Main entry:

Bennett, Jane, 1957- author.

Title & Author:

Vibrant matter : a political ecology of things / Jane Bennett.

Publication:

Durham ; London : Duke University Press, 2010.
©2010

Description:

xxii, 176 pages ; 22 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-170) and index.
The force of things -- The agency of assemblages -- Edible matter -- A life of metal -- Neither vitalism nor mechanism -- Stem cells and the culture of life -- Political ecologies -- Vitality and self-interest.
Library copy: selected for the Multidisciplinary Research Project on Architecture and/for the Environment, 2017-2019, developed by the CCA with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Summary:

"In Vibrant Matter the political theorist Jane Bennett, renowned for her work on nature, ethics, and affect, shifts her focus from the human experience of things to things themselves. Bennett argues that political theory needs to do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events. Toward that end, she theorizes a "vital materiality" that runs through and across bodies, both human and nonhuman. Bennett explores how political analyses of public events might change were we to acknowledge that agency always emerges as the effect of ad hoc configurations of human and nonhuman forces. She suggests that recognizing that agency is distributed this way, and is not solely the province of humans, might spur the cultivation of a more responsible, ecologically sound politics: a politics less devoted to blaming and condemning individuals than to discerning the web of forces affecting situations and events. Bennett examines the political and theoretical implications of vital materialism through extended discussions of commonplace things and physical phenomena including stem cells, fish oils, electricity, metal, and trash. She reflects on the vital power of material formations such as landfills, which generate lively streams of chemicals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which can transform brain chemistry and mood. Along the way, she engages with the concepts and claims of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Darwin, Adorno, and Deleuze, disclosing a long history of thinking about vibrant matter in Western philosophy, including attempts by Kant, Bergson, and the embryologist Hans Driesch to name the "vital force" inherent in material forms. Bennett concludes by sketching the contours of a "green materialist" ecophilosophy"--Publisher's description.

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ISBN:

9780822346333 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
0822346338 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780822346197 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0822346192 (cloth ; alk. paper)
(ebk.)
9780822391623

Subject:

Human ecology Political aspects.
Human ecology Philosophy.
Environmentalism Philosophy.
Écologie humaine Aspect politique.
Écologie humaine Philosophie.
Environnementalisme Philosophie.
43.02 philosophy of environmental science.
Environment and ecology.
Politische Philosophie
Humanökologie
Materie
Naturphilosophie
Ecology.
Philosophical aspects.
Humanekologi politiska aspekter.
Humanekologi teori, filosofi.
Miljörörelser teori, filosofi.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 284357
Call No.: BIB 223124
Status: Available