Each article did attempt to describe New-Materialism, but it seemed like a couple assumed that there was already some initial understanding of the concept, which I am lacking. It was a careful reading of Hanna Meisnner's article "Materialisms" and some other Internet searching that has lead to some clarity.
Here is a history of my searching to understand:
I discovered that Materialism is the opposite of Idealism. I feel like I understand idealism pretty well as that nothing really exists as what is conceived in the mind. Hanna Meisnner (2016) describes Idealism as that which IS
"does not exist independently of its reflection by the (human) mind and that the reflective capacities of the mind cannot be reduced to material substance. The epistemological claim of idealism is that there is no (access to) reality independent of the reflections of the mind" (p. 193).
So, Materialism would be that which IS does exist independently of the human mind. Okay. cool.
But how does that relate to gender and race as these articles describe?
Hanna Meisnner (2016), again, helps to show how this all connects and I hope I am understanding it correctly.
The big problem with idealism was who's "mind" that which IS dependent on? Hanna Meisner argues that "the human subject is figured as the white European bourgeois male" (p. 194) So all that IS, is dependent on that viewpoint of the "white European bourgeois male," which does not fully understand the reality of anyone who is other that white, other than European, other than Bourgeois (middle/upper class) and other than male.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels thought, that's not cool, and began talking through a lens of Materialism that did not revolve around the "white European bourgeois male." Specifically, they were addressing the oppressive conditions of the working class during the Industrial Revolution, recognizing that, "They are the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which they live" (p. 194).
Starting with the oppression of the working class, the ideas of materialism as defined by Marx and Engels has been connected to gender and race, specifically feminism which rejects the idealism of the "white European bourgeois male."
Another quotation that helps to support my understanding of New Materialism:
"As women of color have pointed out, the structures of many black families in the capitalist society of the United States cannot be adequately understood through the (white bourgeois) model of the nuclear family" (p.
Admittedly, I am still a little fuzzy on the actual word "material" as it relates to the issues and rights of all races, classes and genders/non-genders, but it's starting to clear up.
Quotations that provided some clarity on what is meant by material:
"Gender categories (man/woman) are thus not simply representations of natural (material) substances; rather, the distinction between men and women is a product of a particular cultural context, and it serves a particular social agenda."
"The body is something more than an inert, passive object on which ideology inscribes meaning, but rather it is an agential reality with its own causal role in making meaning.”
The editors perceive new materialisms to be what they call “renewed materialisms” with which they want to highlight that many contemporary materialisms take their inspiration from old materialisms, while doing some- thing new to, or with them.
