Material Politics

Reviews / Votes

"[Barry's] methods of inquiry, attention to detail, andbrilliant accounts of the roles materials played in knowledgecontroversies are standout contributions to the field and challengeseveral of the assumptions of now-common disciplinary gestures tonew materialisms." (Environment and Planning D:Society and Space, 1 October 2014) "Despite the presence of some very prominent and overcodedpolitical actors in this project, such as global oil companies,NGOs, activists and national governments, Barry's meticulousattention to seemingly minor elements and complex relationsdisplaces any recourse to easy reductionism. The usual suspectsbecome part of a multitude of participants entangled in theproject's controversies, and their overt political capacitiesare often displaced or disabled by the performance of the mostmundane things. In this analysis systemic patterns of causation aredifficult to identify. Barry maps relational complexity withincredible skill, and the result is a sophisticated account of thecontingencies of politics." (Contemporary PoliticalTheory, 18 November 2014) "Andrew Barry's genius as a writer is that heteaches you something new about something that you thought youalready knew." (Science & TechnologyStudies, 1 November 2014) "Material Politics offers something new and original toour understanding of the global oil and gas industry. Barry locateshis study of pipelines at the theoretic intersection of criticalscience studies, forms of rule, and the materiality of resources.He brilliantly exposes the complex controversies produced by actorsand agents across the industry's value-chain, and what theysay 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 showsthat it is a daunting task to govern the materials that make up atransnational oil pipeline, that the production of information madeto foster transparency and calm may fuel ever more controversies,and that materials are not in themselves political, but may wellbecome so." --Annemarie Mol, Professor of Anthropology of the Body,University of Amsterdam