engineering

New materialism

New materialism is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand New materialism rather than just read about it. In short: New materialism is a movement within contemporary philosophy that seeks to rework the conventional ontological understanding of the material world. While many philosophical tendencies are associated with new materialism, in such a way that the movement resists a single definition, its common characteristics include a rejection of essentialism, representationalism, and anthropocentrism as well as the dualistic bounda…

Key takeaways

New materialism belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect New materialism to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of New materialism from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

New materialism is a movement within contemporary philosophy that seeks to rework the conventional ontological understanding of the material world. While many philosophical tendencies are associated with new materialism, in such a way that the movement resists a single definition, its common characteristics include a rejection of essentialism, representationalism, and anthropocentrism as well as the dualistic boundaries between nature/culture; subject/object; and human/non-human. Instead, new materialists emphasize how fixed entities and apparently closed systems are produced through dynamic relations and processes, considering the distribution of agency through the interaction of heterogeneous forces. The movement has influenced a wide variety of new articulations between intellectual currents in science and philosophy, in fields such as science and technology studies, as well as systems science.

Origin The term was independently coined by Manuel DeLanda and Rosi Braidotti during the second half of the 1990s to identify an emerging body of interdisciplinary theory that sought to overcome the post-structuralist emphasis on discourse, while drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Gilbert Simondon in seeking to establish a materialist ontology that prioritizes processes of individuation.

Reception New materialism has been well-received by some individuals in a wide range of disciplines in contemporary academia, from environmental studies to philosophy. Frequently referenced works include Karen Barad's Meeting the Universe Halfway and Jane Bennett's Vibrant Matter. New Materialists emphasise how Cartesian binaries around human and nature have caused many issues in the world by ignoring social complexity. New materialism has been championed for its more integrated approach that considers material and immaterial, biological, and social aspects as interconnected processes rather than distinct entities.

Criticism Ecologist Andreas Malm has called new materialism "idealism of the most useless sort", stating that the approach has little use for climate action or changing our relationship with nature, since it denies distinctions between humanity and nature. Malm argues that this supports the status quo rather than challenging it. He also expresses frustration with the writing style of many new materialists, claiming that they resist distinctions between things, making their writing impenetrable.

Associated theorists Karen Barad Jane Bennett Rosi Braidotti Donna Haraway Isabelle Stengers Rick Dolphijn Manuel DeLanda Catherine Malabou Quentin Meillassoux Bruno Latour Arturo Escobar Levi Bryant Drew M. Dalton Thomas Nail Tim Ingold

See also Posthumanism Assemblage (philosophy) Agential realism Dispositif Speculative realism#Transcendental materialism

References

Further reading Abadía, Mónica Cano (2015). "Nuevos materialismos: hacia feminismos no dualistas". Oxímora. Revista Internacional de Ética y Política (in Spanish) (7): 34–47. ISSN 2014-7708. Bhandar, Brenna; Goldberg-Hiller, Jonathan, eds. (2015). Plastic materialities: politics, legality, and metamorphosis in the work of Catherine Malabou. Durham: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822375739. ISBN 978-0-8223-5845-9. Carvalho, Isabel Cristina de Moura (2014). "A Perspectiva das Pedras: Considerações sobre os novos Materialismos e as Epistemologias Ecológicas". Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental (in Brazilian Portuguese). 9 (1): 69. doi:10.18675/2177-580X.vol9.n1.p69-79. ISSN 2177-580X. Coole, Diana H.; Frost, Samantha, eds. (2010). New materialisms: ontology, agency, and politics. Durham: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822392996. ISBN 978-0-8223-9299-6. Solana, Mariela (2017). "Relatos sobre el surgimiento del giro afectivo y el nuevo materialismo: ¿está agotado el giro lingüístico?". Cuadernos de filosofía (in Spanish) (69): 87–103. doi:10.34096/cf.n69.6117 (inactive 31 July 2026). ISSN 2362-485X.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2026 (link) van der Tuin, Iris; Nocek, A. J.; DePaul University (2019). "New Concepts for Materialism: Introduction". Philosophy Today. 63 (4): 815–822. doi:10.5840/philtoday2019634294. ISSN 0031-8256.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with New materialism

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what New materialism claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to New materialism before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about New materialism ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of New materialism

In research: New materialism appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses New materialism in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: New materialism is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Contemporary philosophy, Materialism and culture, Philosophical schools and traditions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for New materialism outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study New materialism in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what New materialism means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain New materialism out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is New materialism in simple terms?

Why does New materialism matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study New materialism?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on New materialism.