Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities

This chapter reflects on what materiality-inflected methodologies1 can bring to an anthropology of law, and to legal studies more generally. Its starting point is an increasing attention across the social sciences and humanities for objects, and thinking beyond the human. These have often, but no...

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Main Authors: Cloatre, Emilie, Cowan, Dave
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 2021
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Online Access:1001542
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author Cloatre, Emilie
Cowan, Dave
author_browse Cloatre, Emilie
Cowan, Dave
author_facet Cloatre, Emilie
Cowan, Dave
author_sort Cloatre, Emilie
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This chapter reflects on what materiality-inflected methodologies1 can bring to an anthropology of law, and to legal studies more generally. Its starting point is an increasing attention across the social sciences and humanities for objects, and thinking beyond the human. These have often, but not only, emerged from science and technology studies (STS), to which we pay particular attention. However, approaches to materiality have themselves become diversified, and their implications for law can similarly be read in multiple ways. At the same time, legal anthropology has helped to re-characterise the complexity of law as a field of social activity by paying attention to its meanings, for actors within as well as outside its own institutions; to its modes of action in practice, again within its explicitly designated spaces as well as its everyday; to its unexpected forms, patterns and directions; to its multiplicity and uncertainty. Approaches within a broadly defined ‘legal anthropology’ agenda have provided tools to move away from grand and removed theorisation of the law, or an exclusive attention to its own claims, and towards a subtler understanding of law as a relatively fluid, changing and uncertain set of practices. While doing so, legal anthropology has also reminded us of the significance of empirical research to identify and theorise the complex existences of law, a contribution which echoes some of the implications of materiality-oriented theories.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-299652025-07-21T15:57:50Z Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities Cloatre, Emilie Cowan, Dave law philosophy anthropology law philosophy anthropology Donna Haraway Ethnography Fractal Legal anthropology Legal consciousness Ontology Social theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology thema EDItEUR::L Law thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology thema EDItEUR::L Law This chapter reflects on what materiality-inflected methodologies1 can bring to an anthropology of law, and to legal studies more generally. Its starting point is an increasing attention across the social sciences and humanities for objects, and thinking beyond the human. These have often, but not only, emerged from science and technology studies (STS), to which we pay particular attention. However, approaches to materiality have themselves become diversified, and their implications for law can similarly be read in multiple ways. At the same time, legal anthropology has helped to re-characterise the complexity of law as a field of social activity by paying attention to its meanings, for actors within as well as outside its own institutions; to its modes of action in practice, again within its explicitly designated spaces as well as its everyday; to its unexpected forms, patterns and directions; to its multiplicity and uncertainty. Approaches within a broadly defined ‘legal anthropology’ agenda have provided tools to move away from grand and removed theorisation of the law, or an exclusive attention to its own claims, and towards a subtler understanding of law as a relatively fluid, changing and uncertain set of practices. While doing so, legal anthropology has also reminded us of the significance of empirical research to identify and theorise the complex existences of law, a contribution which echoes some of the implications of materiality-oriented theories. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2019-10-17 14:50:09 2020-04-01T12:22:23Z 2018-09-27 23:55 2019-10-17 14:50:09 2020-04-01T12:22:23Z 2018 chapter 1001542 OCN: 1076639537 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/28415 9781317353003; 9781317352990; 9781317352983; 9781315665733 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/29965 eng Routledge Handbooks open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28415/1/9781138956469_oachapter21.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28415/1/9781138956469_oachapter21.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28415/1/9781138956469_oachapter21.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28415/1/9781138956469_oachapter21.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 Routledge Handbook of Law and Theory 9781317353003; 9781317352990; 9781317352983; 9781315665733 Routledge 22 open access
spellingShingle law
philosophy
anthropology
law
philosophy
anthropology
Donna Haraway
Ethnography
Fractal
Legal anthropology
Legal consciousness
Ontology
Social theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
Cloatre, Emilie
Cowan, Dave
Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title_full Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title_fullStr Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title_short Chapter 21 Legalities and materialities
title_sort chapter 21 legalities and materialities
topic law
philosophy
anthropology
law
philosophy
anthropology
Donna Haraway
Ethnography
Fractal
Legal anthropology
Legal consciousness
Ontology
Social theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
topic_facet law
philosophy
anthropology
law
philosophy
anthropology
Donna Haraway
Ethnography
Fractal
Legal anthropology
Legal consciousness
Ontology
Social theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology
thema EDItEUR::L Law
url 1001542
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