New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics

172 Pages·2010·17.95 MB·English

by  Diana Coole

New Materialisms
Ontology) Agency) andPolitics
EDITED BY
DIANA COOLE AND SAMANTHA FROST
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham& London20IO
Contents
ix Acknowledgments
IntroducingtheNewMaterialisms
I
DianaCoole& SamanthaFrost
THE FORCE OF MATERIALITY
47 AVitalistStopoverontheWayto
aNewMaterialism
JaneBennett
70 Non-DialecticalMaterialism
PhengCheah
92 TheInertiaofMatterandthe
GenerativityofFlesh
DianaCoole
II6 ImpersonalMatter
MelissaA.Orlie
POLITICAL MATTERS
139 Feminism,Materialism,andFreedom
ElizabethGrosz
158 FearandtheIllusionofAutonomy
SamanthaFrost
NewWaysofDying
Acknowledgments
.....,"U."H~Material: WhattheDogDoesn'tUnderstand
.LH''-
OrientationsMatter
SaraAhmed
Fortheirenthusiasmandsuggestionsinearlystagesofthe
258 SimonedeBeauvoir: EngagingDiscrepantMaterialisms project, many thanks to Wendy Brown, Bonnie Honig,
SoniaKruks
andLindaZerilli.
281 TheMaterialismofHistoricalMaterialism At Duke University Press, we would like to thank
JasonEdwards CourtneyBergerforherconfidenceintheprojectaswellas
her persistence and insight in making suggestions about
299 Bibliography theshapeofthevolumeandtheargumentsintheintroduc
319 Contributors tion.Thisbookisallthebetterforhertimelyinterventions
323 Index andenduringpatience.ThankstoCynthiaLandeenforher
indexing prowess and also to Timothy Elfenbein, John
Ostrowski,andMichaelWakoffforshepherdingtheman
uscriptthroughtheproductionprocess.
Wearegratefultotheoutsidereviewerswhosepercep
tive questions andsuggestions helped bringshapeto the
projectatcrucialstages.
Inaprojectlikethis,thepositionofeditorisespecially
privileged for the perspective it gives on the whole. We
appreciate the willingness ofcontributors to work with
us and to participate singlyin the ongoing conversation
wetwohavehadoverthepastfewyears as wepulledthe
volumetogether. Wearealsogratefulfortheirpatienceas
wehonedthevolumeintoitscurrentform. Wehopethat
theyappreciatethesignificanceofeachandeveryconver
sationandessayin the qualityand importofthevolume
asawhole.
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For their invaluable participation in the "New Materialisms" con
ference at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign that enabled
many ofthe contributors to discuss and refine their arguments during
DianaCoole& SamanthaFrost
February 2007, thanks to Ted Bailey, Pradeep Dhillon, Brenda Farnell,
IntroducingtheNewMaterialisms
DebraHawhee,PatrickSmith,CharlesVarella,LindaVigdor,andMartha
Webber. For especial assistance and encouragement, thanks to Michael
Rothbergandhis helpers attheUnitforCriticism andInterpretiveThe
ory. For calm and reliable assistance in coordinating the conference,
thanks to Jacque Kahn, TheodoraKourkoulou, Lawrence Schehr,Melo
dee Schweighart, andAprelThomas. Wewouldespeciallyliketo convey
our gratitude to the Andrew Mellon Foundation, whose funding for
"State-of-the-Art"conferencesmadethisconferencepossible.
Individually, we wouldlike to express sincere gratitudefor the many As human beings we inhabit an ineluctably material
stimulating conversations we have had with particular friends and col world. We live our everyday lives surrounded by, im
leagues over the lifetime ofthe project andfor the encouragement they mersedin, matter. Weareourselvescomposedofmatter.
