Journal article
The vital materiality of aluminum: light modernity and the global Atlantic
Atlantic studies (Abingdon, England), v 11(1), pp 67-81
01 Jan 2014
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
This article considers the significance of new ontological approaches to vibrant materialities and to mobilities research for re-thinking the globality of the Atlantic world. It does so through a study of bauxite mining and aluminum smelting as an agent of globalization and a mobile materialization of uneven global modernities. Aluminum can be thought of not just as an inert metal that is acted upon, but as a complex agent enrolled into transnational circuits, structuring and structured by the connections between them. The first section begins by sketching the idea of the global Atlantic; the second section focuses on methods of "following things" as a productive way of doing global history; and the third gives a brief account of the mobilities and materialities of aluminum based in part on the author's book Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity. In following the material assemblages and energetic transformations of bauxite/aluminum, this account seeks to bring to light the long-distance trans-oceanic relations that connect Atlantic political economies into global political ecologies.
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2 citations in Scopus
Details
- Title
- The vital materiality of aluminum: light modernity and the global Atlantic
- Creators
- Mimi Sheller - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Atlantic studies (Abingdon, England), v 11(1), pp 67-81
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 15
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000212217200007
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84896334283
- Other Identifier
- 991019167902804721
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