About a Stone

• Published in: Environmental Humanities
• Main Author: Reinert, Hugo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Duke University Press 2016
• Subjects: Norway; Northern Norway
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3527740; https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article-pdf/8/1/95/409583/95Reinert.pdf

Abstract Can a stone be a critter? Placing multispecies studies in conversation with the geological turn, this article examines the place of a particular sacrifice stone in the ambit of a coastal mining development in northern Norway. The argument develops a reading of resource capitalism as ontological project—using the stone as a lens to explore imaginaries of relational personhood, the distribution of harm, and the limits of vulnerability. In closing, the article relates the “life” of the stone to ongoing discussions about the Anthropocene and how to develop novel, more inclusive research imaginaries—specifically, research imaginaries that address (and subvert) a modern “geontology” that renders the inorganic as passive, inert, and freely available for exploitation.