that whether an election is seen as ‘legitimate’ or not depends crucially upon interpretations of the levels of turnout by elite actors. Through comparing two recent democratic ballots in the UK we demonstrate how elections with lower turnouts can come to be seen as holding more legitimacy than those with higher turnouts. The cases demonstrate, we argue, a distinction between actual legitimacy, defined as a binary concept, and the process of legitimization – a process through which the authority of an institution is discursively constructed and conferred. This suggests a new research agenda which extends beyond the current literature to focus upon how the legitimacy of a ballot is socially constructed in a broader context of unequal socioeconomic power relations.

Emerging Discourses on Security—From ‘Traditional’ to ‘Worldly’ and Beyond: An Innovative Indian Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-194
Author(s):  
Narottam Gaan
Keyword(s):  
Security Analysis ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The State ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Security Models ◽  
Human Material ◽  
Living Material ◽  
Indian Perspective

In the traditional conceptualisation of security, human beings remain predominantly at the centre stage claiming all privileges of military apparatus of the state by virtue of being ‘superior’ to all other living forms. Realist and neo-realist conceptualisations of the state see human kind as the sole reference point and subject of security. It is argued that the security of the state impregnates the individuals against all kinds of threats from the outside ‘other’. With the emergence of non-traditional security paradigms and the broadening of the ambit of security to bring human beings directly to the mainstream, and include non-human material beings, the new materialism and worldly approaches obtain a different kind of prominence in the canon of security analysis. In this new approach, we can find the conceptualisation of ‘being together’ of human beings, other non-human living forms and the non-living material world being part of one whole world. This so-called ‘worldly approach’, articulates and emphasizes the realisation and feeling of human beings for the ‘other’, but falls short of suggesting any means by which human beings could expand themselves to include all-living and non-living forms to create new security models. This article analyses the relevance and applicability of ancient Indian wisdom substantiated by modern science to the analysis of state security.

scholarly journals Diffuse subjects and dispersed power: New materialist insights and cautionary lessons for international law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jessie Hohmann
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Embedded Power ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article sets out the major tenets of new materialism and maps out its implications for international law. It considers what new materialism might offer for those of us working within international law in the way of new insights, resources, practices or politics. It first sets the contours of new materialism within the broader material turn. It then elaborates three main tenets of new materialism’s methodology, theory, and ontology: its attention to matter in its physicality; the embedded and entangled subject; and the vitality or agency of objects. The article focuses on how new materialist work might help us to understand, first, subjectivity and second, power and accountability in international law. It concludes that new materialist approaches offer important and compelling insights, working against entrenched categories and structures that continue to perpetuate or excuse violence and harm in international law’s doctrines and practices. These insights provide resources for rethinking power and subjectivity, and the role these play in international law. However, those of us working to consider how we can respond to pressing crises of justice and coexistence within international law may find new materialism most powerful when brought into relation, and deep conversation, with more structural methodologies. Notably ‘older’ (Marxist or historical) materialisms grasp embedded power relations and deep-rooted systemic harms in more concrete ways. This is, the article concludes, a conversation that international law scholars are well placed to contribute to, deepening both ‘old’ and ‘new’ materialist insights for international law.

scholarly journals O “corpo-migrante” e Bourdieu: corpo e incorporação no contexto migratório / Bourdieu and the ‘migrant-body’: embodiment in the migratory context

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Alario Ennes
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
The Body ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social

O presente artigo tem como objetivo central a análise de algumas obras de Pierre Bourdieu tendo em vista sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento de uma agenda de pesquisa em torno da ideia do “corpo-migrante”. Esta agenda visa compreender como o corpo é socialmente produzido no contexto migratório e como isto resulta nas relações sociais e de poder das quais o imigrante é parte. O artigo foi elaborado com base em (re)leituras de obras de Bourdieu com foco na ideia de incorporação e corpo e a partir de um levantamento bibliográfico por meio do qual foram identificados alguns artigos que já fazem o diálogo entre conceitos bourdieusianos e a questão migratória, e outros que tratam do corpo no contexto migratório mas sem problematizá-lo teoricamente. Como resultado, sugiro que Bourdieu nos oferece elementos suficientes para apreender e compreender o “corpo-migrante” como resultado de relações de força e poder que geram a inserção, o posicionamento e o reposicionamento de imigrantes em campos específicos em que atuam. This article sets out to analyse a number of works by Pierre Bourdieu, focusing specifically on his contribution to the development of a research agenda surrounding the ‘migrant-body.’ This agenda aims to understand how the body is socially constructed in the context of migration, and how this results in the social and power relations in which the migrant becomes embedded. The article is based on (re)reading Bourdieu’s books with a focus on his ideas of embodiment and the body. Additionally, a review of the literature enabled two groups of articles to be identified, the first comprising texts that already develop a dialogue between Bourdieu’s concepts and the topic of immigration, while the second group studies the body in the migration context without problematizing the issue theoretically. In the conclusion, I suggest that Bourdieu offers us enough elements to understand the ‘migrant-body’ as an outcome of power and social relations that generate the insertion, positioning and re-positioning of migrants within the specific fields in which they act.

