Ecological Worldviews: New Materialism

New Materialism—or the new materialisms—are theories, methodologies, and philosophies which envision the world as being filled with material agents. Every thing—human, nonhuman, and even matter itself—acts and is acted upon by other things. All bodies and beings on Earth, then, exist in relationships. Though this intellectual lineage originates in European/continental philosophy, many ideas expressed by new materialism have long existed within Indigenous ways of knowing. The methodological and theoretical foundations of the new materialisms were developed by feminist, critical, and poststructural theorists, with engagement from scientific scholars.