[Dancecult-l] R: A geneology of "assemblage"?

[paomag2]

Hi,

About assemblage:

In Slack and Wise, 2006, Technology: a primer, authors discuses the concept
of assemblge in Deleuze and Guattari and how it could be used in cultural
studies of technology (pp. 125-135). They define the "assemblage as "the
ways that practices, representations, experiences and affects articulate to
take a particular dynamic form" (p. 129)

I often use the concept of assemblage, but more form science and
technologies Studies. Assemblage is a term used very commonly in the STS
field and specifically in the actor-network Theory (Latour, Law, Callon).
They talk about the assemblage of heterogeneous entities including  people,
things, practices, social relations, processes and dispositions. The
literature on ANT is very wide, being a "cool" contemporary theory.

Anyway, very short classic article to read about:
Akrich, M. and B. Latour (1992). A Summary of a Convenient Vocabulary for
the Semiotics of Human and Nonhuman Assemblies. In W. Bijker and J. Law
(Eds.) Shaping Technology, Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical
Change. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press: 259-264.

The major theoretical work from Bruno Latour is the book We have never Been
Modern, which is from the mid '90. Recently he has also published
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. In the
personal web site of Latour it is possible to find many articles, including
the introduction to this last book.

A question for all: someone else in the list is using ANT or STS theory?

Ciao

paolo
Montreal\Bologna


Il 1-10-2006 18:46, "jaustin at uwm.edu" <jaustin at uwm.edu> ha scritto:

> My pardons for x-posting!
> 
> I recently read a journal article in which an emergent sexual
> practice/subculture ("dogging" -- see citation below) was conceptualized as
> (roughly) an assemblage of bodies, technologies, spaces, and antecedent sexual
> practices and subcultures.
> 
> Although my research is concerned with well-established, long-standing, and
> global subcultures (graffiti artists and goths), the "assemblages"
> conceptualization might solve some on-going problems with the way that youth
> subcultures have been framed (in past and recent scholarship), while also
> accounting for local variations. I write to ask:
> 
> *What are the key readings for understanding the geneology of "assemblage" as
> a
> way of framing cultural practices/communities?
> 
> *Are you aware of any scholarship dealing with subcultures (youth or
> otherwise)
> that put this framework to use?
> 
> Thanx for the always-insightful responses of the academic e-communities!
> Please
> respond on-list!
> 
> love and kisses,
> 
> joe austin, history, uw-milwaukee, usa
> 
> David Bell, "Bodies, Technologies, Spaces: On 'Dogging'" _Sexualities_ (2006),
> vol9(4): 387-407.
> 
> 
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