Assemblages and Actor‐networks: Rethinking Socio‐material Power, Politics and Space

Abstract

Abstract Assemblage thinking and actor‐network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift that sees space and agency as the result of associating humans and non‐humans to form precarious wholes. This shift offers ways of rethinking the relations between power, politics and space from a more processual, socio‐material perspective. After sketching and comparing the concepts of the assemblage and the actor‐network, this paper reviews the current scholarship in human geography which clusters around the four themes of deterritorialisation/reterritorialisation; power; materials, objects and technologies; and topological space. Looking towards the future, it suggests that assemblage thinking and ANT would benefit from exploring links with other social theories, arguing for a more sustained engagement with issues of language and power, and affect and the body.