New Publication: "Critical Theory and New Materialisms"

Despite its origins in "historical materialism", critical theory has had little to say about questions of materiality in recent decades: Jürgen Habermas' "intersubjective turn" resulted in research foci on normativity, on intersubjective recognition and modes of justification. Questions of ecology, stubbornness and the effective power of things were rather neglected. For some decades now, these have been the focus of "new materialism" following Karen Barad, Jane Bennett or Rosi Braidotti. Until now, the two currents have had little to do with each other, and there have even been isolated instances of hostility. This volume brings representatives of both currents into a discourse and discusses how critical theory and new materialism can inspire each other - and where differences remain.