An introduction and context of Jane’s work:
Jane Bennett is a political theorist whose work has significantly shaped contemporary materialist philosophy through her development of “vital materialism.” Her most influential book, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (2010), offers a radical reconceptualization of matter, challenging conventional Western perspectives that treat matter as passive, inert, and subordinate to human agency. Bennett’s project emerges from a constellation of influences, including Baruch Spinoza, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, and various posthumanist thinkers, while contributing significantly to new materialism, object-oriented ontology, and ecological thought.
Fundamental Concepts
Vibrant Matter and Thing-Power
At the core of Bennett’s philosophy is the concept of “vibrant matter” – the recognition that all matter possesses vitality, agency, and effectivity. She introduces “thing-power” to describe matter’s capacity to act, to produce effects, and to alter situations independent of human intention or design. For Bennett, materiality is not dead or passive but lively, energetic, and capable of self-organization. This perspective challenges the subject-object divide that has dominated Western philosophy, where agency is typically reserved for humans while nonhuman entities are treated as mere resources or tools.
Assemblages
Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari, Bennett employs the concept of “assemblages” – heterogeneous groupings of human and nonhuman actors that generate effects through their particular configuration and relationships. Assemblages are not governed by a central organizing principle or dominant agency but operate through distributed agency across their various components. Bennett analyzes diverse assemblages, from electrical power grids to food systems, demonstrating how agency emerges from the collective interplay of components rather than from individual human intention.
Distributive Agency
Bennett develops a theory of “distributive agency” that decenters the human as the exclusive or primary source of action in the world. Agency, for Bennett, is always an effect of assemblages rather than a property possessed by individual entities. This distribution of agency across human and nonhuman actants challenges anthropocentric models of politics and ethics that focus exclusively on human intentions and actions. Bennett’s conception of agency does not require consciousness or intention but recognizes the efficacy of nonhuman forces in shaping events and outcomes.
Political Implications
Vital Materialism as Political Theory
Bennett frames vital materialism explicitly as a political project. By recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in public life, she aims to transform political theory and practice toward greater ecological awareness and responsibility. Traditional political theory, focused exclusively on human interests and agency, fails to address how nonhuman actors constrain, enable, and participate in political events and processes. Bennett argues that acknowledging the agency of nonhuman entities is essential for addressing contemporary ecological challenges.
Rethinking Democracy and Public Participation
Bennett’s vital materialism necessitates reimagining democratic participation to include nonhuman entities. While not advocating literally giving votes to minerals or bacteria, Bennett argues for political systems that better account for how nonhuman actors shape and constrain human political decisions. This might involve new forms of representation for nonhuman interests, expanded conceptions of the “public,” and political processes that acknowledge material constraints and possibilities.
Ethical Dimensions
A More-Than-Human Ethics
Bennett develops an ethical framework that extends ethical consideration beyond the human realm. This is not simply about extending rights to animals or recognizing the instrumental value of nature, but about developing an ethical sensibility attuned to the vitality and interconnectedness of all matter. Bennett suggests that recognizing the vitality of matter might foster an ethics of humility, care, and attentiveness to the ways human lives are thoroughly entangled with nonhuman entities.
Enchantment and Wonder
Bennett proposes cultivating an affective relationship of “enchantment” with the material world. In her earlier work, The Enchantment of Modern Life (2001), she argues that ethical engagement requires emotional attunement to the wonder and strangeness of existence. This “enchanted materialism” describes moments of being struck by the extraordinary that lives amid the familiar and every day, fostering an ethics of care for the material world.
Methodology and Approach
Anthropomorphism as Method
Bennett deliberately employs anthropomorphism as a strategic methodology, attributing human qualities to nonhuman entities not to reduce them to human terms but to overcome the human tendency to perceive nonhuman entities as inert. This “strategic anthropomorphism” serves as a corrective to anthropocentrism by helping humans recognize qualities in nonhuman things that might otherwise be overlooked due to ingrained habits of perception.
Everyday Objects and Materiality
Bennett often focuses on ordinary objects and materials – garbage, food, electricity, metal – examining their vitality and agency in everyday contexts. This methodological focus on the ordinary demonstrates how vital materialism operates not as an abstract philosophical concept but as a practical reorientation toward the material world we encounter daily.
Critical Reception and Influence
Bennett’s work has been influential across multiple disciplines, including political theory, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, and art. Critics have questioned whether Bennett’s flattening of hierarchies between humans and nonhumans undermines the basis for human ethical responsibility and whether her vital materialism adequately addresses structural inequalities and power differentials among humans. Others debate whether Bennett’s conception of matter risks reintroducing a form of vitalism that undermines scientific materialism.
Despite these critiques, Bennett’s work has been pivotal in the development of new materialist thought, contributing to a broader “material turn” in contemporary theory that takes materiality seriously as an active force in political, social, and ecological configurations.
Conclusion
Jane Bennett’s vital materialism offers a profound reimagining of matter, agency, and politics that challenges conventional Western philosophical traditions. By recognizing the vibrancy and efficacy of nonhuman matter, Bennett develops a theoretical framework that responds to contemporary ecological challenges while transforming our understanding of political agency and ethical responsibility. Her work invites us to cultivate a more attentive, humble, and caring relationship with the material world, recognizing how human lives and fates are thoroughly entangled with the vitality of nonhuman things and forces. This perspective provides valuable conceptual resources for addressing the complex ecological, political, and ethical challenges of the twenty-first century.