Non-representational Theory Théorie non-représentationnelle

« A style of engagement with the world that aims to attend to and intervene in the taking-place of practices. Non-representational theory – a term first coined in human geography by Thrift (1996) – emerged from a caution and a concern about the overvaluation of the ‘representational– referential’ dimensions of life following the discipline’s cultural turn. It responds to two questions: (1) How to disclose and attend to life as a differential, expressive process of becoming, where much happens before and after conscious reflexive thought? (2) How to foster types of description or presentation that attempt to co-produce new events by engaging with and intervening in the practices that compose life? Non-representational theory is not a new paradigm that would eliminate or supersede others, nor does it offer a set of rules and conventions that could form one of a number of holistic conceptions of the world; rather, it names a differentiated set of ways of learning to address these two questions. »

Ben Anderson, « Non-representational theory », in The Dictionary of Human Geography, Derek Gregory, Ron Johnson, Geraldine Pratt, Michael J.Watts, Sarah Whatmore dirs., Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p.503