Description
Book SynopsisMartin Crowley argues that a new conception of agency as both distributed and decisive is necessary in the Anthropocene. A major intervention into ongoing debates in posthumanism, political ecology, and political theory,
Accidental Agents reshapes our understanding of political agency in and for a more-than-human world.
Trade ReviewMartin Crowley's exploration of ’agency’—the power to inflect action in a meaningful way—is fascinating, original, and impressive. He provides lucid interpretations of three important efforts to reconceive agency as distributed rather than as the exclusive property of a human individual or group—those of Bruno Latour, Bernard Stiegler, and Catherine Malabou—while also carrying some elements forward into his own theory of agency, decision, and political action.
Accidental Agents is a truly excellent book. -- Jane Bennett, author of
Influx and Efflux: Writing Up with Walt WhitmanAccidental Agents is a piece in a giant puzzle, presenting ways of thinking that, while by no means insignificant, no longer stand alone in conceptualizing what an 'antagonistic alliance' looks like. * Ancillary Review of Books *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Bruno Latour: “We Have to Agree to Talk About War”
Horizon 1. Antagonistic Alliances
2. Bernard Stiegler: Deciding on the Accident
Horizon 2. At the Speed of the Digital Algorithm
3. Catherine Malabou: “There Is Nothing Beforehand”
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
