ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the question of materialism in order to create a means for engaging with the concept as part of an overt political project of change. It articulates a reminder of the dangers inherent in totalizing theories, especially those aligned with projects invoked for more socially just change. The chapter works towards a relational materiality that makes possible the means of resistance. Synthesis is a simplistic and reductive epistemological project that extends from the idealist philosophical assumptions of meaning making. It discusses the notion of “pragmatism” as exemplified in the work of John Dewey in productive relation with Michel Foucault’s work on power and resistance.
