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Book Review

Manuel DeLanda,A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory And Social

Complexity. London: Continuum, 2006. ISBN 978-0-826-49169-5 (paperback)

This book is an ambitious philosophical endeavor to introduce a novel approach

to social ontology (p 1). Benefiting from his unique position at the confluence

of Deleuzian philosophy and complexity theory, DeLanda attempts to lay the

foundations of a theory of social assemblages. His approach is utterly realist

asserting the autonomy of social entities from the conceptions we have of themand dealing only with objective processes of assembly (p 1). The first two chapters

are theoretical and rich in the brilliant insights so familiar to readers of DeLanda.

The final three chapterswhere the theory is explicated through a series of case

studies of assemblages starting from the scale of subpersonal components, and

ascending one level at a time up to the scale of territorial-stateshowever, fail to

carry forth this brilliance.

Chapter 1 takes the highly entrenched notion of totality to task, particularly

in its sophisticated Hegelian form. DeLanda targets the idea that the parts which

constitute a whole (in this case society) form a seamless totality, analogicallyequivalent to a body with a functional unity of its constituent organs. He calls

such a conception, in which parts cease to have a meaningful existence outside

the whole (eg the relation of the arm to the body), relations of interiority. This

organismic notion of totality, as he maintains, forecloses the possibility of analyzing

both the contingent interactions between parts as well as the emergent properties

of the complex whole. In contrast, DeLanda proposes a conception of wholes

characterized byrelations of exteriority, where parts are self-subsistent and retain

a certain autonomy vis-a-vis other parts and the whole. This is a shift of attention

from the inert properties of the component parts to their capacities to interact.

Hence, a part could be detached from an assemblage and attached to another

where it couldrealize totally different capacitieswhile retaining its own defining

properties(eg a guitarist changing her band). The role(s) that a component of an

assemblage plays could be located within three continuums: material/expressive;

territorializing/deterritorializing; coding/decoding.

Chapter 2 elucidates the topological diagram of an assemblage (p 25) by

opposing assemblage theory to essentialist approaches, which presume the presence

of eternal archetypes defining the identity of any particular entity. DeLandas

approach challenges such reified general categories (eg human) by declaring

the ontology of any assemblage to be unique, singular and historically contingent;in other words, flat since it contains nothing but different scaled individual

singularities (p 28). The overall connectivity between these individual singularities

is what defines theactualspace of possibilities or thedegrees of freedom, which is

structured by thevirtualdiagram of the assemblage.

Chapter 3 starts off the social assemblage analysis by examining persons and

inter-personal networks. On the question of subjectivity DeLanda favors a Humean

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approach in which the individual person, emerging from sub-personal components

such as impressions, ideas, habits and skills, actualizes its emergent capacities

in the course of matching means to certain ends. The analysis proceeds with the

study of inter-personal conversations and networks. Consonant with the relations

of exteriority principle, interpersonal networks are defined in terms of the strengthof the links, presence or absence of emotional content and the level of reciprocity

between individualsrather than the properties of the persons occupying the nodal

positions.

Chapter 4 examines institutional organizations and governments, particularly

concentrating on authority structures. Here DeLanda utilizes Webers three ideal

types of authority structures, which arerational-legal,traditionalandcharismatic.

His next object of analysis is the relations of exteriority between organizations,

which assemble either as networks (eg Silicon Valley) or as hierarchies of

organizations (eg the US Government).

Chapter 5 brings spatial aspects of assemblages into focus. DeLanda begins

with individual buildings, continuing to larger scale assemblages such as those

emerging out of populations of buildings (eg residential neighborhoods, industrial,

government and red-light districts and finally cities). He pays particular attention to

the component parts that determine the overall connectivity of an urban assemblage

(eg corridors, hallways, streets, transportation networks, sewage pipes, gas conduits,

etc). He defines assemblages of cities with reference to two models: hierarchies

of central places, where a city of higher rank displays a higher degree of service

differentiation than lower rank cities do and it can provide them with the services

that they lack; networks of maritime ports, in which cities are seen as occupyingnodes in a network of changing relays and junctions, not as fixed points in space.

The case study ends at the scale of large territorial states which historically emerged

with the incorporation of cities by means of organized violence and warfare.

Although DeLandas bottom-up analytical model is very generative, it also bears

certain shortcomings. The models emphasis on the vertical axis does not allow an

elaboration on trans-scalar connectivities between relatively distant assemblages.

The relation of the smaller scale to the larger is taken as primary, which implies that

the link between any two disconnected individuals is necessarily via a common

larger scale. Thus, contrary to its intentions to reframe social assemblages interms of contingencies rather than necessities, and to assert their ontology as

flat, the model leaves the prevailing conception of nested scales unchallenged,

failing to take into account the trans-scalar lines of flight between seemingly

disconnected individuals or places.1 There is, however, an immense and growing

body of literature on scale within Geography, in which vertical models are being

reassessed with the consideration of trans-local connectivities and their relations

to other spatialities such as space and place (Leitner et al. 2008). DeLandas

topologicalapproach could have a lot to benefit from an engagement with these

debates.

Another important but unarticulated aspect of DeLandas theory is non-linear

causality. The picture suggested by the bottom-up approach is that of a rather stable

and singular social formation, which leaves aside the power relations within the

diagram, the unevenness of the connectivities, and the varying degrees of flexibility

within relations of dependencies in networks and hierarchies of assemblages.

As such, DeLandas model barely leaves any room for inventive discussions of

heterogeneity. How does one look for the fissures or trace the seams? How to thinkC 2008 The Author

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about the multiple, the political, or a politics of the fissures? Those limitations

stated, DeLanda is an ingenious thinker. In this incisive book, he poses a timely

challenge to a variety of the essentialisms and reductionisms which still dominate

many fields in social sciences.

Endnote1 On wormhole geographies, see Sheppard (2002).

References

Leitner H, Sheppard E and Sziarto Kristin M (2008) The spatiality of contentious

politics:Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33 (2):157172

Sheppard E (2002) The spaces and times of globalization: Place, scale, networks, and

positionality.Economic Geography76:307330

OZAN KARAMAN

Department of Geography

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, MN, USA

[email protected]

C 2008 The Author

Journal compilation C 2008 Editorial Board ofAntipode.

delanda review as published-libre

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