Colloidal Social Theory: Thinking about Material Animacy and Sociality beyond Solids and Fluids

This paper argues that an exploration of colloids can help us situate human social life within a wider understanding the sociality and animacy matter. Colloids are substances such as sols, foams, powders, gels, doughs pastes exhibit complex shifting macroscale physical properties do not conform to standard conceptions solids, liquids or gases. behave in creative ways because their topological enfolding dispersed continuous matter, different phases, at ‘mesoscale’ intermediate between scale molecules substance. I relate colloids, with twin phenomena ‘repetition’ ‘mediation’, reducible neither interaction separate individuals nor transindividual whole. suggest participates colloidal ‘metapattern’ repetition mediation is manifest across diverse material substrates spatial scales.