Emancipation, capture and rescue? On the ontological turn and its critique

The ‘ontological turn’ or ‘new materialism’ represents a relevant phenomenon of recent years in philosophy, political theory, social sciences and the humanities. The wave begins to rise in the 1990s, subsequently taking growing momentum. It can partly be considered a reaction to post-modernist culturalism. However, the case is not for a return to conventional forms of scientific realism or economic materialism, but for novel accounts of reality. The ontological turn is also characterized by prominent normative implications; some scholars claim it is first and foremost a political endeavour. Novel accounts of reality would imply a new ‘ontological politics’, in the twofold sense of struggles focused on a contestation of western dualisms and their dominative implications and of the embodied, rather than discursive, character of such struggles. The paper dwells on these points, which are of major relevance to environmental political theory, raising a note of caution. The emancipatory import of new accounts of reality cannot be taken for granted. This is actually acknowledged by criticism about the embroilment of the new intellectual wave with emergent forms of capitalist accumulation. Yet, while this criticism is correct in stressing the non-necessity of the link, it fails to identify the key capture dispositif at work. ‘Rescuing’ new materialism from capitalist relationships requires more than relying on the ‘vital overflows’ of socio-material forces. Some indications are suggested in the conclusion.