Object-oriented geographies

Object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a philosophical current that has received little attention within more-than-human and new materialist geographies. This chapter acknowledges the far longer tradition of object studies as a transdisciplinary field, including works on the social life of things; at the same time, it embraces peculiar theoretical imports from OOO to argue for their potential contribution to objectoriented social geographies. Indeed, object-oriented philosophy is often seen in opposition to relational approaches. However, while OOO is mainly attracted to the inner existence of things (what objects are), some versions are also sensitive to actions and networks (what objects do and the relations they enter). There is a frequent sense of unease with OOO non-relationalism emerging within sociology and geography; despite this, the chapter suggests that a series of methodological possibilities can arise via adopting a pragmatic and aesthetic variant of object-oriented geography. Object orientations help in experimenting with a range of underexplored object socialities with the adoption of weird or empathic approaches.