Nonhuman Beings and the Political

Autorentext

Edyta B. Pietrzak is an anthropologist and political scientist, a professor at the Institute of Marketing and Sustainable Development at the Lodz University of Technology, lecturer at the Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Women's and Gender Studies GEMMA, and guest lecturer at European universities. She is ECIU & TUL Citizen Science Research Field Coordinator, Faculty's Gender Equality Officer, Editor-in-chief of the journal Civitas Hominibus. She is an author of 12 books and many scientific publications. Her research interests include theories of civil society, politics of diversity, and socio-political contexts of sustainable development. Her current research focuses on post-anthropocentrism.

Klappentext

Politics is no longer just about people. In Nonhuman Beings and the Political, Edyta B. Pietrzak reveals how animals, plants, technologies, and even viruses are reshaping civic life and challenging the long-held belief that only humans drive political change.

Blending insights from science, ecology, robotics, and digital culture and engaging with influential thinkers such as Rosi Braidotti, Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Michael Marder, María Puig de la Bellacasa, and Anna Tsing, Pietrzak shows how nonhuman actors are entering the public sphere and transforming ideas of responsibility, solidarity, and participation. At the same time, she highlights the growing voices of marginalised groups, expanding the boundaries of political community and opening new ways of thinking about justice and collective life.

Nonhuman Beings and the Political offers a clear and accessible overview of post-anthropocentric theories and their impact on civil society, organisation and governance. Both timely and thought-provoking, it is essential reading for students and researchers in political science, sociology, philosophy, management studies and related fields seeking to understand how politics is being redefined in the 21st century.

Inhalt

Introduction. Part I. Expanding the realm of the political 1. The political and politics 2. The public and private realms 3. The civic community expanding the boundaries of the public realm 4. The political of Anthropocene and sustainable development Part II. Post-anthropocentric politics 5. Posthumanism, post-anthropocentrism, and new materialism: Towards a redefinition of political categories 6. Subjectivity and agency 7. Relationality and responsibility 8. Representation and solidarity Part III. The political dimension of the natural world 9. The political dimension of plants 10. The political dimension of animals 11. The political dimension of natural areas 12. The political dimension of mushrooms, bacterias, and viruses Part IV. The political dimension of the world of technology 13. The political dimension of machines 14. The political dimension of robots 15. The political dimension of cyborgs 16. The political dimension of digital beings. Conclusion. The political of post-anthropocentrism