materialitet

Materialitet is a term used across disciplines to describe the quality of being material and the ways material substances participate in social life, knowledge production, and experience. It treats objects, materials, surfaces, and environments not as passive backdrops but as active components that shape practices, perception, and meaning.

In philosophy and social theory, materialitet is connected to phenomenology and actor-network theory, which argue that things possess a form of agency and influence the actions of humans and other entities. In material culture studies, researchers analyze everyday artifacts to illuminate relations of labor, value, power, and identity. In design, architecture, and craft, the properties of materials—such as texture, weight, durability, and thermal behavior—constrain and enable use, shaping aesthetics and performance. In digital contexts, digital materiality examines how hardware, software, data, and interfaces form material infrastructures that condition computation and interaction.

In accounting and business, materiality denotes information or misstatements that could influence the decisions of users of financial statements; it serves as a threshold for disclosure and recognition. The concept is debated: some emphasize materiality as a practical standard, others as a deeper claim about the role of materiality in social life.

Methodologies include ethnography, object-centered analysis in material culture, design studies, and critical theory. By examining materials and their social life, scholars seek to understand how matter and meaning are mutually constitutive.