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Varieties of materialism

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Notes

  1. To be sure, this is neither a neutral map nor the only cartography possible. Dolphjin and van der Tuin are particularly interested in feminist theory and their account of the new materialism is very much indebted to the work of Deleuze, Guattari and Braidotti. It follows that the “inclusion criteria” are open to contestation and dispute. In New Materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics, editors Coole and Frost delineate three distinctive themes or topics in new materialist scholarship that differ considerably from the materialist landscape Dolphjin and van der Tuin sketch: (i) an “ontological reorientation” that takes up or is even based on developments in the natural sciences; (ii) “consideration of a raft of biopolitical and bioethical issues concerning the status of life and the human”; (iii) “a critical and non-dogmatic reengagement with political economy” (Coole and Frost, 2010b, pp. 6–7; see also Connolly, 2013).

  2. Given the theoretical pluralism and the multiplicity of research interests and disciplinary perspectives it might, however, be more adequate to refer to “new materialisms” instead (see Coole and Frost, 2010a; van der Tuin 2011).

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Katharina Hoppe for discussions of the ‘new materialisms’ and her comments on an earlier version of this essay.

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Lemke, T. Varieties of materialism. BioSocieties 10, 490–495 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2015.41

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