Recording of Graham Harman’s talk on Manuel DeLanda

A recording of Graham Harman’s ANTHEM seminar talk at the LSE yesterday, entitled “Assemblages According to Manuel DeLanda,” and the discussion that followed, is available here (1 hr 47 min). A PDF file of the PowerPoint slides can be downloaded from here.

Harman evaluated the ontological assumptions behind DeLanda’s realism, his notion of assemblage and his theory of causation, by tracing their origins in Deleuze and Bhaskar, among others. He then contrasted DeLanda’s ontology with that of Bruno Latour and concluded by presenting his own object-orientated approach to thinking about causation, objects, and emergence.

Assemblages According to Manuel DeLanda

As announced earlier,  we are expecting Graham Harman to join us at Thursday’s ANTHEM seminar. Dr Harman has also very kindly agreed to give us a talk, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, in order to summarise but also expand on the main points of the paper (“The Assemblage Theory of Society”) that he has shared with us. The title of his talk is “Assemblages According to Manuel DeLanda.” The main themes are realism, causation, emergence, assemblages, essence, DeLanda, Deleuze, Bhaskar, Latour, and Harman’s own (Heideggerian) object-orientated philosophy.

Performance: An economic sociology conference at Goldsmiths

An all-day conference (9am-6:30pm) on performance in economic sociology will take place at Goldsmiths in London on Wednesday 14 January 2009. Speakers include: Laurent Thevenot, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; Michael Power, LSE; Nigel Thrift, Warwick; David Stark, Columbia; Koray Caliskan, Boðazçi; Martha Poon, Columbia; Jean-Pascal Gond, Nottingham; and William Davies, Goldsmiths. Places are limited and registration is required. Please see the full announcement below.

ANTHEM session: Graham Harman on assemblage theory

The ANTHEM group will be meeting from 4 to 7pm on Thursday 27 November 2008 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. We will be discussing a recent paper by Graham Harman, entitled “The Assemblage Theory of Society,” which examines the philosophical assumptions behind Manuel DeLanda’s Deleuzian assemblage theory, while contrasting it with the ontology of Bruno Latour. The main themes of the paper are realism, assemblage, essence, and emergence. We also expect Graham Harman to join us at some point (assuming his flight arrives on time).

Repetition and difference in organizing over time and space

The title of the 2010 EGOS call for sub-theme proposals sounds remarkably Deleuzian. Could it be just a co-incidence that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition? The call for proposals speaks of repetition and difference, the emerge of new organisational forms, the problem of the micro and the macro, globalisation, and the role of technology. The deadline for the submission of sub-theme proposals is 15 January 2009.

It would be interesting to have a track or two with specifically Deleuzian themes, e.g. with a focus on repetition and difference vis-a-vis routines and innovation, or on the Deleuzian notion of the assemblage in organising. The similarities and differences between the Deleuzian assemblage theory of Manuel DeLanda and the evocation of assemblages in Science and Technology Studies and economic sociology could make another interesting platform for discussion. We reproduce the call below in full, in case the link gets broken during the current overhaul of the EGOS website.

Forceful and Non-Forceful Images

Graham Harman will speak about “Forceful and Non-Forceful Images” as part of the “Force: Images in Action” panel at the Pleasure and Persuasion of Lens-Based Media conference at Tate Britain in London on 28 November 2008. The conference will explore the politics of lens-based media art in contemporary media-culture. The schedule of the conference is available at the Tate Britain website, where tickets can also be booked.

Update (16-Nov-08): Urbanomic has a more complete list of speakers.