This book describes ‘whole onflow’ which is, at once, the emergence and becoming of the entirety of the world/universe and any actual, unique position whatsoever in it ‘now’. A physical plane and self-organizing process that owes its energy to the Big Bang; in our region, it now unfolding the infinitely complex and varied world we engage, contribute to and experience.
There have been many academic ideas on the nature of emergence and becoming in the world, including ideas on the world’s overall emergence and becoming. In this book, we extend some of these ideas to conceptualize a physical plane incorporating all possible positions and local variability – all geographies - what we refer to as ‘whole onflow’. We answer some key questions including: What is the processual nature of whole onflow through which the world emerges and becomes in the moment? How might thinking in terms of whole onflow expand our ideas on the world’s productions from health, to ageing to capitalism and beyond? How might this help us get to grips with today’s kinetic, energy-dependent, multi-textured, and process-ignorant world? The book lays out the broad theoretical landscape. It demonstrates how principles and processes established by physics and cosmology might be combined with principles and processes conveyed by social theory to describe the world in whole onflow.
Dealing then with the very origins of all that is, and all that is social, the book is core reading for social scientists who like to think fundamentally. It is very much a speculative and provocative piece, but a necessary one, and will be of particular interest to those studying the world through poststructuralist, posthumanist, new materialist and non-representational theoretical lenses. Moving forward, certain scholars might follow the specific points of departure and pathways the book signposts. Others might choose to tread the new ground the book opens up in their own ways.