Abstract
This commentary reflects upon the utility of the granular for bringing new materialists’ concerns for materiality into dialogue with historical materialists’ concerns for the historical power relations through which social phenomena emerge. I argue that the granular offers a promising vocabulary for bridging these interests, but suggest that further work is now needed to demonstrate how the granular can reconcile new materialists’ insistence on creative vitality with Marxian historical materialism.
Highlights
Geographical research that explores the connections between matter and culture continues to flourish
While new materialism’s diversity makes it difficult to speak of a singular agenda, its contributors have rejected the tendency of earlier materialisms to treat matter as an inert resource that can be humanly discovered and mastered, and have instead placed emphasis upon its vitality, described in terms of its creative roles in the formation of an always-becoming world and how it exceeds human abilities to comprehensively perceive, understand, anticipate, and control it (Dolphijn and van der Tuin, 2013)
Notable is the work oriented towards Marx’s historical materialism, which continues to thrive across the discipline, especially within the fields of economic geography (Ouma et al, 2018), resource geographies (Williams et al, 2019), and urban political ecology (Connolly, 2019)
Summary
Geographical research that explores the connections between matter and culture continues to flourish. It is these forces, the production of value, and the sociomaterial conditions that make possible the emergence of new kinds of societal ordering, that are of primary interest to historical materialists (rather than the specific forms that matter takes, or its materialities).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
