Assemblage Theory and Actor-Network - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Assemblage Theory and Actor-Network Theory

A comparative, empirical case study from media sociology

Dr John Hondros

Media, Film & Music

University of SussexSlide2

Background

Amateur video makers use of Internet to distribute videosBased on in-progress

monograph, building on doctoral

research and published article

12-month ethnography 2011/12 and 3-month ethnography 2016/17

Analysed using ANT and AT

3 groups studied:

California Community Media Exchange (public access TV)

Film and TV fans based around Vividcon convention

visionOntv (UK video activist group)Slide3

Which ANT? Which AT?

ANT: Primarily Latour and Law, also some early Callon and others mostly for applicationsActors/actants, interests, translations, enrolment, agency as a property of the actor-network, black boxing, intermediaries and mediators, work, tracing associations

AT: DeLanda with some Deleuze and Guattari terminology reintroduced

Components, territorialisation (homogenizing and spatial,

relative and absolute

deterritorialisation), coding,

molecular and molar

, diagrams Slide4

Compatible

Various scholars attest to the close relationship between the two theories: Law (2009), Acuto and Curtis (2014), Harman (2007, 2014)

Others

draw upon the conceptual vocabularies of both

theories,

treating them as

compatible: Salovaara

(2015), Rizzo (2015), Reid (2011), Bennett (2005)

Harman (2009, 2014) argues for important distinction, but this is a metaphysical interpretation of Actor-Networks that is inconsistent with how ANT is actually applied.Slide5

Complementary: visionOntv as illustration

VisionOntv complex socio-technological ecosystemProduced videosHosted videos on YouTube, Blip and others

Linked via RSS to MiroCommunity

MiroCommunity embedded within Liferay into channels

Traffic sent to Liferay via links from Facebook and Twitter

Used many volunteers

Ambition to have their platform adopted by other activists and interconnect them Slide6

Complementary aspects

Processes that form, stabilize and

destabilize arrangements

ANT: Interests

, translation and

enrolment

useful

concepts to analyse

different aspects and

stages of these processes, and

help

define

relationships between the different

actors, e.g. volunteers precarious enrolment

AT: Territorialisation focuses on

spatial and homogenising

aspects,

while coding draws attention

to

linguistic

aspects, e.g. volunteers training

Components

AT: Capacities

,

and how

material or

expressive

ANT:

M

ediators

or

intermediaries

Arrangements

(Assemblage/Actor-Networks)

AT: Properties

of assemblages emerging from the processes acting

upon components

ANT: Tracing the associations that are created by those processes. Work

.

AT

: Diagrams add a virtual space to think about arrangements that complement ANT’s predominant focus on actuality, e.g. visionOntv

moving away from video, “reboot”Slide7

Complementary aspects

Arrangements of arrangements

AT: Molar and molecular concepts facilitate discussions about assemblage hierarchies, e.g. levels of visionOntv’s project

ANT: Black box and masking useful concepts to address actor-networks becoming intermediaries, or ceasing to function as such, e.g

. Blip-RSS

example, pop-up studio

Other considerations

ANT: Many scholars applying to empirical case studies and developing theory

AT: Theoretically systematicSlide8

Conclusion

Broader approach helps theoretically saturate detailed case studiesMore conceptual tools, applications, scholars More perspectives, shades and nuancesMore natural prose

Outstanding questions

What to call the arrangements?

Underutilized concepts in case studies: component

roles

(material v.

e

xpressive), spatial territorialization, coding, diagrams

Can they, and should they be harmonized (or Harmanized)?