The Trouble With Emergence

Wibke Schniedermann

doi:10.22029/oc.2016.1099

Wibke Schniedermann GCSC, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22029/oc.2016.1099

Keywords: Emergenz, emergence, materialism, new materialism, relational theory

Abstract

I have grown suspicious of the word emergence and the concepts it designates. More often than not, the term seems to serve as a deus ex machina whenever other models or theories cannot account for a certain new aspect or object. Emergence is then used as though it were based on a concept or a theory, when all the term does is label something as complex, unpredictable, and only comprehensible after the fact. It is my contention that, particularly in the study of culture, we need to carefully scrutinize the ways in which we use emergence and recheck them for their actual analytical and/or heuristic benefit.

Author Biography

Wibke Schniedermann, GCSC, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen

Wibke Schniedermann is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Teaching Centre Coordinator at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at Justus Liebig University Giessen. Her current research investigates the representation of homelessness in American literature and culture. She completed her PhD on symbolic violence in Henry James’s novels with Frankfurt University. She is co-editor of Class Divisions in Serial Television (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and has published on homelessness in literature, film, and television, on Henry James, the American Western, and the contemporary American novel.