havegivenus.JaneBennett,KristinCain,SamChambers,AlexColas,Bill We experience its restlessness and intransigence even as
Connolly,TimDean,thelatePaulHirst,KimHutchings,CecileLaborde, wereconfigureandconsumeit.Ateveryturnweencoun
James Martell, Cris Mayo, Siobhan Sommerville, Jenny Bourne Taylor, ter physical objects fashioned by human design and en
andCarolineWilliamsallmadespecialcontributions,ofteninunexpected durenaturalforces whoseimperativesstructureourdaily
ways they may not even realize. As individuals, we would also like to routines for survival. Our existence depends from one
acknowledgethemutualsupportwehaveexperiencedfromeachotheras moment to the next onmyriadmicro-organisms and di
editors,inatransatlanticfriendshipthathasyieldedagenuinelycollabora versehigherspecies,onourownhazilyunderstoodbodily
tiveproject. andcellularreactions andonpitiless cosmicmotions, on
Thanks,too,tostaffandcolleagues intheGenderandWomen'sStud the material artifacts and natural stuffthat populate our
ies Program and the Political Science Department at the University of environment, aswellas onsocioeconomicstructuresthat
illinois, and to colleagues and students in the Department ofPolitics at produce and reproduce the conditions of our everyday
Birkbeck College, UniversityofLondon, for their ongoing support and lives.Inlightofthismassivemateriality,howcouldwebe
interestinourresearch. anythingotherthanmaterialist?Howcouldweignorethe
powerofmatterandtheways itmaterializes inourordi
nary experiences or fail to acknowledge the primacy of
matterinourtheories?
Yet for the most part we take such materiality for
granted, or we assume that there is little of interest to
sayabout it. Even (or perhaps, especially) inthe history
ofphilosophy, materialism has remained a sporadic and
oftenmarginalapproach.Forthereisanapparentparadox
inthinkingaboutmatter: assoonaswedoso,weseemto
2 DianaCoole& SamanthaFrost
INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS 3
distance ourselves from it, and within the space thatopens up, ahostof
the so-called culturalturn are increasingly being deemed inadequate for
immaterialthingsseemstoemerge: language,consciousness,subjectivity,
understanding contemporary society, particularlyin light ofsome ofits
agency, mind, soul; also imagination, emotions, values, meaning, andso
mosturgentchallengesregardingenvironmental,demographic,geopolit
on. These have typically been presented as idealities fundamentally dif
ical,andeconomicchange.
ferentfrommatterandvalorizedassuperiortothebaserdesiresofbiolog
Theeclipseofmaterialisminrecenttheorycanbenegativelyassociated
icalmaterialorthe inertiaofphysicalstuff. Itissuchidealistassumptions
withtheexhaustionofoncepopularmaterialistapproaches,suchasexis
and the values that flow from them that materialists have traditionally
tential phenomenologyorstructuralMarxism, andwithimportantchal
contested. Itis true thatoverthe pastthree decades orso theorists have
lenges by poststructuralists to the ontological and epistemological pre
radicalizedthewaytheyunderstand~mbjectivity,discoveringitsefficacyin
sumptionsthathavesupportedmodernapproachestothematerialworld.
constructingeventhemostapparentlynaturalphenomenawhileinsisting
Morepositively,materialism'sdemisesincethe 1970Shasbeenaneffectof
upon its embeddedness indense networks ofpowerthatoutrunits con
the dominance of analytical and normative political theory on the one
trol andconstitute its willfulness. Yetit is on subjectivitythat their gaze
handandofradicalconstructivismonthe other.TheserespectiveAnglo
has focused. Our motivation in editing this bookhas been a conviction
phone andcontinentalapproaches have both been associatedwithacul
thatitisnowtimetosubjectobjectivityandmaterialrealitytoasimilarly
tural turn that privileges language, discourse, culture, andvalues. While
radical reappraisal. Our respective researches have prompted our own
this turn has encouraged a de facto neglect ofmore obviously material
interestsinchangingconceptionsofmaterialcausalityandthesignificance
phenomenaandprocesses, ithas also problematizedanystraightforward
ofcorporeality, bothofwhichweseeas crucialfor amaterialisttheoryof
overturetowardmatterormaterialexperienceasnaivelyrepresentational
politics oragency..We nowadvance the bolderclaimthatforegrounding
ornaturalistic. Notwithstandingthecapacityofthesecurrentlydominant
materialfactors and reconfiguring our very understanding ofmatter are
theoriestoclarifyargumentsandtoalertustothewaypowerispresentin
prerequisitesforanyplausibleaccountofcoexistenceanditsconditionsin
any attempt to represent material reality, however, we believe it is now
thetwenty-firstcentury.
timelytoreopentheissueofmatterandonceagaintogivematerialfactors
Our commitment to editing a book on the new materialisms at this
their due in shaping society and circumscribing human prospects. The
time springs from our conviction that materialism is once more on the
essays we have commissioned for the current volume are exemplary of
move after several decades in abeyance and from our eagerness to help
someofthenewandinnovativewaysofconceptualizingandresponding
define andpromoteits newdirections. Everywherewelook, it seems to
tothisreorientation.
