Timothy Morton

Assemblage (from everyday French: agencement, – arrangement, layout, "a collection of things which have been gathered together or assembled") is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and subsequently taken up by other theorists, such as Bruno Latour and Michel Callon who developed Actor-network theory, Manuel DeLanda in his work on assemblage theory, and Jane Bennett who combines Latour with Deleuze and Guattari forming her own assemblage theory. Bennett’s assemblage thinking has influenced: Environmental philosophy (e.g., Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects), Political theory (e.g., William Connolly’s work on complexity and politics), and New materialism (e.g., Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad).

Assemblage is a philosophical concept used when studying ontological diversity of agency, which means redistributing the capacity to act from an individual to a socio-material network of people, things, and narratives. Also known as assemblage theory or assemblage thinking, this philosophical approach frames social complexity through fluidity, exchangeability, and their connectivity. The central thesis is that people do not act predominantly according to personal agency; rather, human action requires material interdependencies and networks of discursive devices distributed across legal, geographical, cultural, or economic infrastructures.