Interventions Offered by Actor-Network Theory, Assemblage Theory, and New Materialisms for Environmental Sociology

doi:10.1017/9781108554558.011

9 - Interventions Offered by Actor-Network Theory, Assemblage Theory, and New Materialisms for Environmental Sociology

from Part III - Beyond the Human

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2020

Katharine Legun and

Edited by

Michael Carolan and

Katharine Legun: Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller: Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan: Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell: Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison

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Summary

This chapter outlines “more-than-human” approaches being used in the social sciences, and explores their implication and use in environmental sociology. Considering how non-human elements influence human society is one way that we can center ecological life in our sociological work. Moreover, it provides theoretical tools to do so without being deterministic; that is, without assuming that the effects of particular ecological elements in society are inevitable, essential, or one-dimensional. Nor does it assume that those effects are entirely social, discursive, or immaterial. We discuss concepts in actor-network theory, assemblage theory, and new materialism, in the context of environmental sociology and sociological thought more generally. We use the case of apples in agriculture to further elaborate the use and implications of a more-than-human approach to the social life of plants.

Keywords

More-than-human assemblage actor-network theory materialism agriculture

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 161 - 175

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108554558.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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9 - Interventions Offered by Actor-Network Theory, Assemblage Theory, and New Materialisms for Environmental Sociology

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