New Materialisms and Environmental Education

‘New materialisms’ refers to a broad, contemporary, and significant movement of thought across the social sciences and cultural studies which attempts to (re)turn to, renew, or create alternative philosophies of matter. Such philosophies spring from multiple sources but are in general an attempt to bring the indissolubility of the social and environmental more forcefully into our analytical frames and modes of inquiry and tackle a perceived over-reliance on discourse and language in the so-called post-modern era of philosophy and social science. This movement in thought is underlaid by, and meets up with, the climate and biodiversity crises and the nature of the human condition (and modes of learning or becoming), within the field of environmental education. This volume brings together academics working at differing intersections of environmental education and new materialisms, highlighting tensions, knots, and lines of flight across and for research, practice, and theory. As such this collection draws on multiple interpretations and streams of thought within new materialisms and demonstrates their significance for those engaging with environmental education policy, practice and research. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Environmental Education Research.

David A. G. Clarke lectures in Environmental Education at the University of Edinburgh (UK). He is a member of the University’s Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry (CCRI), and the Sustainability in Education Research Group (SIERG). His academic interests traverse education, creative inquiry, life experience, and ethics in the Anthropocene.

Jamie Mcphie's work traverses Health, Environmental Humanities, and Experiential Education. He is a co-theme lead for one of the Learning, Education and Development Research Centre themes based at the University of Cumbria (UK). His research interests include therapeutic landscapes, environmental ethics, contemporary animisms, posthumanism and psychogeography. He recently authored the book Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene: A Posthuman Inquiry (2019).