Gianluca Pozzoni is a PhD Candidate inwards Political Studies at the University of Milan, Italy. His interests bridge the foundations of...
Gianluca Pozzoni is a PhD Candidate inwards Political Studies at the University of Milan, Italy. His interests bridge the foundations of the social sciences, together with he has written on Marxism, methodological individualism, together with the condition of social structures. Thank you, Gianluca, for contributing this stimulating invitee post.
BY GIANLUCA POZZONI
Daniel Little’s recent postal service on Assemblage theory every bit heuristic raises of import together with thought-provoking issues for social theorizing.
As Little understands it, Manuel DeLanda’s theory set forth inwards A New Philosophy of Society can live seen every bit a manifesto for non-essentialist together with non-reductionist social theories. In this view, social entities practice non accept a fixed house inwards a vertical hierarchy that moves from the edifice blocks of the social Earth (e.g. agents) all the agency upward to large-scale structures (e.g. global markets).
Instead, the components of the social Earth differ according to the “assemblages” nether consideration. So, for instance, organizations are assemblages of people; nation-states are assemblages of cities, people, together with organizations; cities are assemblages of people, organizations, every bit good every bit buildings together with infrastructures; together with so on. Thus understood, assemblage theory allows for no basic constituents of the social because it does away with the really thought of gild every bit a structured totality with a “basis” together with a “summit”.
This seems to become inwards the direction of a “flat social ontology” every bit described past times Daniel Little here. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 apartment model of the social reality would seat actors together with their interaction networks (e.g. organizations) all at the same level, without farther assumptions every bit to how roughly causal powers are “emergent” on others (if at all).
This perspective has undeniable attractiveness. For 1 thing, it is theoretically parsimonious. It does away with somewhat obscure or ill-defined notions of “emergence” piece at the same fourth dimension allowing for aggregate social entities to live irreducible to their components, for illustration past times assuming that they accept at to the lowest degree an independent functioning. Furthermore, it does non presuppose an abstract layering of the social world, allow lone 1 metaphysically pre-ordered into “higher” together with “lower” levels.
Nonetheless, Little has already detailed roughly limitations of the flat-ontology perspective. For Little, conceiving social reality every bit apartment ultimately boils downwards to assuming an ontology similar the 1 associated with spare versions of methodological individualism.
Here I want to indicate out a dissimilar problematic human face of this approach.
Even setting aside the depth ordering of social aggregates, social theory oftentimes makes usage of wide categories that attention grouping together heterogeneous classes of phenomena for explanatory purposes. These are, for instance, “the polity”, “the economy”, “the military”, together with the like.
What ontological condition practice these categories have? Let us consider politics. In his Contentious Performances (2008), Charles Tilly writes:
We come inwards the realm of politics when nosotros interact with agents of governments, either dealing with them straight or engaging inwards activities bearing on governmental rights, regulations, together with interests. (p. 6)However restrictive this Definition may be, it is able to seat the political domain inwards price of the typology of networks involved – namely, governmental institutions. Accordingly, Tilly et al. (2001) could usage it to grouping together together with explicate phenomena every bit various every bit the Watergate scandal together with the Mau Mau rebellion inwards 1950s Republic of Kenya nether the mutual label of “contentious politics”.
In a layered social ontology, governmental institutions tin live seen every bit making upward a grade of the social inwards its ain right. As Little puts it:
For example, powerfulness the Blue Planet live a level-2 entity, inwards that it encompasses organizations together with individuals together with it possesses novel causal properties non introduce at grade 1? In regulation this seems possible. The Blue Planet is a complex network of organizations together with individuals. And it is logically possible that novel causal powers emerge that depend on both base of operations together with grade 1, only that practice non need reduction to those lower-level properties.If this tin live granted, politics tin live ontologically grounded onto a grade of the social. Specifically, nosotros may confine political ontology to all phenomena that involve government-level causal powers.
Flat social ontologies, however, turn down the really notion of “levels” of the social. At best, chemical compound social entities be every bit relations alongside their components; they may good accept an independent functioning (link), only no “higher-level” or “emergent” causal powers. So practice states, governments, together with the like.
What together with then would a apartment political ontology await like? Perhaps it may live helpful to refer to Adrian Leftwich’s distinction inwards What is Politics: The Activity together with its Study betwixt politics every bit “process” together with politics every bit “arena”:
The latter, or arena, approach tends to accept a narrower together with sharper focus (normally the Blue Planet together with the institutions of regime together with local regime – sometimes, inwards a to a greater extent than comparative context, including kings, chiefs or emperors together with their courts together with their relations with the public). (p. 13)The theory of politics every bit arena seems to tally quite nicely the stratified approach to social ontology. The arena metaphor suggests that governmental institutions – national or otherwise – brand upward a relatively autonomous laid of interactions quite distinct from other forms of interaction. This tin live supported from an ontological indicate of thought past times assuming that such institutions are endowed with causal powers that are all situated at 1 specific level.
Leftwich contrasts the arena model of politics with the thought of politics every bit “a full general procedure [or laid of processes – G.P.] which is non confined to certainly institutional arenas or sites” (p. 14). This dynamic thought may appear appealing to those who practice non want to create political ontology every bit a “regional ontology”. The processual Definition of politics does non brand reference to the causal powers of whatever specific entities together with so does non necessarily need an ontological layering of them.
However, the obvious inquiry together with then arises every bit to what makes processes political every bit opposed to, say, economic. This inquiry seems to live of crucial relevance if the category of politics is to serve explanatory purposes. As Leftwich puts it:
… does such an encompassing thought hateful that every human interaction is political inwards roughly respect? If so, together with if politics is thus so broadly defined, what is left that is distinctive virtually it? (p. 14)Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 catch-all Definition of politics, then, seems to live redundant together with to accept niggling explanatory use. Unfortunately, the apartment theory of gild lone hardly provides whatever guidance for farther theorizing along this line.
[Query from Dan Little inwards answer to the lastly inquiry from Leftwich: Is it possible that the deviation betwixt economical together with political processes is non later all an ontological difference, only rather a pragmatic deviation of classification for us? In other words, it is non a fact virtually the Earth only virtually our interests that "constitution" together with "wage labor" are classified every bit "political/legal" together with "economic".]
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