Melissa Gregg, Gregory J. Seigworth (eds.): The Affect Theory Reader (2010)
Filed under book | Tags: · aesthetics, affect, anthropology, autopoiesis, biopolitics, cultural studies, everyday, geography, mimesis, philosophy, psychology, schismogenesis, sociology, synaesthesia
This field-defining collection consolidates and builds momentum in the burgeoning area of affect studies. The contributors include many of the central theorists of affect—those visceral forces beneath, alongside, or generally other than conscious knowing that can serve to drive us toward movement, thought, and ever-changing forms of relation. As Lauren Berlant explores “cruel optimism,” Brian Massumi theorizes the affective logic of public threat, and Elspeth Probyn examines shame, they, along with the other contributors, show how an awareness of affect is opening up exciting new insights in disciplines from anthropology, cultural studies, geography, and psychology to philosophy, queer studies, and sociology. In essays diverse in subject matter, style, and perspective, the contributors demonstrate how affect theory illuminates the intertwined realms of the aesthetic, the ethical, and the political as they play out across bodies (human and non-human) in both mundane and extraordinary ways. They reveal the broad theoretical possibilities opened by an awareness of affect as they reflect on topics including ethics, food, public morale, glamor, snark in the workplace, and mental health regimes. The Affect Theory Reader includes an interview with the cultural theorist Lawrence Grossberg and an afterword by the anthropologist Kathleen Stewart. In the introduction, the editors suggest ways of defining affect, trace the concept’s history, and highlight the role of affect theory in various areas of study.
Contributors: Sara Ahmed, Ben Anderson, Lauren Berlant, Lone Bertelsen, Steven D. Brown, Patricia Ticineto Clough, Anna Gibbs, Melissa Gregg, Lawrence Grossberg, Ben Highmore, Brian Massumi, Andrew Murphie, Elspeth Probyn, Gregory J. Seigworth, Kathleen Stewart, Nigel Thrift, Ian Tucker, Megan Watkins
Publisher Duke University Press, 2010
ISBN 0822347768, 9780822347767
416 pages
PDF (no OCR, updated on 2013-1-23)
Comment (1)Stephan Fuchs: Against Essentialism: A Theory of Culture and Society (2001)
Filed under book | Tags: · avant-garde, communication, constructivism, culture, essentialism, ethnomethodology, hermeneutics, networks, social theory, society, sociology, systems theory, theory
Against Essentialism presents a sociological theory of culture. This interdisciplinary and foundational work deals with basic issues common to current debates in social theory, including society, culture, meaning, truth, and communication. Stephan Fuchs argues that many mysteries about these concepts lose their mysteriousness when dynamic variations are introduced.
Fuchs proposes a theory of culture and society that merges two core traditions–American network theory and European (Luhmannian) systems theory. His book distinguishes four major types of social “observers”–encounters, groups, organizations, and networks. Society takes place in these four modes of association. Each generates levels of observation linked with each other into a “culture”–the unity of these observations.
Against Essentialism presents a groundbreaking new approach to the construction of society, culture, and personhood. The book invites both social scientists and philosophers to see what happens when essentialism is abandoned.
Publisher Harvard University Press, 2001
ISBN 0674006100, 9780674006102
380 pages
Antonio A Casilli: Les liaisons numériques: vers une nouvelle sociabilité ? (2010) [French]
Filed under book | Tags: · anthropology, blogging, internet, internet activism, sociology, web
Aujourd’hui, nouer des amitiés, développer des relations professionnelles ou encore constituer un couple passe, pour un nombre croissant d’individus, par Internet. Pourtant, la croyance ingénue selon laquelle cette technologie serait, par nature, désocialisante persiste. Tout internaute serait-il aspiré dans une « réalité virtuelle » ? Éloigné de son monde, de ses proches, de son corps même, renaîtrait-il dans un cyberespace désincarné ? Ce mythe masque les liens étroits du réel et du virtuel, et fait fi de l’impossibilité de séparer pratiques sociales et usages informatiques. Continuer à penser le Web comme un espace qui transcende notre réalité est une erreur d’évaluation lourde de conséquences théoriques et politiques. Car les pratiques informatiques relèvent bien souvent du détournement : les usagers domestiquent les ordinateurs et s’en emparent pour inventer de nouveaux possibles, personnels ou collectifs.
Nourri d’interviews et de témoignages de blogueurs, d’artistes, d’adeptes du sexe en ligne, de figures de la militance Internet, cet ouvrage montre que la sociabilité du Web se combine de manière multiple et complexe avec les liaisons amoureuses ou amicales, les relations de parenté et les rapports de travail. Si cette reconfiguration de notre être en société ne va pas sans risques, elle est aussi porteuse de surprises : sous le regard du sociologue, le Web invente des modalités neuves et fécondes du lien social.
Publisher Éditions du Seuil, September 2010
La Couleur des idées
ISBN 9782020986373
336 pages