Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life

by Bruce Braun (Editor), Sarah J. Whatmore (Editor), Isabelle Stengers (Contribution by), Jane Bennett (Contribution by)

Overview

Taking seriously the argument that things have politics, Political Matter seeks to develop a fully materialist theory of politics, one that opens new possibilities for imagining the relationship between scientific and political practices. The contributors assert that without such a theory the profusion of complex materials with and through which we live-plastic bags, smart cars, and long-life lightbulbs, for example-too often leaves us oscillating between fearful repudiation and glib celebration.
Exploring the frictions that come from linking the work of scholars in science and technology studies and political theory, these essays spark new ways of understanding the matter of politics.

Contributors: Andrew Barry, U of Oxford; Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins U; Stephen J. Collier, New School; William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins U; Rosalyn Diprose, U of New South Wales; Lisa Disch, U of Michigan; Gay Hawkins, U of New South Wales; Andrew Lakoff, UC San Diego; Noortje Marres, U of London; Isabelle Stengers, U Libre de Bruxelles; Nigel Thrift, U of Warwick.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816670895
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	09/03/2010
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Bruce Braun is associate professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. Sarah Whatmore is professor of environment and public policy at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

The Stuff of Politics: An Introduction Bruce Braun Sarah J. Whatmore ix

Part I Rematerializing Political Theory: Things Forcing Thought

1 Including Nonhumans in Political Theory: Opening Pandora's Box? Isabelle Stengers 3

2 Thing-Power Jane Bennett 35

3 Materiality, Experience, and Surveillance William E. Connolly 63

Part II Technological Politics: Affective Objects and Events

4 Materialist Politics: Metallurgy Andrew Barry 89

5 Plastic Materialities Gay Hawkins 119

6 Halos: Making More Room in the World for New Political Orders Nigel Thrift 139

Part III Political Technologies: Public (Dis)Orderings

7 Front-staging Nonhumans: Publicity as a Constraint on the Political Activity of Things Noortje Marres 177

8 The Political Technology of RU486: Time for the Body and Democracy Rosalyn Diprose 211

9 Infrastructure and Event: The Political Technology of Preparedness Andrew Lakoff Stephen J. Collier 243

10 Faitiche-izing the People: What Representative Democracy Might Learn from Science Studies Lisa Disch 267

Contributors 297

Index 301