Non-representational theory

Non-representational theory is a theory developed in human geography, largely through the work of Nigel Thrift (Warwick University), and his colleagues such as J.D. Dewsbury (University of Bristol) and Derek McCormack (University of Oxford); and indeed, later, by their respective graduate students who have pushed non-representational thinking in various empirical registers. It challenges those using social theory and conducting geographical research to go beyond representation. and focus on 'embodied' experience. Thus, Dewsbury describes practices of "witnessing" that produce "knowledge without contemplation".

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. "First, it valorises 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’ (McCormack 2005). Recent studies have examined a wide range of activities including dance, musical performance, walking, gardening, rave, listening to music and children's play.

This is a post-structuralist theory drawing in part from the works of Michel Foucault and phenomenonologists such as Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, but also weaving in the perspectives of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Bruno Latour and Michel Serres, and more recently from political science (including ideas developed in radical democracy) and anthropological discussions of the material dimensions of human life. At base non-representational theory signals a renewed interest in materialist, corporeal and performative ontologies. Non-representational theory's focus upon hybrid formations parallels the conception of "hybrid geographies" developed by Sarah Whatmore.

...
Wikipedia