us,wearewitnessingscatteredbutinsistentdemandsformorematerialist
The essays that follow are at the forefront ofcurrent thinking about
modes ofanalysis and for new ways ofthinking about matter and pro
matter; about how to approach it, and about its significance for and
cesses ofmaterialization. We are also aware ofthe emergence ofnovelif
withinthepolitical. Theyresonatewithourown beliefthattosucceed, a
stilldiffusewaysofconceptualizingandinvestigatingmaterialreality.This
reprisalofmaterialismmustbetrulyradical.Thismeans returningtothe
isespeciallyevidentindisciplinesacrossthesocialsciences,suchaspoliti
mostfundamental questions aboutthe nature ofmatterand the place of
calscience,economics, anthropology,geography,andsociology,whereit
embodiedhumans within a material world; it means taldng heedofde
is exemplified in recent interest in material culture, geopolitical space,
velopmentsinthenaturalsciencesaswellasattendingtotransformations
criticalrealism,criticalinternationalpoliticaleconomy,globalization,and
in theways we currentlyproduce, reproduce, andconsumeourmaterial
environmentalism, and in calls for a renewed materialist feminism,or a
environment. Itentails sensitivityto contemporaryshifts inthe bio- and
more materialist queer theoryorpostcolonialstudies. Weinterpretsuch
eco-spheres,aswellastochangesinglobaleconomicstructuresandtech
developments as signs that the more textual approaches associated with
nologies. Italso demands detailedanalyses ofourdailyinteractionswith
INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS 5
and the natural environment. What is at stake here is
TheContextoftheNewMaterialism
nothing achallengetosomeofthemostbasicassumptions that
haveunderpinnedthemodernworld,includingitsnormativesenseofthe
Inadvocatinganewmaterialismweareinspiredbyanumberofdevelop
humananditsbeliefsabouthumanagency, butalsoregardingitsmaterial
ments thatcallfor anovelunderstandingofandarenewedemphasis on
practicessuchasthewayswelaboron,exploit,andinteractwithnature.
materiality. Ofgreat significance here are, firstly, twentieth-century ad
Inlabelingtheseessayscollectivelyasnewmaterialisms,wedonotwish
vances in the natural sciences. The great materialist philosophies ofthe
to denytheir rich materialistheritage. Manyofour contributors indeed
nineteenth century, notably those ofMarx, Nietzsche, and Freud, were
drawinspirationfrommaterialisttraditionsdevelopedpriortomodernity
themselveshugelyinfluencedbydevelopmentsinthenaturalsciences,yet
orfromphilosophiesthathaveuntilrecentlyremainedneglectedormar
thenewphysicsandbiologymalceitimpossibletounderstandmatterany
ginalized currents within modern thinking. From this perspective their
longer inways thatwere inspiredbyclassical science. While Newtonian
interventionsmight be categorized as renewedmaterialisms. Ifwe never
mechanicswasespeciallyimportantfortheseoldermaterialisms,forpost
theless persist in our call for and observation ofa new materialism,it is
classicalphysicsmatterhasbecomeconsiderablymoreelusive (onemight
becauseweareawarethatunprecedentedthingsarecurrentlybeingdone
even say more immaterial) and complex, suggesting that the ways we
withandtomatter,nature,life,production,andreproduction.Itisinthis
understandandinteractwithnatureareinneedofacommensurateupdat
contemporary context that theorists are compelled to rediscover older
ing.Whilewerecognizethattherecanbenosimplepassagefromnatural
materialisttraditionswhilepushingtheminnovel,andsometimesexperi
to social science theories orfrom science to ethics, developments in the
mental,directionsortowardfreshapplications.
