Analysing networks, assemblages and other fluid things

How do we get from interesting theories about rhizomes, actor-networks, discourses, assemblages to specific empirical analyses?

In this seminar we will try to discuss the challenges connected to the use of post-structural analytical frameworks inspired by Foucault, Latour, Deleuze and others. The seminar will not discuss theory as such, but rather focus on the use of theory and concepts by drawing on examples from specific empirical analyses. The aim of the seminar is to discuss the choices made by the analyst and the challenges included in these choices.

To initiate the discussions we have invited Professor Mike Michael from Goldsmiths, University of London. Mike has conducted a large number of empirical analyses inspired by various post-structuralist theories and written extensively in books and journals. In 2003 he published a book with Alan Irwin, which introduced the analytical category of ethno-epistemic assemblage.

Program:

The seminar, hosted by the LIKE-group at Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, is part of a PhD course on the same topic, which is taking place the entire day.

Alan Irwin & Mike Michael: Science, Social Theory and Public Knowledge. Maidenhead, Berks.: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill.