Detachment ─ Essays on the limits of relational thinking

The social sciences have in recent decades forgotten that life is constituted as much through practices of detachment as through relating and engaging. This diagnosis forms the starting point of this interdisciplinary volume, which questions one of the most fundamental tenets of social theory by focusing on detachment, an important but neglected aspect of social life. Ideas of detachment have come under critical fire in a range of disciplinary contexts, including in relation to discussions of scientific method, international development and western knowledge more generally. Correspondingly, the 'cultural turn' has coincided with the valorisation of connection, relationship and engagement as analytic frameworks for thinking about ethics and knowledge production in the humanities and social sciences. These theoretical developments relate to broader social, cultural and economic shifts. 'Engagement' has become a key word in public life, from politics, the media, and policy making, through to art and science, as the role of detached 'experts' is reconfigured and questioned. Going against the grain of this turn to 'engagement', this book challenges the relational basis of social theory and correspondingly brings to light the productive aspects of disconnection, distance and detachment. Rather than treating detachment simply as the moral inversion of compassion and engagement, the volume brings together empirical studies and theoretical comments by leading anthropologists, sociologists, and science studies scholars. Taken together these illustrate the range of contexts within which distance and disconnection can offer meaningful frameworks for action. Positioned at the cutting edge of social theory, this landmark volume will be widely read by students and academics across the social sciences and humanities.

Tom Yarrow is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Durham University

Matei Candea is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge

Catherine Trundle is Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington

Jo Cook is Lecturer in Anthropology at University College London