former do become disseminated among educated publics; they inform
Ifwe pluralizethesenewmaterialisms, this isindicative ofourappre
expertwitnesseswhocontributetorelevantpolicymaking,andtheygrad
ciationthatdespitesomeimportantlinkages betweendifferentstrandsof
ually transform the popular imaginary about our material world and its
contemporary work and a more general materialist turn, there are cur
possibilities.As StephenWhitepointsout, ontologyinvolvesnotsimply
rentlyanumberofdistinctiveinitiativesthatresistanysimpleconfiation,
the abstract study ofthe nature ofbeing but also the underlying beliefs
notleastbecausetheyreflectonvariouslevelsofmaterialization.Whathas
about existence that shape our everyday relationships to ourselves, to
beenexcitingforus aseditorshasindeedbeenoursenseofencountering
others,andtotheworld:"Ontologicalcommitmentsinthissensearethus
theemergenceofnewparadigmsforwhichno overallorthodoxyhas yet
entangledwithquestions ofidentityandhistory, withhowwearticulate
beenestablished. Ouraiminpresentingthetwelveessayscollectedhereis
the meaning ofourlives, bothindividually and collectively."l From this
accordinglyto initiate adebate about the new materialismwhile on the
pointofview, thinking anewabout thefundamental structure ofmatter
onehand,leavingitsfuturepossibilitiesrelativelyopenandontheother,
hasfar-reachingnormativeandexistentialimplications.
elicitingkeythemes andorientations thatwejudgeto be bringingstruc
A second and urgent reason for turning to materialism is the emer
ture andvelocityto currentarguments. Ithas beenourambitionhereto
genceofpressingethicalandpoliticalconcernsthataccompanythescien
contribute to a broad-rangingdiscussion thatis emerging about the na
tific and technological advances predicated on new scientific models of
ture ofour materially and discursively fast-changing world by bringing
matterand, inparticular, oflivingmatter. As criticallyengagedtheorists,
togetheranumberofleadingscholarswhoareengagingcriticallywithit.
wefind ourselvescompelledto explorethesignificanceofcomplexissues
InintrodUCingtheirworkourmorespecificaimsaretoexplainth~reasons
such as climate change or global capital and population flows, the bio
for aWidespreadsensethatrejuvenatingmaterialismisnecessary, to out
technologicalengineeringofgeneticallymodifiedorganisms,orthesatu
lineandcontextualizesomeoftheprincipalquestionsandmodesofthink
ration ofour intimate and physical lives by digital, wireless, and virtual
ing that are emerging in response, and to make clear our own commit
technologies. Fromourunderstandingofthe boundarybetweenlifeand
menttoarenewedmaterialisminsocialandpoliticalanalysis.
deathandoureverydayworkpractices to thewaywefeed ourselves and
6 DianaCoole& SamanthaFrost
INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS 7
recreateorprocreate,wearefindingourenvironmentmateriallyandcon
reorientation that is resonantwith, andto someextentinformed by, de
ceptually reconstituted in ways that pose profound and unprecedented
velopments in naturalscience: an orientationthatis posthumanistinthe
normative questions. Inaddressingthem, weunavoidablyfind ourselves
sensethatitconceivesofmatteritselfaslivelyorasexhibitingagency.The
havingtothinkinnewwaysaboutthenatureofmatterandthematterof
secondthemeentailsconsiderationofaraftofbiopoliticalandbioethical
nature; about the elements oflife, the resilience ofthe planet, and the
issuesconcerningthestatusoflifeandofthehuman.Third,newmaterial
distinctiveness ofthe human..These questions are immenselyimportant
istscholarshiptestifies to acritical andnondogmatic reengagementwith
notonlybecausetheycastdoubtonsomeofmodernity's'mostcherished
political economy, where the nature of, and relationship between, the
beliefs about the fundamental nature ofexistence and social justice but
material details ofeveryday life and broader geopolitical and socioeco
alsobecausepresumptionsaboutagencyandcausationimplicitinprevail
nomic structures is being explored afresh. An important characteristic
ing paradigms have structured our modern sense of the domains and
sharedbyall three components is theiremphasis on materialization as a
dimensions oftheethical and thepoliticalas such. Recentdevelopments
complex, pluralistic, relativelyopen process andtheirinsistencethat hu
thuscalluponustoreorientourselvesprofoundlyinrelationtotheworld,
mans, including theorists themselves, be recognized as thoroughly im
tooneanother,andtoourselves.
mersedwithinmateriality'sproductivecontingencies. Indistinctionfrom
Intermsoftheoryitself,finally, wearesummoninganewmaterialism
some recentexamples ofconstructivism, newmaterialists emphasize the
in response to a sense that the radicalism of the dominant discourses
productivityandresilienceofmatter.Theirwageristogivematerialityits
which have flourished under the cultural turn is now more or less ex
due,alerttothemyriadwaysinwhichmatterisbothself-constitutingand
hausted. We share the feeling current among many researchers that the
invested with- and reconfigured by- intersubjective interventions that
dominant constructivist orientation to social analysis is inadequate for
havetheirownquotientofmateriality.
thinkingaboutmatter, materiality, andpoliticsinways thatdojusticeto
the contemporary context of biopolitics and global political economy.
