Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Seeing Wood for the Trees

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Seeing Wood for the Trees: Placing Biological Processes Within Practices of Heating and Harvesting

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter

Published
Publication date20/07/2018
Host publicationSocial Practices and Dynamic Non-Humans : Nature, Materials and Technologies
EditorsCecily Maller, Yolande Strengers
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages47-62
Number of pages16
ISBN (electronic)9783319921891
ISBN (print)9783319921884
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This chapter aims to move towards a ‘biological’ understanding of materiality within theories of practice. Recognising that the biological and social are part of an intertwined process of becoming, the chapter argues for a turn from the “objectness” of things to the material flows and formative processes wherein they come into being. In reflecting upon such a turn, Rinkinen draws from the examples of wood management and small-scale wood-based space heating practices, to emphasise wood as a living organism and distinctive material element of practice. Recognising that practices not only demand resources, but interact with them in a constitutive manner, helps comprehend how practices are anchored in the material world.