Political Matter : Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life

by Stengers, ISabelle

• ISBN13: 9780816670895
• ISBN10: 0816670897
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-21
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr

Summary

Taking seriously the argument that things have politics, Political Matter seeks to develop a fullymaterialisttheory 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.

Author Biography

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	p. vii
The Stuff of Politics: An Introduction	p. ix
Rematerializing Political Theory: Things Forcing Thought
Including Nonhumans in Political Theory: Opening Pandora's Box?	p. 3
Thing-Power	p. 35
Materiality, Experience, and Surveillance	p. 63
Technological Politics: Affective Objects and Events
Materialist Politics: Metallurgy	p. 89
Plastic Materialities	p. 119
Halos: Making More Room in the World for New Political Orders	p. 139
Political Technologies: Public (Dis)Orderings
Front-staging Nonhumans: Publicity as a Constraint on the Political Activity of Things	p. 177
The Political Technology of RU486: Time for the Body and Democracy	p. 211
Infrastructure and Event: The Political Technology of Preparedness	p. 243
Faitiche-izing the People: What Representative Democracy Might Learn from Science Studies	p. 267
Contributors	p. 297
Index	p. 301
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