Towards aNewOntology: Matter,
Whilewerecognizethatradicalconstructivismhascontributedconsider
Agency, andPosthumanism
able insight into the workings ofpower over recent years, we are also
awarethatanallergyto"thereal"thatischaracteristicofitsmorelinguis
Atfirstglanceitseemshardtoimaginehowwemightthinleaboutmatter
tic or discursive forms- whereby overtures to material reality are dis
differentlysince its brute "thereness"seems so self-evident and unassail
missedasaninsidiousfoundationalism- hashadtheconsequenceofdis
able. Itseemsliterallytoprovidethesolidfoundation ofexistenceandto
suadingcritical inquirersfrom the more empiricalkinds ofinvestigation
offeritselftoanunambiguousontology.Yetexposingsuchcommonsense
thatmaterialprocesses andstructuresrequire. While byno means areall
andphilosophicalbeliefs as contingentassumptionsisapreconditionfor
the essays in this volume hostile to constructivism, and newmaterialists
thinkingmaterialityinnewways. Manyofourideas aboutmaterialityin
countenanceno simplereturn to empiricism orpositivism, we share the
factremainindebtedtoDescartes,whodefinedmatterintheseventeenth
viewcurrentamongmanycriticsthatourcontemporarycontextdemands
centuryas corporealsubstanceconstitutedoflength, breadth, andthicle
atheoreticalrapprochementwithmaterialrealism.
ness;asextended,uniform,andinert.Thisprovidedthebasisformodern
Congruentwiththeseimperativesforreaddressingmateriality,wedis
ideas ofnature as quantifiable and measurable and hence for Euclidian
cernthree interrelated butdistinctive themes ordirections in newmate
geometryandNewtonianphysics.Accordingto this model, materialob
rialistscholarship, andweusethesetoorganizetherestofourdiscussion
jectsareidentifiablydiscrete; theymoveonlyuponanencounterwithan
here. We do so in the hope ofsetting a framework for ensuing debate,
externalforceoragent,andtheydosoaccordingtoalinearlogicofcause
although we are aware that our three themes are somewhat unevenly
andeffect.Itseemsintuitivelycongruentwithwhatcommonsensetellsus
representedintheessays thatfollow. Firstamongthem is anontological
is the "real" material world ofsolid, bounded objects thatoccupy space
8 DianaCoole&SamanthaFrost INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS 9
and whose movements or behaviors are predictable, controllable, and Given the lively immanence ofmatter associated with new material
replicablebecausetheyobeyfundamentalandinvariablelawsofmotion. isms,itisunsurprisingthattheyshouldbeemergingcontemporaneously
cOl:011ary ofthis calculable natural world was not, as one might withanewvitalism.3 Gilles Deleuze,whoseworkhas beeninfluentialin
eXlpe<:te,d, adeterminismthatrendershumanagencyanillusion.buta muchofthenewontology,didnotcounthimselfamaterialistdespitehis
senseofmasterybequeathedto the thinkingsubject: thecogito (I think) radical empiricism and some evocative descriptions of materialization.
