Martin Savransky

Staff details

Position Senior Lecturer and Director of the Unit of Play

Department Sociology

Email m.savransky (@gold.ac.uk)

Phone +44 (0)20 7919 7563

Martin Savransky joined the Department in 2015. He is Convenor of the MA Ecology, Culture & Society. Prior to joining Goldsmiths, Martin taught at University College London, and held visiting positions at the University of Freiburg, and the University of Barcelona.

Working in the interstices between philosophy, the geo- and environmental humanities, and critical social thought, Martin's research critically probes processes of planetary change and unruly social life on unstable terrain. His work seeks to expand the imagination by exploring how histories of imperialism and colonialism have shaped contemporary planetary and ecological transformations, and how an attentiveness to modes of thought and practice outside the territory of Modernity and Progress might inspire other ways of inhabiting the earth.

Martin's latest book is Around the Day in Eighty Worlds: Politics of the Pluriverse (Duke University Press, 2021).

Teaching and Supervision

Research interests

Working in the interstices between philosophy, the geo- and environmental humanities, and critical social thought, Martin's research interests include political ecology, political ontology, pragmatism, radical pluralism, postcolonial thought, social improvisation, speculative practices, and methodologies of life on unstable terrain.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Savransky, Martin. 2021. Around the Day in Eighty Worlds: Politics of the Pluriverse. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 9781478014126

Savransky, Martin. 2016. The Adventure of Relevance: An Ethics of Social Inquiry. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137571465

Edited Book

Savransky, Martin and Lundy, Craig, eds. 2022. After Progress. London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781529607413

Wilkie, Alex; Savransky, Martin and Rosengarten, Marsha, eds. 2017. Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781138688360

Edited Journal

Savransky, Martin and Lundy, Craig, eds. 2022. After Progress, The Sociological Review, 70(2). 0038-0261

Savransky, Martin, ed. 2021. Problematizing the Problematic, Theory, Culture & Society, 38(2). 0263-2764

Savransky, Martin, ed. 2018. Isabelle Stengers and The Dramatization of Philosophy, SubStance: A Review of Theory & Literary Criticism, 47(1). 0049-2426

Book Section

Savransky, Martin. 2023. The Principle of Invention (Outside In). In: Tomás Sánchez Criado and Adolfo Estalella, eds. An Ethnographic Inventory: Field Devices for Anthropological Inquiry. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 15-22. ISBN 9781032124391

Savransky, Martin. 2023. Zones de Divergence: Le Pragmatisme et les Murmurations de la Terre. In: Didier Debaise and Isabelle Stengers, eds. Au risque des effets: Une lutte à main armée contre la Raison? Paris: Les Liens Qui Libèrent, pp. 47-73. ISBN 9791020924995

Savransky, Martin. 2023. The Cosmoecological Workshop: Or, How to Philosophise with a Hammer. In: Dimitris Papadopoulos; Maria Puig de la Bellacasa and Maddalena Tacchetti, eds. Ecological Reparation: Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict. Bristol: Bristol University Press. ISBN 9781529216059

Savransky, Martin. 2022. Afterword: Speculative Earth. In: Nina Williams and Thomas Keating, eds. Speculative Geographies: Ethics, Technologies, Aesthetics. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 285-298. ISBN 9789811906909

Savransky, Martin. 2020. Pragmatics of a World To-Be-Made. In: Erich Hörl and Oliver Leistert, eds. Thinking the Problematic: Genealogies, Tracings, and Currents of a Persistent Force. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript Verlag. ISBN 9783837646405

Savransky, Martin. 2019. What's The Relevance of Isabelle Stengers' Philosophy to ANT? In: Anders Blok; Ignacio Farias and Celia Roberts, eds. Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory. Routledge. ISBN 9781138084728

Savransky, Martin. 2018. The Social and Its Problems: On Problematic Sociology. In: Noortje Marres; Michael Guggenheim and Alex Wilkie, eds. Inventing the Social. London: Mattering Press. ISBN 9780995527751

Greco, Monica and Savransky, Martin. 2018. Foucault's Subjectivities. In: Lisa Downing, ed. After Foucault: Culture, Theory, and Criticism in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316506042

