Critique and Politics: A sociomaterialist intervention

Citation

Edwards R & Fenwick T (2015) Critique and Politics: A sociomaterialist intervention. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47 (13-14), pp. 1385-1404. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2014.930681

Abstract
Sociomaterial theories, including actor–network theory (ANT), materialist feminism and posthumanism, are sometimes argued to not be addressing or unable to address sufficiently the political and are therefore dismissed as irrelevant to educational research. Through an extended discussion of writers across the social sciences, this article seeks to counter such a view. Drawing specifically on the work of Latour on the nature of critique and on examples of political analysis from writers such as Barad, Bennett, Braidotti, Marres and Whatmore, we suggest that sociomaterialist approaches to the more-than-human open up extended understandings and productive alternative practices of politics. While recognising that this is a work in progress and not without difficulties and challenges, we argue that there is much to be gained for educational researchers from engaging with such approaches.

Keywords
critique; politics; power; matter; sociomateriality; actor–network theory

Journal
Educational Philosophy and Theory: Volume 47, Issue 13-14

People

Professor Richard Edwards

Emeritus Professor, Education

Professor Tara Fenwick

Emeritus Professor, Education