{"product_id":"vibrant-matter-a-political-ecology-of-things-paperback","title":"Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJane Bennett\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eVibrant Matter\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eeffect 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBennett 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis manifesto for a new materialism is an invigorating breath of fresh air. Jane Bennett's eloquent tribute to the vitality and volatility of things is just what we need to revive the humanities and to redraw the parameters of political thought.--Rita Felski, author of \"Uses of Literature \"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJane Bennett is Professor of Political Theory and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThoreau's Nature: Ethics, Politics, and the Wild\u003c\/i\u003e, and an editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Moralizing \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 200\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.9 x 5.8 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 04, 2010\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47450103382194,"sku":"9780822346333","price":42.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/9f56bf0c35bace06825e1e4c3363e709.webp?v=1778780249","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/vibrant-matter-a-political-ecology-of-things-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}