Of Animacy Reading Group: Nonhumans in Political Theory

The third gathering of the Of Animacy Reading Group will focus on Isabelle Stengers’s delineation of the challenges inherent in considering nonhuman entities from a human perspective.

As well as unpacking the notion of human exceptionalism, the key text proposes an approach to political theory that refuses any all-encompassing definitions of the common good. The further reading shifts from philosophical manoeuvring to practical propositions for organising life worth living among capitalist ruins.

• Key text: Isabelle Stengers, 'Including Nonhumans in Political Theory: Opening Pandora’s Box?’ in Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2010)
• Further reading: Isabelle Stengers, 'Autonomy and the Intrusion of Gaia’, South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 116, no 2, April 2017

Excerpts of the text will be read together during the session to support open discussion

For access to and further information on the readings, please email nella.aarne@ica.art

This monthly reading group led by curator Nella Aarne thinks through feminist engagements with human and non-human agents in the material world. The reading group meets every month at the ICA and is always open to all