Social Life of Materials
Regular price
€192.20
American Chemical Society
Baguio City
Body Wash
Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics
Casa Grande
Category=AKP
Category=JBCC2
Category=JHB
Common Language
cultural material innovation
Dogon Women
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnographic methodology
Fairtrade Foundation
fashioning plastic
interdisciplinary materials anthropology
ITSM
Laurence Douny
material culture studies
materials chemical properties
materials innovation
materials libraries
Materials Library
New Zealand Flax
pharmaceutical matters
Phormium Tenax
Plastic Crafts
Psychophysical Properties
Sensory Evaluation Experiments
sensory materiality
substance transformation
sustainable materials research
Tonnes
Tribal Art
UK Material
UK's Press
Vice Versa
Wild Silk
Woollen Blankets
Young Man
Zealand Flax
Product details
- ISBN 9781472592637
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 27 Aug 2015
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Materials play a central role in society. Beyond the physical and chemical properties of materials, their cultural properties have often been overlooked in anthropological studies: finished products have been perceived as ‘social’ yet the materials which comprise them are considered ‘raw’ or natural’. The Social Life of Materials proposes a new perspective in this interdisciplinary field. Diverting attention from the consumption of objects, the book looks towards the properties of materials and how these exist through many transformations in a variety of cultural contexts.Human societies have always worked with materials. However, the customs and traditions surrounding this differ according to the place, the time and the material itself. Whether or not the material is man-made, materials are defined by social intervention. Today, these constitute one of the most exciting areas of global scientific research and innovation, harboring the potential to act as key vehicles of change in the world. But this ‘materials revolution’ has complex social implications. Smart materials are designed to anticipate our actions and needs, yet we are increasingly unable to apprehend the composite materials which comprise new products.Bringing together ethnographic studies of cultures from around the world, this collection explores the significance of materials by moving beyond questions of what may be created from them. Instead, the text argues that the materials themselves represent a shifting ground around which relationships, identities and powers are constantly formed and dissolved in the act of making and remaking.
Adam Drazin lectures in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, UK, where he coordinates the MA in Materials, Anthropology and Design. Susanne Küchler is Professor in Anthropology and Material Culture at University College London, UK.
