The excellent contributions to this special issue are organized around a duality between
sociality and materiality. They argue for greater emphasis on materiality. This article
reflects upon what sustains the dichotomy between sociality and materiality, noting in
particular the importance of the use and management of boundaries. The article asks
whether and how dichotomies themselves might fruitfully become the target of social
science analysis.
Ashmore, Malcolm (1989)
The Reflexive Thesis. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
2.
Dixon Jones (1999)
‘The SaÔd Business School’Dixon Jones
website.
3.
Glancey, Jonathan (2001)
‘When Worlds Collide’, The Guardian,
Monday 10 December.
4.
Hetherington, Kevin (2002)
‘The Unsightly: Touching the Parthenon Frieze’,
Theory, Culture & Society19(5/6):
187–205.
5.
Hutchby, Ian (2001)
‘Technologies, Texts and Affordances’,
Sociology35(2):
441–456.
6.
Knorr Cetina, Karin and Urs Brügger
(2002) ‘Traders’ Engagements with Markets: A Postsocial
Relationship’, Theory, Culture &
Society19(5/6):
161–185.
7.
Law, John and Annemarie Mol
(1995) ‘Notes on Materiality and Sociality’,
Sociological Review43(2):
274–294.
8.
Pels, Dick (2002)
‘Everyday Essentialism: Social Inertia and the “Münchhausen
Effect”’, Theory, Culture &
Society19(5/6):
69–89.
9.
Pels, Dick, Kevin Hetherington
and FrÈdÈric
Vandenberghe (2002) ‘The
Status of the Object: Performances, Mediations, and Techniques’,
Theory, Culture & Society19(5/6):
1–21.
10.
Shove, Elizabeth (1999)
‘Cementing Relationships: The Social, Physical and Temporal Structure of
Ready-Mixed Concrete’, paper presented to conference on
‘Sociality/Materiality: The Status of the Object in Social Science’,
Brunel University, 9–11
September.
11.
Slater, Don (2002)
‘Making Things Real: Ethics and Order on the Internet’,
Theory, Culture & Society19(5/6):
227–245.
van Loon, Joost (2002)
‘A Contagious Living Fluid: Objectification and Assemblage in the History
of Virology’, Theory, Culture &
Society19(5/6):
107–124.
14.
Wolfe, Tom (1990 [1987])
The Bonfire of the Vanities. London:
Picador.
15.
Woolgar, Steve (1997)
‘Science and Technology Studies and the Renewal of Social
Theory’, pp. 235–255 in S.P. Turner (ed.)
Social Theory and Sociology: the Classics and Beyond.
Oxford:
Blackwell.
16.
Woolgar, Steve (2002)
‘Five Rules of Virtuality’, pp.
1–22 in Steve Woolgar (ed.) Virtual
Society? Get Real! – The Social Science of Electronic Technologies.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
