Making Things Real

Theory, Culture and Society 19 (5-6):227-245 (2002)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

If materiality is necessary for social order, we can usefully investigate what happens in social settings which constantly problematize materiality and are uncertain as to what exactly count as `things'. This discussion draws on an on-line ethnography of people exchanging sexually explicit material and communications over Internet Relay Chat. The paper argues that although, or because, this `sexpics' scene problematized materiality, participants went to great lengths to make `things' material. They set in motion a considerable range of `mechanisms of materialization', and they did so in order to establish a sense of ongoing ethical sociality. Conversely, the kinds of materializations they produced need to be interpreted in the light of the precise ethical sociality they sought to sustain. In particular, the article explores a paradox: although sexual imagery and communications were hyperabundant, participants routinely materialized them in the form of scarce economic commodities which were exchanged within pseudo-market relations. What is at stake here is not the necessity of materiality for normative social order but rather the precedence of the normative over the material, or the `ought' over the `is'.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,953

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-02-02

Downloads
10 (#1,220,343)

6 months
2 (#1,258,417)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

Add more references