Material Politics (eBook)

Disputes Along the Pipeline

Andrew Barry (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB | PDF

2013
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-52910-2 (ISBN)

Infos

In Material Politics, author Andrew Barry reveals that as we are beginning to attend to the importance of materials in political life, materials has become increasingly bound up with the production of information about their performance, origins, and impact.

• Presents an original theoretical approach to political geography by revealing the paradoxical relationship between materials and politics
• Explores how political disputes have come to revolve not around objects in isolation, but objects that are entangled in ever growing quantities of information about their performance, origins, and impact
• Studies the example of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline – a fascinating experiment in transparency and corporate social responsibility – and its wide-spread negative political impact
• Capitalizes on the growing interdisciplinary interest, especially within geography and social theory, about the critical role of material artifacts in political life

Andrew Barry is Professor of Human Geography at University College London.

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In Material Politics, author Andrew Barry reveals that as we are beginning to attend to the importance of materials in political life, materials has become increasingly bound up with the production of information about their performance, origins, and impact. Presents an original theoretical approach to political geography by revealing the paradoxical relationship between materials and politics Explores how political disputes have come to revolve not around objects in isolation, but objects that are entangled in ever growing quantities of information about their performance, origins, and impact Studies the example of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline a fascinating experiment in transparency and corporate social responsibility and its wide-spread negative political impact Capitalizes on the growing interdisciplinary interest, especially within geography and social theory, about the critical role of material artefacts in political life

Inhalt

Series Editors' Preface viii

List of Figures and Tables ix

Acknowledgements x

Abbreviations xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 The Georgian Route: Between Political and Physical Geography
31

3 Transparency ' s Witness 57

4 Ethical Performances 75

5 The Affected Public 95

6 Visible Impacts 116

7 Material Politics 137

8 Economy and the Archive 154

9 Conclusions 177

Notes 187

References 202

Index

Rezensionen

"[Barry's] methods of inquiry, attention to detail, and
brilliant accounts of the roles materials played in knowledge
controversies are standout contributions to the field and challenge
several of the assumptions of now-common disciplinary gestures to
new materialisms." (Environment and Planning D:
Society and Space, 1 October 2014)

"Despite the presence of some very prominent and overcoded
political actors in this project, such as global oil companies,
NGOs, activists and national governments, Barry's meticulous
attention to seemingly minor elements and complex relations
displaces any recourse to easy reductionism. The usual suspects
become part of a multitude of participants entangled in the
project's controversies, and their overt political capacities
are often displaced or disabled by the performance of the most
mundane things. In this analysis systemic patterns of causation are
difficult to identify. Barry maps relational complexity with
incredible skill, and the result is a sophisticated account of the
contingencies of politics." (Contemporary Political
Theory, 18 November 2014)

"Andrew Barry's genius as a writer is that he
teaches you something new about something that you thought you
already knew." (Science & Technology
Studies, 1 November 2014)

"Material Politics offers something new and original to
our understanding of the global oil and gas industry. Barry locates
his study of pipelines at the theoretic intersection of critical
science studies, forms of rule, and the materiality of resources.
He brilliantly exposes the complex controversies produced by actors
and agents across the industry's value-chain, and what they
say about how we think about democracy and capitalism."

--Michael Watts, Class of 1963 Professor of Geography,
University of California, Berkeley

"In this strong and daring book, Andrew Barry compellingly shows
that it is a daunting task to govern the materials that make up a
transnational oil pipeline, that the production of information made
to foster transparency and calm may fuel ever more controversies,
and that materials are not in themselves political, but may well
become so."

--Annemarie Mol, Professor of Anthropology of the Body,
University of Amsterdam

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.9.2013
• Reihe/Serie: RGS-IBG Book Series
• Reihe/Serie: RGS-IBG Book Series
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: archaeological sites • Asian Politics • Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline • Bombsites • Caspian Sea • chemicals • Corrosion • Documentary films • Economic Geography • Engineering • Geographie • Geography • Landslides • Mediterranean • nation states • Oil companies • oil pipeline • political activists • Political Geography • Political Science • Politik / Asien • Politikwissenschaft • Politische Geographie • Social Theory • Soviet Union • steel • Wirtschaftsgeographie
• ISBN-10: 1-118-52910-3 / 1118529103
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-52910-2 / 9781118529102