thatDescartesidentifiedas ontologicallyotherthanmatter.Indistinction Buthewasemphaticthateverythinghewrote"isvitalist,atleastIhopeit
from thepassivityofmatter, modernphilosophyhasvariouslyportrayed is."4 Hostilities between these respective approaches have traditionally
humansasrational,self-aware,free, andself-movingagents.Suchsubjects beenstagedasanoppositionbetweenmechanisticandvitalistunderstand
arenotonlydeemedcapableofmakingsenseofnaturebymeasuringand ingsof(deadversuslively) matter.Typically,theywereresolvedbydistin
classifyingitfromadistancebutarealsoaidedinsuchaquestbytheories guishing between the sort ofmechanical, inorganic matter described by
whoseapplicationenablesthemtomanipulateandreconfigurematteron physicists and the evolving organic systems described bybiologists. But
anunprecedentedscale.TheCartesian-Newtonianunderstandingofmat new materialists are attracted to forms ofvitalism that refuse this latter
tertherebyyields aconceptualandpracticaldominationofnatureaswell distinction. Theyoften discernemergent, generative powers (or agentic
asaspecificallymodernattitudeorethosofsubjectivistpotency. capacities) evenwithin inorganic matter, and they generally eschew the
Ithas beenimportant brieflytosketchthis modern accountofmatter distinction betweenorganicandinorganic, oranimateandinanimate, at
because in many ways new materialists define their materialism as an the ontologicallevel. Jane Bennetthas provocativelylabeledthis an"en
alternativetoit.Asmentionedalready,wediscernasanoverridingcharac chantedmaterialism:' ascribing agency to inorganic phenomena such as
teristic ofthe new materialists their insistence on describing active pro the electricity grid, food, and trash, all ofwhich enjoy a certain efficacy
cessesofmaterializationofwhichembodiedhumansareanintegralpart, thatdefieshumanwill.5
rather than the monotonous repetitions ofdead matterfrom which hu Evennaturalscience,whoseinfluenceonsomeofthesenewaccountsof
mansubjectsareapart. Itisimportantforustomakethisdifferenceclear matterisfarfromnugatory,nowenvisagesaconsiderablymoreindetermi
because a further trait ofmuch ofthe new materialism is its antipathy nateandcomplexchoreographyofmatterthanearlymoderntechnology
toward oppositional ways ofthinking. As such, its exponents generally andpracticeallowed,thusreinforcingnewmaterialistviewsthatthewhole
decline to locate themselves explicitly through critiques of ontological edificeofmodernontologyregardingnotionsofchange,causality,agency,
dualismsuchas onefinds inCartesianism: theypreferacreativeaffirma time,andspaceneedsrethinking.PerhapsmostSignificanthereistheway
tionofanewontology,aprojectthatisinturnconsistentwiththeproduc new materialistontologies are abandoning the terminologyofmatteras
tive, inventive capacities theyascribe to materialityitself. Theprevailing an inertsubstance subject to predictable causalforces. According to the
ethosofnewmaterialistontologyisconsequentlymorepositiveandcon newmaterialisms, ifeverythingis materialinasmuchas itiscomposedof
structivethancriticalornegative: itseesitstaskas creatingnewconcepts physicochemicalprocesses,nothingisreducibletosuchprocesses,atleast
andimagesofnaturethataffirmmatter'simmanentvitality. Suchthinking as conventionallyunderstood. Formaterialityis always somethingmore
isaccordinglypost-ratherthananti-Cartesian.Itavoidsdualismordialec than "mere" matter: an excess, force, vitality, relationality, or difference
ticalreconciliationbyespousingamonologicalaccountofemergent,gen that renders matter active, self-creative, productive, unpredictable. In
erative material being. It draws inspiration from exploring alternative sum, new materialists are rediscovering a materiality that materializes,
ontologies, such as that ofSpinoza, whose work emerged more or less evincingimmanentmodesofself-transformationthatcompelus tothink
contemporaneouslywithCartesianisminearlymodernityyetwhichuntil ofcausationinfarmorecomplexterms; torecognizethatphenomenaare
recentlyenjoyed afar more subterranean or subjugated existence.2 This caughtinamultitude ofinterlockingsystems andforces andto consider
newmaterialistontologyisevidentinanumberoftheessaysthatfollow. anewthelocationandnatureofcapacitiesforagency.
10 DianaCoole&SamanthaFrost INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS II
Conceivingmatteraspossessingitsownmodesofself-transformation, visagedasequivalenttosizeorweight,forNewtonitwasthepropertyof
self~organization,anddirectedness, andthus nolongeras simplypassive an object or bodythat malces it difficult to accelerate (its inertia). What
orfuert, disttlrbsthe conventional sense that agents are exclusively hu setsanobjectinmotion,heconcluded,areforces ofattractionandrepul
manswho possess the cognitive abilities, intentionality, andfreedom to sion that act upon it. Broadlyspeaking, itwould be the taskofclassical
makeautonomous decisions andthe corollarypresumptionthathumans (mechanical) physics to examine the interactive relationships between
have the right or ability to master nature. Instead, the human species is
bodies and the forces that actupon them. Although physics beganwith
beingrelocatedwithinanaturalenvironmentwhosematerialforcesthem
ordinaryobjects, it developedas ascience offorces and movements that
selves manifest certain agentic capacities and in which the domain of
arelessobviouslymaterialyetfromwhichmatterisinseparable.Accord
unintendedorunanticipatedeffects is conSiderablybroadened. Matteris
ingtothismechanicalmodel,whenaforcemovessomething,itperforms
nolongerimaginedhereasamassive,opaqueplenitudebutisrecognized
work, andtheabilityofasystemtoperformworkis measuredasenergy.
