The New Materialism in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

The “new materialism” and “new empiricism” have recently emerged as an important movement in qualitative inquiry. In discussions of the new materialism and new empiricism in the qualitative literature, Deleuze’s work is regularly presented alongside that of theorists who are directly associated with the movement. I focus on the work of Barad, who is arguably the most prominent figure in the new materialism, and examine the extent to which her philosophy is compatible with that of Deleuze. I show that their ontologies differ fundamentally and are therefore incommensurable: Deleuze’s is a philosophy of immanence and difference, whereas Barad’s is a philosophy of transcendence and identity. Both theorists also use some of the same terms, but the meaning that they assign to each of these terms differs fundamentally. Deleuze’s immanence-based conception of matter is incommensurable with Barad’s transcendence-based conception of matter. Their ontologies/philosophies also have distinctly different implications for qualitative inquiry.