Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Richard Hull
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
One of the strongest arguments for moving beyond classical debates within social theory and philosophy came from the late Gillian Rose. Her reading of Hegel casts new light on the difficulties inherent within the development of Critical Theory and Marxism, and her thesis on the `broken middle' between Law and Ethics points to new formulations of, for example, representation, judgement and the State. However, her work gives few pointers towards contemporary questions about technology or nature. This paper addresses one such question – how to categorise Objects, or object-assemblages – in the light of her work. Starting with the assumption that it is necessary to pass judgements on Objects whilst working in a “damaged courtroom” (necessarily imperfect conditions of judgement) the paper examines one element of improving those judgements – the development of categories of Objects, or object-assemblages. The paper identifies three distinct sets of attributes for object-assemblages: Performance, Ownership and Description. Combinations of Performance and Ownership are cast together as Power-Object Relations, and three types of such Relations are described – Sovereign, Middling and Neglected. Description is cast in a revision of Caygill’s (1998) reading of the works of Walter Benjamin. Finally these categories are applied to the example of Genetically Modified Crops.
Author(s): Hull R
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Unpublished
Conference Name: Public Sociologies: Annual Conference of the American Sociology Association; Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology
Year of Conference: 2004
Pages: 20
URL: http://homepages.3-c.coop/richard/Hull_Categorising_Objects.pdf
Notes: Conference proceedings not published. URL points to copy of paper on author's own website.
