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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.[4] "First, it valorizes 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".[5] Recent studies have examined a wide range of activities including dance,[4][6] musical performance,[7] walking,[8] gardening,[9] rave,[10] listening to music[11] and children's play.[12]
Critics have suggested that Thrift's use of the term "non-representational theory" is problematic, and that other non-representational theories could be developed. Richard G. Smith said that Baudrillard's work could be considered a "non-representational theory", for example,[16] which has fostered some debate.[citation needed] In 2005, Hayden Lorimer (Glasgow University) said that the term "more-than-representational" was preferable.[18]
References
^Thrift, N. 2000. "Non-representational theory" in RJ Johnston, D Gregory, G Pratt and M Watts (eds) The Dictionary of Human Geography (Blackwell, Oxford)
^Thrift, N. 2007. Non-representational theory: Space, Politics, Affect (Routledge, London)
^McCormack, D.P., 2017. The circumstances of post‐phenomenological life worlds. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 42(1), pp.2-13.
^ abThrift, Nigel; 1997; 'The still point: expressive embodiment and dance', in Pile, S and Keith, M (eds.), Geographies of Resistance; (Routledge) pp 124–151
^Bohr, Niels (1963). The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr, Vol II, Essays 1932 – 1957, On Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. Woodbridge, Conn.: Ox Bow Press. p. 101. ISBN0918024528. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Barad, Karen (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN9780822339175.
