The politics of materiality

Affective encounters in a transdisciplinary debate

Bibliographic Data

ID8066741
AuthorsSari Irni (University of Tampere, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume20
Issue4
Pages347-360
Publication date2013-10-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Women s Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-5068 • E-ISSN: 1461-7420
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350506812472669
OpenAlexW2324592039
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited32

This article analyses the discussion about the ‘new materialism’ or ‘material feminisms’ as an interplay between transdisciplinarity – moving beyond canons and disciplines (Lykke, 2004) – and affective interdisciplinary encounters. The previous discussion (e.g. Ahmed, 2008; Barad, 2003; Hemmings, 2011; Sullivan, 2012) is taken in a slightly different direction, by arguing that a politics of materiality is at work in the debate, which is implied in affective interdisciplinary encounters. It is argued that despite the transdisciplinarity, the relations of natural science engagements to both social science and humanities feminisms are pivotal. Two specific cases are analysed: the politics of definition, where ‘materiality’ tends to be equated with ‘natural science matters’, and the matter and politics of race. In the latter, race ‘sticks’ to the materiality of material ist feminism (cf. Hemmings, 2011), which tends to be left out of the sphere of the presumably new and exciting material feminisms

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Feminism · Materialism · Materiality (auditing · Political science · Politics · Science studies · Social science · Sociology · Transdisciplinarity · Anthropology · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Gender Studies · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub