The Material Culture of Failure: When Things Do Wrong

✍ Scribed by Timothy Carroll; David Jeevendrampillai; Aaron Parkhurst; Julie Shackelford

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 233
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

What happens when objects behave unexpectedly or fail to do what they ‘should’?  Who defines failure? Is failure always bad? Rather than viewing concepts such as failure, incoherence or incompetence as antithetical to social life, this innovative new book examines the unexpected and surprising ways in which failure can lead to positive and creative results.
Combining both theoretical and ethnographic approaches to failure, The Material Culture of Failure explores how failure manifests itself and operates in a variety of contexts. The editors present ten ethnographic encounters of failure – from areas as diverse as design, textiles, religion, beauty and physical failure – covering Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Arabian Gulf. Identifying common themes such as interpersonal, national and religious articulations of power and identity, the book shows some of the underlying assumptions that are revealed when materials fail, designs crumble or things develop unexpectedly.
The first anthropological study dedicated to theorizing failure, this innovative collection offers fresh insights based on the latest scholarship. Destined to stimulate a new area of research, the book makes a vital contribution to material culture studies and related social science theory.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Figures
Contributors
Fore word: Failure and fragility: Towards a material culture of the end of the world as we knew it
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Towards a general theory of failure
Material failure and the materiality of failure
Failure is NOT the binary opposite of success
Failure is NOT incommensurability
Failure is NOT alterity
What failure is
Failure is a moral accusation
Failure is a moment of time
Failure is a category error
The order of discussion
References
2 Miracles and crushed dreams: Material disillusions in the design industry
Changes in material engagements
From alchemy and craft to design
Expectations on materials
Knowing materials in design today
Experimenting as way to knowing
Constructive failures
The role of imagination in innovation
Conclusion
References
3 When Krishna wore a kimono: Deity clothing as rupture and inefficacy
Introduction
The visual and material aesthetics of darshan
Behind the altar curtain
The failed garments
The gopa dress
The kimono dress
Conclusion: (in)efficacy and the emergence of success and failure
References
4 Whitened anxiety: Bottled identity in the Emirates
Introduction
Anthropology of the body and failure
Skin and inheritance
Identity in a bottle
The dishdash and the abaya
Being white, becoming whiter
Conclusion
References
5 Holy water, healing and the sacredness of knowledge
Healing: a matter of redemption
Going to ts’ebel: merging clinical treatment with Orthodox spiritual therapy
Materializing spiritual intercession
Learning and living in failure
References
6 Haredi (material) cultures of health at the ‘hard to reach’ margins of the state
Introduction
Health and bodily care at the ‘hard to reach’ margins of the state
Rescuing, recovering and returning bodies
Closing remarks
Acknowledgements
References
7 Failure as constructive participation? Being stupid in the suburbs
The ASP
‘Stupid’ informants
The Seething Villagers
Context and failed performativity
The productive aspect of ASP’s silent map
Conclusions
References
8 Destruction of locality: On heritage and failure in ‘crisis Syria’
Heritage, performativity and Syrianness
‘Suriyyah bakheer’ (Syria is fine)
‘Ahrar Tadmor’ (free Palmyra)
Thinking through failure
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
9 Axis of incoherence: Engagement and failure between two material regimes of Christianity
The Orthodox temple
Vesting the temple
Sensible coherence
Axis of incoherence
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
10 The materiality of silence: Assembling the absence of sound and the memory of 9/.11
Absent silence
Aural materiality
First moment of silence
Assembling silence
Second moment of silence
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Funding
References
Afterword Failure
References
Index