Institutional Ethnography and the “New Materialism”

In the introduction to their 2010 collection, New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics, Diana Coole and Samantha Frost write of an increase in “scattered but insistent demands for more materialist analysis” (p. 2). While not seeking to “deny [the] rich materialist heritage” (p. 4) that informs their work and the work of others taking part in this scholarly conversation, Coole and Frost call for the development of  “renewed materialisms” up to the job of grasping and analyzing our “materially and discursively fast-changing world” (p. 4). This paper examines these theoretical and analytic trends from the perspective of institutional ethnography. I approach this literature with a friendly curiosity and share my discoveries in terms of what it’s all about and what new materialists and IE materialists might have to say to each other.