Material Participation

This book develops a fresh perspective on everyday forms of engagement, one that foregrounds the role of objects, technologies and settings in democracy. Examining a range of devices, from smart meters to eco-homes, the book sets out new concepts and methods for analyzing the relations between participation, innovation and the environment.

What is the role of things in political participation? This book, now in paperback, develops a fresh perspective on the role of everyday objects, technology and settings in engagement, proposing that they enable a distinctive form of involvement: material participation. The book contributes to wider debates about democracy and materiality, but it also offers empirical analyses of particular objects and devices of material engagement: smart energy meters, environmental show homes and sustainable living gadgets. Material Participation brings social studies of science and technology (STS) into conversation with political theory in order to develop a novel approach to the analysis of specifically material forms of participation. In doing so, it explores the next steps to be taken in studies of participation, technology and the environment, focusing our critical, empirical and creative attention squarely on the materials and devices of the public.