Non-representational theory

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Non-representational theory is the study of a specific theory focused on human geography. It is the work of Nigel Thrift (Warwick University).^[1][2] The theory is based on using social theory, conducting geographical research, and the 'embodied experience.'^[3]

Instead of studying and representing social relationships, non-representational theory focuses upon practices – how human and nonhuman formations are enacted or performed – not simply on what is produced.^[4] "First, it valorizes those processes that operate before … conscious, reflective thought … [and] second, it insists on the necessity of not prioritizing representations as the primary epistemological vehicles through which knowledge is extracted from the world".^[5] Recent studies have examined a wide range of activities including dance,^[4][6] musical performance,^[7] walking,^[8] gardening,^[9] rave,^[10] listening to music^[11] and children's play.^[12]

This is a post-structuralist theory inspired in part by the ideas of the physicist-philosopher Niels Bohr,^[13][14][15] and thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Bruno Latour, Michel Serres and Karen Barad, and by phenomenonologists such as Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.^[16] More recently it considers views from political science (including ideas about radical democracy) and anthropological discussions of the material dimensions of human life.^{[citation needed]} It parallels the conception of "hybrid geographies" developed by Sarah Whatmore.^[17]

Critics have suggested that Thrift's use of the term "non-representational theory" is problematic, and that other non-representational theories could be developed. Richard G. Smith said that Baudrillard's work could be considered a "non-representational theory", for example,^[16] which has fostered some debate.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, Hayden Lorimer (Glasgow University) said that the term "more-than-representational" was preferable.^[18]

• Macpherson, H. (2010), Non‐Representational Approaches to Body–Landscape Relations. Geography Compass, 4: 1-13. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00276.x