Detachment: Essays on the Limits of Relational Thinking - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719096855 ISBN 13: 9780719096853

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2015

Synopsis

This interdisciplinary volume questions one of the most fundamental tenets of social theory by focusing on detachment, an important but neglected aspect of social life. Going against the grain of recent theoretical celebrations of engagement, this book challenges us to re-think the relational basis of social theory. In so, doing it brings to light the productive aspects of disconnection, distance and detachment. Rather than treating detachment simply as the moral inversion of compassion and engagement, the volume brings together empirical studies and theoretical comments by leading anthropologists, sociologists and science studies scholars. Taken together, these illustrate the range of contexts within which distance and disconnection can offer meaningful frameworks for action. Positioned at the cutting edge of social theory, this landmark volume will be of great interest to students and academics across the social sciences and humanities.

About this title

About the Authors

Tom Yarrow is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Durham University

Matei Candea is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge

Catherine Trundle is Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington

Jo Cook is Lecturer in Anthropology at University College London

From the Back Cover

The social sciences have in recent decades forgotten that life is constituted as much through practices of detachment as through relating and engaging. This diagnosis forms the starting point of this interdisciplinary volume, which questions one of the most fundamental tenets of social theory by focusing on detachment, an important but neglected aspect of social life. Ideas of detachment have come under critical fire in a range of disciplinary contexts, including in relation to discussions of scientific method, international development and western knowledge more generally. Correspondingly, the 'cultural turn' has coincided with the valorisation of connection, relationship and engagement as analytic frameworks for thinking about ethics and knowledge production in the humanities and social sciences. These theoretical developments relate to broader social, cultural and economic shifts. 'Engagement' has become a key word in public life, from politics, the media, and policy making, through to art and science, as the role of detached 'experts' is reconfigured and questioned. Going against the grain of this turn to 'engagement', this book challenges the relational basis of social theory and correspondingly brings to light the productive aspects of disconnection, distance and detachment. Rather than treating detachment simply as the moral inversion of compassion and engagement, the volume brings together empirical studies and theoretical comments by leading anthropologists, sociologists, and science studies scholars. Taken together these illustrate the range of contexts within which distance and disconnection can offer meaningful frameworks for action. Positioned at the cutting edge of social theory, this landmark volume will be widely read by students and academics across the social sciences and humanities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719096855
• ISBN 13: 9780719096853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Yarrow Thomas, Candea Matei, Trundle Catherine, Cook Jo