Accidental Agents: Ecological Politics Beyond the Human

The Anthropocene has led to an urgent need to rethink human action, with one response suggesting that human beings can transcend their environment. Martin Crowley argues that a new conception of political agency is necessary to break this impasse and proposes an original account of agency as distributed and decisive. He explores how a politics that incorporates nonhuman agency can intervene in the real world, examining timely issues such as climate-related migration and digital-algorithmic politics.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 08 February 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

In the Anthropocene, the undeniable intertwinement of human activity with the existence and actions of every kind of other being renders it impossible to escape. This reality has sparked an urgent demand to reexamine and redefine our understanding of human action. One response suggests that the transformations required to address the pressing crises of our time will arise from the unique ability of human beings to transcend their environment. Another school of thought advocates for a more composite view of action, attributing it to distributed networks of human and nonhuman agents. However, the first of these approaches faces accusations of human exceptionalism, while the second, according to its critics, lacks practical political traction.

To overcome this impasse, Martin Crowley argues for a new conception of political agency. Drawing upon the insights of thinkers like Bruno Latour, Bernard Stiegler, and Catherine Malabou, Crowley presents an innovative account of agency as both distributed and decisive. Challenging the prevailing notion of agency as solely human, he delves into how a politics that incorporates nonhuman agency can intervene in the real world, addressing timely issues such as climate-related migration and digital-algorithmic politics. This groundbreaking work constitutes a significant intervention into ongoing debates in posthumanism, political ecology, and political theory. Accidental Agents reshapes our understanding of political agency in and for a more-than-human world, offering a fresh perspective that demands our attention and consideration.

Weight: 402g
Dimension: 140 x 216 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231204033