The More-than-Human reader brings together texts that reflect on the state of post-anthropocentric thinking today, by writers from a wide range of disciplines. Focusing on the ecologies and technologies of climate injustice and inequalities, as well as the destructive structures lurking within anthropocentrism, More-than-Human proposes complex entanglements, frictions, and reparative attention across species and beings.

Thinking past the centrality of the human subject, the texts that compose this reader begin to imagine networks of ethics and responsibility emerging not from the ideologies of old, but from the messy and complex liveliness around and beneath us. 

Rather than attempting to be a comprehensive compendium on the topic (which would be virtually impossible), More-than-Human provides a cross-section of the breadth and vitality of a literary, scientific, and conceptual milieu where multiple strands of work intersect even as they are frequently regarded as belonging to separate disciplinary discourses.

Common concerns

The book brings together a collection of 34 texts published between 1990 and 2020. They are “dis-organised” into five sections: Assemblages and Proliferations; Queering More-than-Human; Towards More-than-Human Justice; Technologies; and With and Through the More-than-Human. Reprinting these texts allows readers to explore how anthropological, legal, philosophical, poetic and scientific inquiries often share common concerns, motivations and challenges, despite the critical, ontological and methodological differences in the fields from which they have emerged.

While many of the intellectual traditions represented in this book have often been characterised as being intent on destabilising anthropocentrism and dismantling human hegemony, the discourses they constitute exceed the limitations of those claims.

The writings included here do more than just question or critique the hegemony of humans over non-humans; they undermine the very possibility of thinking about humanity as autonomous and self-determined.

Ultimately, More-than-Human is a collaborative effort spanning disciplines and institutions. Over the last few years, Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the 12th edition of the nomadic Manifesta Biennale in Palermo initiated by Manifesta Foundation, the Office for Political Innovation in New York and Madrid, and the General Ecology project at the Serpentine Galleries in London have been developing research, public programmes, and exhibitions based on more-than-human perspectives. This book is the result of their determination to find ways to promote institutional cooperation and collective forms of knowledge production.

The team

Editors: Andrés Jaque (architect and scholar, Office for Political Innovation / Columbia University, GSAPP); Marina Otero Verzier (director of research, Het Nieuwe Instituut); Lucia Pietroiusti (curator of General Ecology, the Serpentine Galleries).

Associate Editor and Editorial Coordination: Lisa Mazza (curator and founding director BAU).

Graphic Design: Adriaan Mellegers, Vanessa van Dam.

Contributors: Stacy Alaimo, Ramon Amaro, Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, Octavia Butler, Georges Canguilhem, Marisol de la Cadena, NASA History Department, Silvia Federici, Scott F. Gilbert, Édouard Glissant, Jack Halberstam, Donna Haraway, Myra J. Hird, Kristina Lyons, Patricia MacCormack, John T. Maher, Michael Marder, Timothy Mitchell, Reza Negarastani, Jussi Parikka, Elizabeth Povinelli, Paul B. Preciado, María Puig de la Bellacasa, Filipa Ramos, Isabelle Stengers, Elly R. Truitt, Anna L. Tsing, Eduardo Vivieros de Castro, Jason Wallin, Kathryn Yusoff and Joanna Zylinska.

Published by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Office for Political Innovation, the Serpentine Galleries, and Manifesta Foundation: Guus Beumer (general and artistic director) and Josien Paulides (business director), Het Nieuwe Instituut; Andrés Jaque (director), Office for Political Innovation; Bettina Korek (CEO), Hans Ulrich Obrist, (artistic director), the Serpentine Galleries. Hedwig Fijen (director), Manifesta Foundation.

Printed by Cassochrome. 

Available from NAi Booksellers.

This publication was made possible by the generous support of The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.