New Book on The Ontological Turn

A new and often controversial theoretical orientation that resonates strongly with wider developments in contemporary philosophy and social theory, the so-called 'ontological turn' has been receiving a great deal of attention in anthropology and cognate disciplines over recent years.

Professor Morten Axel Petersen contributed to the debate with his new book The Ontological Turn - An Anthropological Exposition, which he co-authored together with his long-time collaborator Martin Holbraad.

The book provides the first book-length anthropological exposition of this recent intellectual development. Tracing the roots of the ontological turn in the history of anthropology and its emergence as a distinct theoretical orientation over the past few decades, the book articulates critically the key methodological and analytical tenets of the ontological turn, its prime epistemological and political implications, and locates it in the broader intellectual landscape of contemporary social theory.

The book is a part of the ‘New Departures in Anthropology’ book series with Cambridge University Press that focuses on emerging themes in social and cultural anthropology.

An interview with the two authors can be found on the CUP website.

Martin Holbraad & Morten Axel Pedersen, The Ontological Turn - An Anthropological Exposition, Cambridge University Press, 2017.