Description
Book SynopsisIn Material Politics, author Andrew Barry reveals that as we are beginning to attend to the importance of materials in political life, materials has become increasingly bound up with the production of information about their performance, origins, and impact.
Trade Review“[Barry's] methods of inquiry, attention to detail, and brilliant accounts of the roles materials played in knowledge controversies are standout contributions to the field and challenge several of the assumptions of now-common disciplinary gestures to new materialisms.” (Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 1 October 2014)
“Despite the presence of some very prominent and overcoded political actors in this project, such as global oil companies, NGOs, activists and national governments, Barry’s meticulous attention to seemingly minor elements and complex relations displaces any recourse to easy reductionism. The usual suspects become part of a multitude of participants entangled in the project’s controversies, and their overt political capacities are often displaced or disabled by the performance of the most mundane things. In this analysis systemic patterns of causation are difficult to identify. Barry maps relational complexity with incredible skill, and the result is a sophisticated account of the contingencies of politics.” (Contemporary Political Theory, 18 November 2014)
“Andrew Barry’s genius as a writer is that he teaches you something new about something that you thought you already knew.” (Science & Technology Studies, 1 November 2014)
Table of ContentsSeries Editors’ Preface viii
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 The Georgian Route: Between Political and Physical Geography 31
3 Transparency ’ s Witness 57
4 Ethical Performances 75
5 The Affected Public 95
6 Visible Impacts 116
7 Material Politics 137
8 Economy and the Archive 154
9 Conclusions 177
Notes 187
References 202
Index
