Cite as:
Anderson B, Wylie J, 2009, "On geography and materiality" Environment and Planning A 41(2) 318 – 335
Download citation data in RIS format

On geography and materiality

Ben Anderson, John Wylie

Received 4 February 2006; in revised form 10 September 2007; published online 3 December 2008

Abstract. In the context of human geography’s encounter with the problematics that surround matter and materiality, this paper offers a principle that works towards a distinctive material imagination. This principle states that our image of matter should be multiplied, so that it can be attended to as taking place with the properties and capacities of any element or state. We elaborate this principle through three substantive discussions of materiality as turbulent, as interrogative, and as excessive. In doing so we draw upon, in turn, forms of relational materialism associated with actor-network theory, the postphenomenologies of Lingis, the animate or enchanted materialism developed by Bennett, and the figurative and affective (im)materialities of Deleuze. The conclusion clarifies why we do not call for geography to be ‘rematerialised’.

Restricted material:

 Full-text PDF size: 186 Kb

 References  90 references, 42 with DOI links ()

Your computer (IP address: 38.107.191.109) has not been recognised as being on a network authorised to view the full text or references of this article. Please contact your serials librarian (subscriptions information).