The posthuman condition?

1. The posthuman condition? A materialist odyssey through the sociological imagination. Nick J Fox, University of Sheffield @socnewmat

2. A route map for Odysseus? • The journey (the sociological imagination). • Circe and the swine (humanism and beyond). • Scylla and Charybdis (sociological dualisms). • Cyclops (new materialist monism). • Calypso (sexualities). • Poseidon (environment and sustainable development). • The return to Ithaca (an ethics of becoming). @socnewmat

3. What can a sociological imagination do? • Sociological imagination as outlook. • Sociological imagination as concept. • Sociological imagination as capacity. • A sociological imagination enables us to think differently about the world. @socnewmat

4. The seductions of humanism Humanism: places humans and their experiences at the centre of concern. • Romantic notions of human subject • Qualitative focus upon human experiences. • Biographical approaches @socnewmat

5. The seductions of anti-humanism Anti-humanism: displaces humans from centre. • Structures and systems • The cultural turn and post-structuralism • Discourse analysis @socnewmat

6. Sociological dualisms agency - structure culture - nature emotion - reason gender - sex idealism - realism individual - social micro - macro mind – matter power – resistance subject - object @socnewmat Scylla and Charybdis

7. The problem with dualisms • Can be helpful when defining sociology in relation to psychology or natural science, or when addressing topics such as human rights, continuity/change, culture, media. • Problematic when exploring embodiment, health, gender, sexualities, anthropogenic climate change, epigenetics, animal studies, science and technology. • Replicates Eurocentric and colonialist perspectives on culture and nature, sidelining non-Western epistemologies and ontologies in which human and nonhuman contribute to ‘the coproduction of socio-political collectives’ (Sundberg, 2014). • Constrains interdisciplinary working. @socnewmat

8. Towards monism: two voices • Donna Haraway: Cyborgs, simians and women transgress the leaky boundary between nature and culture, and reveal the continuities between humans and the rest of the material universe. • RosiBraidotti: Posthumanism emphasises the vital capacities of all matter – animate and inanimate – for self-organisation and ‘becoming’. Basis for an eco-philosophy that establishes continuity between human and non-human matter. @socnewmat

9. Posthumanism An aspiration to re-engage with a world that is diverse, vibrant, constantly evolving, un-predictable, and overwhelmingly material. @socnewmat

10. Sociology and posthumanism ‘The subject of posthumanism is not ‘Man’ but rather the processes of change and becoming of the natural and social world, and an ecology of the human and the non-human in which neither is distinguished from, or privileged over the other.’ Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman. Polity. @socnewmat

11. Lively matter • New materialists recognise the capacity of all matter to affect/be affected. • So matter is lively, some say vital. • Matter assembles in unstable, unpredictable and continually fluctuating ways. @socnewmat

12. The ‘turn to matter’ in social theory • ‘New materialist’ ontology: • Not entities but relations. • Not agency but affects (the capacity to affect or be affected). • Not structures but un/stable assemblages. • Not construction but production. • Not textualities but matter. @socnewmat

13. The transversality of the new materialisms • Cuts across: • Human/non-human • Nature/culture • Agency/structure • Micro/macro • Mind/matter • Power/resistance • Surface/depth @socnewmat The Cyclops Polyphemus

14. The materiality of sexualities • Sexuality is not a bodily attribute, an identity, or a marker of individual sexual preferences. • Sexual events (a kiss, a date) are assemblages, comprising a multiplicity of physical, biological, cultural, social and abstract materialities. • Sexuality is the flow of affects between these material relations in a sexuality-assemblage (Fox and Alldred, 2013). • Sexuality-assemblages shape the eroticism, sexual codes, customs and conduct of a society’s members, as well as the categories of sexuality. • Sexuality is infinitely variable, but typically highly constrained by aggregative forces (predominantly social, cultural, economic and political). @socnewmat

15. Sexuality assemblages A sexuality-assemblage might include, at least: hormones – sex organs - (sexual) past history – sexual others – sexual imagery/marketing/porn – partial objects/fetishes (e.g. clothing) - romance – love – marriage – social and economic relations @socnewmat

16. What can a sexuality-assemblage do? A sexuality-assemblage produces intensifications in bodies. It produces sexual and other capacities. But we cannot know in advance what other capacities it may produce. @socnewmat

17. Sex and technology: Viagra • Viagra as treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). • Explore Viagra as part of a sexuality-assemblage. • Qualitative research study of online forum that discussed ED and Viagra. • Participant observation and follow-up interviews. @socnewmat