insteadasindeterminate,constantlyformingandreforminginunexpected
Einstein's theory ofrelativity would show that mass and energy can be
ways. One could conclude, accordingly, that "matter becomes" rather
convertedintooneanotherandareinthissenseequivalent: atheorythat
than that "matteris." It is in these choreographies ofbecoming that we
furthersubvertedtheideathatsolidmatterpersistsassuch.
find cosmic forces assembling and disintegrating to forge more or less
In 1905 Einstein also produced the first persuasive argument for the
enduring patterns that mayproVisionallyexhibit internallycoherent, ef
existence ofatoms (although there were atomists even among the pre
ficacious organization: objects forming and emerging within relational
50cratics); gross matteritselfnowbecameamorenegligiblecomponent
fields, bodies composingtheirnatural environmentinways thatare cor
ofthecosmos. Forthemicroscopic atomconsistsofapositivelycharged
poreallymeaningfulforthem,andsubjectivitiesbeingconstitutedasopen
nucleus surrounded by a cloudlike, three-dimensional wave ofspinning
seriesofcapacitiesorpotenciesthatemergehazardouslyandambiguously
electrons.6 And ifmost ofthe atom's mass resides in its nucleus, this is
withinamultitudeoforganicandsocialprocesses.Inthismonolithicbut
itselfbutatinypercentageofthe atom's volume. The atom is asmeared
multiplytieredontology,thereisnodefinitivebreakbetweensentientand
field ofdistributedchargewhose subatomicparticles are lesslike planets
nonsentiententitiesorbetweenmaterialandspiritualphenomena.
in solar orbit than they are like flashes ofcharge that emerge from and
50 far we have emphasized the extent to which new materialist on
dissipate inthe emptyspacefrom whichtheyarecomposed. Evenwhen
tologiesarerejectingthepresuppositionsthatunderpinmodemphiloso
vast numbers ofatoms are assembled in the kind ofmacrostructures we
phyandtheclassicalsciencesthathavebeenitsontologicalconjugate.But
experienceinthe"condensedmatter"oftheperceptibleworld, theirsub
wealsowanttodrawattentiontowaysinwhichthenaturalscienceshave
atomic behavior consists in the constant emergence, attraction, repul
themselvesbeenproblematizingthenotionofmatterandthusundermin
sion, fluctuation, and shifting ofnodes ofcharge: which is to say that
ing classical ontologies wIllie inspiring the sort ofradical reconceptions
theydemonstratenoneofthecomfortingstabilityorsoliditywe takefor
ofmatter we associate with new materialisms. In order to explain such
granted. Whilethis does notofcoursemeanthatthe objectiveworldwe
developments, we need to undertalce a brief excursus through modem
inhabit is mere illusion, it does suggest that even- or especially- the
physics. What we want to emphasizehere is the waymatter as suchhas
most ardent realist must concede that the empirical realm we stumble
become both less conceptuallyimportant and more ontologicallynegli
aroundindoes notcapturethetruthoressenceofmatterinanyultimate
gible,whileatthesametimeitsverypOSSibilityofbeinghasbecomemore
sense and that matter is thus amenable to some new conceptions that
elusive.
differfromthoseuponwhichwehabituallyrely.
When Newton laid the foundations ofmodem physics in the seven
On enteringthe realmofsubatomic particles onefinds an even more
teenthcentury,herealizedthatoneofthemostimportantpropertiesofa
quixoticandelusivesenseofmatter.Inlittlemorethanacentury,wellover
material object is its mass. While for laypersons mass is generally en-
one hundred subatomic particles have been discovered (or, as radical
12 DianaCoole& SamanthaFrost INTRODUCING THE NEW MATERIALISMS 13
constructivists might argue, invented), yet this quantum realm seems stantialist Cartesian or mechanistic Newtonian accounts ofmatter. And
scarcely less strange than that ofmedieval theology. For instance, here while scientifictheories cannot simplybeimportedinto philosophy, the
matter is described as being composed oftwo kinds ofparticle, quarks tropes andrhythms theysuggestcantransformtheoreticaldiscourses. In
andleptons, which togethercomposefermions. In the StandardModel, fact, itis evident from new materialistwriting thatforces, energies, and
quarksarethebuildingblocksoftheuniverse,althoughtheyarenotreally intensities (ratherthansubstances) andcomplex,evenrandom,processes
distinctordiscrete quantifiable"units" becausethe states thatconstitute (rather than simple, predictable states) have become the new currency.