Wilkie, Alex; Savransky, Martin and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2017. Section Introduction: Speculative techniques. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative research: The lure of possible futures. New York & London: Routledge. ISBN 1138688363

Savransky, Martin. 2017. The Wager of an Unfinished Present: Notes on Speculative Pragmatism. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures. New York & London: Routledge. ISBN 1138688363

Savransky, Martin; Rosengarten, Marsha and Wilkie, Alex. 2017. Section Introduction: Speculative Propositions. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures. Oxon; New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138688360

Rosengarten, Marsha; Savransky, Martin and Wilkie, Alex. 2017. Section 2: Speculative lures. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative Research The Lure of Possible Futures. Routledge. ISBN 9781138688360

Savransky, Martin; Wilkie, Alex and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2017. Section Introduction: Speculative implications. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative Research The Lure of Possible Futures. (236) Routledge. ISBN 9781138688360

Savransky, Martin; Wilkie, Alex and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2017. The Lure of Possible Futures: On Speculative Research. In: Alex Wilkie; Martin Savransky and Marsha Rosengarten, eds. Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures. New York & London: Routledge. ISBN 1138688363

Savransky, Martin. 2016. In Praise of Hesitation: 'Global' Knowledge as a Cosmopolitical Adventure. In: Wiebke Keim; Ercument Celik; Christian Ersche and Veronika Wöhrer, eds. Global Knowledge Production in The Social Sciences. London: Routledge, pp. 237-250. ISBN 9781472426178

Savransky, Martin. 2012. An Ecology of Times: Modern Knowledge, Non-modern Temporalities. In: Cecile Lawrence and Natalie Churn, eds. Movements in Time: Revolution, Social Justice and Times of Change. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 265-280. ISBN 978-1443840163

Article

Savransky, Martin. 2023. Passages to the Outside: A Prelude to a Geophilosophy of the Future. Dialogues in Human Geography, ISSN 2043-8206

Savransky, Martin. 2022. Depois do Progresso: notas de uma ecologia do talvez (Portuguese translation). Anãnsi: Revista de Filosofia, 3(1), pp. 216-227. ISSN 2675-8385

Savransky, Martin. 2022. Ecological Uncivilisation: Precarious World-Making After Progress. The Sociological Review, 70(2), pp. 367-384. ISSN 0038-0261

Savransky, Martin and Lundy, Craig. 2022. After Progress: Experiments in the Revaluation of Values. The Sociological Review, 70(2), pp. 217-231. ISSN 0038-0261

Savransky, Martin. 2022. The Will to Believe in This World: Pragmatism and the Arts of Living on a Precarious Earth. Educational Theory, 72(4), pp. 509-527. ISSN 0013-2004

Savransky, Martin and Tironi, Martín. 2021. Decolonizing the Imagination in Times of Crisis. Gestures for Speculative Thinking-Feeling: Interview with Martin Savransky. Diseña, 19, Interview.2. ISSN 0718-8447

Savransky, Martin. 2021. After Progress: Notes for an Ecology of Perhaps. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 21(1), pp. 267-281. ISSN 2052-1499

Savransky, Martin. 2021. The Pluralistic Problematic: William James and the Pragmatics of the Pluriverse. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(2), pp. 141-159. ISSN 0263-2764

Savransky, Martin. 2021. Problems All the Way Down. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(2), pp. 3-23. ISSN 0263-2764

Savransky, Martin and Pinho, Thiago. 2021. Pragmáticas do Pluriverso: Uma entrevista com o sociólogo e filósofo Martin Savransky. Novos Debates: Forum de Antropologia, 6(1-2), pp. 1-17.

