Journal Article

Force-full: power, politics and object-oriented philosophy

Shaw, Ian G R, Meehan, Katharine

2013

Overview

In this paper we construct an object-oriented approach to power and politics. Building on the work of Graham Harman, we argue that objects are engines of power, able to fully shape the contours of existence through the production of difference and affectivity in the world. We present four key points to underpin our argument. First, we define an object by expanding on the Heideggerian idea that objects are split between their 'present qualities' and 'absent qualities'. Second, we discuss why objects are irreducible to scientific naturalism or social relativism. Third, we contend that the world is 'policed' by objects that act as phenomenological viruses. And finally, we explain that such policing is never exhaustive and autonomous forces are constitutive of new commons. We conclude that a speculative metaphysics is vital for building new geographic understandings of objects and power, and a politics of action – one brick at a time.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subject: actor-network theory / affect / Harman / Metaphysics / Naturalism / object-oriented philosophy / Phenomenology / Philosophy / politics / power