Yhteisen tuntu: Hannah Arendt materiaalisena mediateoreetikkona

This dissertation examines the material dimensions of Hannah Arendt’s theory of active life and the potential her theory has in terms of media theory. Drawing primarily on Arendt’s major works The human condition (1958) and The life of the mind (1977–1978), I propose that her understanding of the dynamic between the materialities of Earth and the human-constructed World offers a fertile starting point for a distinctively material media theory—one that critically interrogates the instrumentalist and often immaterial orientation toward technology that characterizes globally the economic and political systems of governance. At the same time, Arendt’s thinking opens possibilities for approaching the construction of a shared reality in less anthropocentric terms. In this light, Arendt’s theorization resonates with recent new materialist debates, and her specific contribution to theoretical discussions in media studies can be crystallized in her conceptualization of the Earth as a material medium for appearing to others and for perceiving others.

At the core of the dissertation is my reinterpretation of Arendt’s concept of common sense as a material sense of the common — a reciprocal, sensory experience of shared reality that emerges through embodied relations. This definition challenges language-based cultural theories of common sense and instead aligns with what can be called material constructionism. My material reading of common sense, and of Arendt’s broader theory of active life, conceives of the Earth’s biosphere as an aesthetic space of multispecies appearances—a material medium that both enables and conditions the existence and activity of beings that inhabit it, including the humans.

The central argument of my dissertation is that Arendt’s conception of common sense not only invites a redefinition of shared reality but also enables its fundamental politicization as a materially constructed process—one in which media technologies are increasingly entangled. I relate Arendt’s thought with the material turn in media studies, which has gained significant momentum since the 2010s, challenging the dominance of representation-based approaches and their emphasis on symbolic-linguistic structures. I further argue that my Arendt-inspired interpretation of common sense provides new theoretical tools for rethinking politics within the contemporary technocapitalist reality, undergrounded by environmental crisis. This approach opens the way for a politics that also accounts for nonhuman and material agencies.

I refine the idea of the politicizing force of common sense in dialogue with, on the one hand, the new materialist critique of representation, and on the other hand, theories of sensory politics. I discuss my conceptual framework in relation to political theorist Jacques Rancière’s notion of politics as the “distribution of the sensible” and as expressions of “the part of those with no part”. In these discussions, Arendt’s theory of active life emerges more broadly as a material media theory—one that conceives of human agency and the construction of shared reality as rooted in reciprocal, embodied, and sensory relations not only with other people but also with nonhuman beings, technological artifacts, and the materialities of the Earth. This, in turn, enables the politicization of moments of sensory disruption that arise from our technomaterial environments, thereby challenging the ecological insensitivity sustained by contemporary capitalism.

I argue that Arendt’s theory of active life is also a powerful articulation of the existential necessity of being grounded in the earth. In this sense, her work both complements recent developments in material media theory and issues a challenge and responsibility to the field: namely to care for the Earth’s biosphere as a unique medium of multispecies appearances. Overall, my dissertation opens new possibilities for media scholars to engage with Arendt’s thought, which has long been interpreted in the field primarily through the lens of the theories of public life. Furthermore, the dissertation identifies theoretical interfaces between media theory and Arendt scholarship in other disciplines as well as contributes to broader contemporary debates on the significance of materiality in the humanities and social sciences.