This book examines the relationships between society and material culture, and the interaction between people and things. Tim Dant argues that the traditional approach to material culture has focused on the symbolic meanings of objects, largely overlooking the material impact that objects have on everyday life in late modernity. Dant resists the now well-established model of consumption as the principal relationship with 'things' in our lives. Using the motor car as a recurring theme, he shows how we confront our society through material interaction with the objects that surround us. "Materiality and Society" draws on debates with historical, philosophical and theoretical discourses that address materiality, from Braudel and Merleau-Ponty to Heidegger and Latour. The book opens up new lines of enquiry and makes a convincing case for the closer study of the interaction between people and things. This book is key reading for students and researchers in a variety of disciplines concerned with social relationships with things - including sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and technology studies.