them as "particles" are variable, a variabilitythat produces the electrical Given the influence of classical science on the foundations of modern
chargeofwhichtheyarecomposed.7 Whenquarks interactinsideapro politicalthought, itisgermanefornewmaterialiststo askhowthesenew
ton,itisthemassless"gluon"thatiscreditedwithholdingthemtogether. conceptions ofmatter might reconfigure our models ofsociety and the
Butwhilethereisnoacceptedtheoryaboutwhyparticlesexistintheway political. Furthermore,thepracticalapplicationsofthenewphysics,such
thattheydoorhowtheircharacteristicsmightberenderedmorepredict as the ones scientists anticipateinnanotechnologyor quantum comput
ablefor thepurposesofinstrumentalization, thereis agreementthatany ing, maysoonhave significantmaterial effects upon our bodies and our
accountofmatteralsorequiresaninferenceofshort-livedvirtualparticles workingorrecreationalenvironments.
that flash in and out ofexistence, clustering around the more enduring Whileparticlephysicshas radicallychangedoursenseofthecomposi
particles whose properties they alter. Interestingly, what causes mass re tionofmatter,od1.ercurrentswithinphysics,notablychaosandcomplex
mains somethingofamystery: atype ofparticle calledaHiggs bosonis itytheory,arealsotransformingoursenseofthepatternsorcharacteristics
hypothesized as having the capacityto make space "sticky" in a manner ofmatter's movements.10 They, too, are undermining the idea ofstable
thatweexperienceasmass. Apopularsciencebooklyricallydeclaresthat andpredictablematerialsubstance, hasteningarealizationthatournatu
the"materialworldisfashionedfromfrozenmatter!'8However,the"free ral environment is far more complex, unstable, fragile, and interactive
zing" mechanism remains an enigma. In sum, "particles" are more like thanearliermodelsallowed. Complexitytheoryisplayinganincreasingly
vibrating strands of energy, strings that oscillate in eleven dimensions, significantrole in understandingsociomaterialprocesses, too, becauseit
thanlikesmallversionsofthesandgrainssuggestedbytheirname.Inany appreciatestheirinextricabilityfromawidernaturalenvironment.
case,physicistsinferthatmostoftheuniverseiscomposedoftheso-called Duringthe I970Sscientiststurnedtheirattentiontononlineardynamic
"darkmatter" thatis neededto explainthe gravitationalpullmanifestin systems that seem structured yet unpredictable and which mainstream
thegalaxy,andtheyclaimthatonlysome10to IS percentofthetheoreti physicshadtendedtoignorebecausetheyareinexplicableinmechanistic
cally required material is visible. Indeed, recent astronomical research terms.AsJamesGleickremarksofchaostheory,"fractalsandbifurcations,
suggeststhataslittleas3or4percentoftheuniversemaybecomposedof intermittenciesandperiodicities ...arethenewelementsofmotion,just
ordinarymatter, whilesomethingcalled"darkenergy" or"quintessence" as, in traditional physics, quarks and gluons are the new elements of
isinvokedtoexplainanexpandinguniverse.9 matter.Tosomephysicistschaosisascienceofprocessratherthanstate;of
Thepointofthissynopsisfornewmaterialismsistoshowthattheoret becomingrad1.erthanbeing."llWhileforchaostheoryapparendyrandom
icalphysics'understandingofmatterisnowalongwayfromthematerial effectshave anextremelycomplex, nonlinearprovenance, forcomplexity
worldweinhabitinoureverydaylives andthat itis nolongertenable to theorythe emphasis is onunpredictableeventsthatcancatapultsystems
rely on the obsolete certainties ofclassical physics as earlier materialists into novel configurations. For both, the physical world is a mercurial
did. Granted,onecanstilldiscerninphysics'terminologyoffundamental stabilizationofdynamicprocesses. Ratherthantendingtowardinertiaor
forces and elementary particles the holy grail ofdiscovering the funda astateofequilibrium,matterisrecognizedhereasexhibitingimmanendy
mentalconstituentsofmatter.Butforces,charges,waves,virtualparticles, self-organizing properties subtended by an intricate filigree ofrelation
andemptyspacesuggestanontologythatis verydifferentfromthesub- ships.12 Tumbleweeds, animal species, the planetary ecosystem, global