Savransky, Martin. 2021. Counter-Apocalyptic Beginnings: Cosmoecology for the End of the World. Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 4(1), 1914423. ISSN 2572-9861

Savransky, Martin. 2019. Pensar el Pluriverso: Elementos para una Filosofía Empírica. Diferencias: Revista de Teoría Social Contemporánea, 5(8), pp. 62-71. ISSN 2469-1100

Savransky, Martin. 2019. When Bodies Think: Panpsychism, Pluralism, Biopolitics. Medical Humanities, 45, pp. 116-123. ISSN 1468-215X

Savransky, Martin. 2019. The Bat Revolt in Values: A Parable for Living in Academic Ruins. Social Text, 37(2), pp. 135-146. ISSN 0164-2472

Rosengarten, Marsha and Savransky, Martin. 2019. A Careful Biomedicine? Generalization and Abstraction in RCTs. Critical Public Health, 29(2), pp. 181-191. ISSN 0958-1596

Savransky, Martin. 2018. How It Feels To Think: Experiencing Intellectual Invention. Qualitative Inquiry, 24(9), pp. 609-616. ISSN 1077-8004

Savransky, Martin and Stengers, Isabelle. 2018. Relearning The Art of Paying Attention: A Conversation. SubStance: A Review of Theory & Literary Criticism, 47(1), pp. 130-145. ISSN 0049-2426

Savransky, Martin. 2018. Isabelle Stengers and The Dramatization of Philosophy. SubStance: A Review of Theory & Literary Criticism, 47(1), pp. 3-16. ISSN 0049-2426

Savransky, Martin. 2018. The Humor of The Problematic: Thinking with Stengers. SubStance: A Review of Theory & Literary Criticism, 47(1), pp. 29-46. ISSN 0049-2426

Savransky, Martin. 2017. A Decolonial Imagination: Sociology, Anthropology and the Politics of Reality. Sociology, 51(1), pp. 11-26. ISSN 0038-0385

Savransky, Martin and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2016. What is nature capable of? Evidence, ontology and speculative medical humanities. Medical Humanities, 42, pp. 166-172. ISSN 1468-215X

Savransky, Martin. 2016. Modes of Mattering: Barad, Whitehead, and Societies. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge(30), e08. ISSN 1555-9998

Savransky, Martin. 2015. On The Problem of Attachment: Living Economies and The Ecology of Late Capitalism. Science as Culture, 24(4), pp. 526-531. ISSN 0950-5431

Savransky, Martin. 2014. Of Recalcitrant Subjects. Culture, Theory and Critique, 55(1), pp. 96-113. ISSN 1473-5784

Savransky, Martin. 2012. Worlds in The Making: Social Sciences and the Ontopolitics of Knowledge. Postcolonial Studies, 15(3), pp. 351-368. ISSN 1368-8790

Savransky, Martin. 2012. A Becoming Together of The World: The Cosmopolitics of Isabelle Stengers. Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry, 7(17), ISSN 2072-036X

Savransky, Martin. 2014. On Relevance (The Very Idea). Somatosphere: Science, Medicine, Anthropology.

Savransky, Martin. 2012. Capturing the Social Sciences: An Experiment in Political Epistemology. Critical Legal Thinking.

Further profile content

Martin Savransky's Links

Twitter
@SavranskyMartin

Academia.edu

Research gate

Professional projects

–––After Progress: Digital Exhibition of Collaborative Storytelling–––
Martin co-curated (with Craig Lundy) a digital exhibition of collaborative and multimedia storytelling to probe, through different genres and media, imaginative social practices, artefacts, environments, arts of living and dying, forms of political action, kinship, subjectivity, and more-than-human worlds in a possible future no longer governed by modern coordinates of progress.

This project was generously funded by The Sociological Review Foundation.

–––For the Love of Corals: An Ecology of Perhaps (with artist Sonia Levy)–––
In 2020, Martin engaged in a collaboration with artist Sonia Levy to create an offshoot of her cinematic project, "For the Love of Corals," for the Critical Zones: Observatory of Earthly Politics exhibition, curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel at ZKM (Karlsruhe). Entangled with it are polyphonic writings that take as their starting point Derek Walcott’s famous poem “The Sea Is History” (1979) to weave together Levy’s research at the Horniman Museum and Gardens with Martin Savransky's thoughts on the precarious lives of corals in the ecological hold of a perhaps, of the faint possibility of inhabiting the Earth otherwise.

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Areas of Supervision

Martin welcomes doctoral proposals by prospective students interested in any of his areas of research and teaching. These may include (but are not limited to): critical social thought, environmental humanities, political ecology, postcolonial thought, non-western cosmologies, radical pluralism, philosophy and social theory.