Description
This collection explores the role of materials in society, considering the cultural contexts in which design and innovation take place.
About the Author
Adam Drazin lectures in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, UK, where he coordinates the MA in Materials, Anthropology and Design. Susanne Kuchler is Professor in Anthropology and Material Culture at University College London, UK.
Reviews
Materials matter. The Social Life of Materials provides an accessible and fascinating collection of case studies exploring the meanings and properties of materials, and their relations to the things made with them and how we use them. By considering both substantial attributes and cultural meanings, an unusually rich sense of materiality is developed.
Drazin and Kuchler have assembled an innovative collection which consolidates and extends work in this new "science of the concrete". Collectively, the authors succeed in showing the value of looking beyond objects and things to the materials which constitute them. The theoretical and empirical work presented here establishes a rich and authoritative range of intellectual innovations and approaches. It will interest researchers across the social sciences, arts and design studies, and the humanities.
During a moment in which "materiality" is casually invoked across the humanities and social sciences, this vibrant volume demands that we take seriously both the specific properties of materials themselves and the social relationships activated through their technical use and circulation. It thereby firmly stakes a place for anthropology and ethnographic methods in the so-called "material turn."
The Social Life of Materials proves beyond a doubt that anthropologists cannot rest with an anthropology of objects because objects are compositions and transformations of materials that have their own biography, meaning, and morality. The chapters here are a successful commencement of a much richer anthropology of materials. * Anthropology Review Database *
Overall, this is a welcome volume that offers a wealth of insights, extends current debates in material culture, and brings us to a better understanding of the way materials affect and transform our daily lives. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *
Book Information
ISBN 9781472592644
Author Adam Drazin
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 571g