18. Flows of affect in the Viagra assemblage I was panicking because of not being able to maintain my erection ... sometimes it went down totally, (which) was really disappointing my partner. From that moment I guess I gotperformance anxiety. My best friend at the office introduced me to Viagra a week after he saw my attitude change at the office due to my noticeable depression. Thanks to Viagra, I felt I am gaining my manhood again, but now lazy of doing sex without the blue pill. I am now becoming a big fan of Viagra, and afraid of having sex without it. (George) @socnewmat

19. The Viagra assemblage sex – bedroom – penis – male sexuality – Viagra – identity - consumerism – sex partner - internet - industry – profit – shareholders (Fox and Ward 2008) @socnewmat

20. What else can Viagra do? • Viagra was designed to produce a specific body (capacity) - erection. But it also: • Medicalises sexualities. • Privileges male penetration over other sexual activity. • Creates expectations. • Contributes to sexual and health identities. • Affects intimate relationships. • Produces dependency. • Makes money ($1.5 bn a year)for its manufacturer Pfizer. @socnewmat

21. Posthuman sex • Technologies like Viagra produce intensifications in sexuality-assemblages. • Technologies can constrain or open up what a (sexy) body can do. • Sexualities research exploring the non-human: • Alldred, P. and Fox, N.J. (2015) The sexuality-assemblages of young men: a new materialist analysis. Sexualities, 18(8): 905-92. • Fox, N.J. and Bale, C. (2017) Bodies, pornography and the circumscription of sexuality: a new materialist study of young people’s sexual practices. Sexualities. DOI: 10.1177/1363460717699769 @socnewmat

22. Contradictory forces? • Are human well-being and environmental health potentially antagonistic? @socnewmat

23. Sociology and ‘environment’ • Human exceptionalist paradigm: human culture independent of physical processes (humanist). • New ecological paradigm: humans are part of the global ecosystem, and are governed by the same ‘ecological laws’ as other species (anti-humanist). • Both sustain a distinction or opposition between humans and environment, with the latter subordinate to ‘society’. @socnewmat

24. Environment and posthumanism • Overcome nature/culture and human/environment dualisms. • Environment as assemblage, not system (self-sustaining or de-stabilised by human actions). • Human bodies are elements in ‘environment’, along with physical and biological entities, social formations and ideas. • No privilege accorded to particular elements. • This monist approach will be post-anthropocentric, posthuman and materialist. • A posthuman ethics of environment requires humans to recognise the relationality (and hence inter-dependence and inter-connectedness) of human and non-human capacities (Braidotti, 2013: 49-50). @socnewmat RosiBraidotti

25. The UN and ‘sustainability’ • Anthropocentric focus: • Sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland et al, 1987). • United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: assess the effects of ecosystem change upon human well-being, and the actions needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems, so that they can ‘continue to supply the services that underpin all aspects of human life’ (World Health Organisation, 2005: ii). • 17 Goals in 2016 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development - only 3 addressed non-human development. @socnewmat

26. What is ‘sustainability’? Earth has changed continually and will continue to change. ‘Sustainable development’ is an anthropocentric concept. Sustainability should be assessed not as continuity, but in terms of its becoming. @socnewmat

27. Re-thinking sustainable development • Do not assess environment benefit in terms of human goals (e.g. health, economic prosperity). • Matter (non-human and human) and its capacities – from a capacity of wind to generate energy to a capacity of humans to labour – should be valorised not in terms of its exchange value within a human market-place, but for its relational vitality: its potential for becoming. • Do we need to end capitalism to reverse climate change? • Or perhaps stop treating matter (non-human and human) as a resource to be bought and sold in a market-place? @socnewmat

28. Climate change and human capacities • A posthuman perspective does not deny humans but sees them as part of the environment. • Humans have capacities rarely seen elsewhere on Earth: • the capacity to attribute meaning to, or otherwise conceptualise’ events; • to act altruistically; • to imagine and create technologies; and • to use reason to theorise, predict or anticipate future or unseen events. • We need to use these capacities to reverse changes in an environment that has been degraded by past human activity. @socnewmat

29. An ecological sociology • Ensure environmental possibilities are increased not decreased. • Well-being of the human species are linked intrinsically to environmental becoming. • Our unique capacities can contribute to this. @socnewmat

30. Conclusions • Materialist and posthuman approaches re-connect culture to nature, human to non-human, matter to mind. • They open up new understandings of sexualities, embodiment, health, technology, environment. • These perspectives offer new theoretical, research and scholarly opportunities. • But they also inform policy and activism - and offer new understandings of major social issues: from citizenship to sexualities to climate change. @socnewmat

31. Further reading? @socnewmat

32. The posthuman condition? Thanks for listening! @socnewmat