materialitüd

Materialitüd is a term used in contemporary phenomenological studies to describe the specific attitude towards the material world that emphasizes the inseparability of objects, individuals, and socio‑cultural contexts. The word combines “materiality” with a Germanic umlaut to signal its focus on a particular perspective that transcends the purely physical and ventures into the lived, perceived, and performative aspects of matter.

The concept was first articulated by Austrian philosopher Markus Falck in the early 1990s in his monograph *Materialitäten und Selbst*. Falck argued that traditional materialism treats objects as passive carriers of meaning, whereas Materialitüd invites scholars to consider how objects are actively involved in shaping human experiences and identities. Subsequent work by scholars such as Betty Friedan Hodge and David L. Simmons has applied the framework to fields ranging from museology to urban studies, exploring how everyday artefacts mediate power relations and cultural narratives.

Materialitüd is often contrasted with material realism, which emphasizes objective properties of matter, and with virtual materiality, a concept developed in digital anthropology that addresses the materiality of virtual environments. Its interdisciplinary reach has led to its inclusion in curricula addressing the philosophy of science, anthropology, and art history. The term has gained traction in scholarly journals that publish research on the phenomenology of objects, and it remains a useful analytic tool for those interested in the dynamic interplay between the material and the experiential.