scholarly journals Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Staša Babić
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Human Actions ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Human Responsibility

Over the last decades, some archaeologists have adopted the approaches from philosophy and anthropology that may loosely be denoted by the term new materialism. The key assumptions are that archaeological investigation, regardless of the theoretical stance applied, has always been burdened by the modern mode of thinking and dichotomies such as nature/culture or subject/object, wherefrom stems the anthropocentric approach to the study of objects, primarily in respect to humans. It is suggested that the reality consists of a plethora of diverse elements, all deserving equal attention and all their existences being of equal relevance. Objects, animals, plants, all have the potential to act in a network of equal actors. A researcher must therefore respect the flat ontology, where none of the actors has primacy. The paper problematizes some of the (un)intentional implications of the ontological turn for the theory and practice of archaeology. First of all, the proposed flattening destabilizes the key disciplinary distinction – study of the human past through its material remains. The downplaying of the importance of human actions in the formation of networks of mutually equal actors at the same time downplays the human responsibility. In this way, various forms of inequality among humans as research priorities and the potential of social engagement of archaeology are neglected. Similar critique of new materialism is raised in the fields of philosophy and anthropology as well. This brings about the issue of interdisciplinary transfers of thin descriptions – selective adoption of concepts whose full implications remain neglected.

A Model of Positive Strategic Sensemaking for Meaningfulness

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarja PÄÄKKÖNEN ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN ◽  
Melanie SARANTOU
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Strategic Direction ◽  
Design Perspective ◽  
Human Centred Design

This article proposes a design perspective on strategizing by presenting a Model of Positive Strategic Sensemaking for Meaningfulness. Theory elaboration is used drawing from three related disciplinary fields; strategizing, sensemaking and design. It is proposed that positive and human-centred design facilitation enhances strategizing as an ongoing embodied and material activity where meaning changes in strategy and vision may emerge. By viewing strategizing as a socially constructed evolving phenomenon the model adopts sensemaking and critical theory perspectives where the consequences of decisions for human beings and environment guide further activities. Designers as co-strategist may support or challenge an existing strategic direction resulting in incremental or more radical meaning changes among those affected by, and affecting, the emergence of strategies.

scholarly journals Both Like and Unlike: Rebirth, Olfaction, and the Transspecies Imagination in Modern Chinese Buddhism

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 364
Author(s):  
Lina Verchery
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Chinese Buddhism ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Moral Cultivation ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This essay considers the importance of the transspecies imagination for moral cultivation in contemporary Chinese Buddhism. Drawing on scriptural, theoretical, and fieldwork-based ethnographic data, it argues that olfaction—often considered the most “animalistic” of the human senses—is uniquely efficacious for inspiring imaginative processes whereby Buddhists train themselves to inhabit the perspectives of non-human beings. In light of Buddhist theories of rebirth, this means extending human-like status to animals and recognizing the “animal” within the human as well. Responding to recent trends in the Humanities calling for an expanded notion of ontological continuity between the human and non-human—notably inspired by critical animal studies, post-humanism, the new materialism, and the “ontological turn”—this essay contends that Buddhist cosmological ideas, like those that demand the cultivation of the transspecies imagination, present resources for moral reflection that can challenge and enrich current mainstream thinking about humanity’s relation to the nonhuman world.

scholarly journals How to do (or not to do)… gender analysis in health systems research

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1069-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Morgan ◽  
Asha George ◽  
Sarah Ssali ◽  
Kate Hawkins ◽  
Sassy Molyneux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Systems ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Health Systems Research ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Gender Power

Abstract Gender—the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for males, females and other genders—affects how people live, work and relate to each other at all levels, including in relation to the health system. Health systems research (HSR) aims to inform more strategic, effective and equitable health systems interventions, programs and policies; and the inclusion of gender analysis into HSR is a core part of that endeavour. We outline what gender analysis is and how gender analysis can be incorporated into HSR content, process and outcomes. Starting with HSR content, i.e. the substantive focus of HSR, we recommend exploring whether and how gender power relations affect females and males in health systems through the use of sex disaggregated data, gender frameworks and questions. Sex disaggregation flags female–male differences or similarities that warrant further analysis; and further analysis is guided by gender frameworks and questions to understand how gender power relations are constituted and negotiated in health systems. Critical aspects of understanding gender power relations include examining who has what (access to resources); who does what (the division of labour and everyday practices); how values are defined (social norms) and who decides (rules and decision-making). Secondly, we examine gender in HSR process by reflecting on how the research process itself is imbued with power relations. We focus on data collection and analysis by reviewing who participates as respondents; when data is collected and where; who is present; who collects data and who analyses data. Thirdly, we consider gender and HSR outcomes by considering who is empowered and disempowered as a result of HSR, including the extent to which HSR outcomes progressively transform gender power relations in health systems, or at least do not further exacerbate them.

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