The use of Deleuze's theory of assemblage for process-oriented methodology

Abstract

"Dealing with the complexity of social change during the process of civilization, Deleuze and Guattari (1987) proposed the concept of an assemblage that is only grasped in the dynamic relation between the machinic assemblage (e.g., the structure of organizations, physical materials and resources) and the enunciative assemblage (e.g., regulations, governing principles and symbolic expressions). Exploring the complex relationship between social change and social networks in terms of Deleuze's theory of assemblage, we argue that the process-oriented methodology should be conceptualized as 'time-related research'. It is required to produce the 'process-generated data' in the form of Deleuze's sense of an event during the process of the time-related research. It includes the 'insider perspective' and 'judgment systems' which function as a detached 'outside perspective'. Such judgment systems are necessary for generating knowledge that supports social interventions in order to make or produce 'events data,' which are generated from an interaction between the machinic assemblages and the enunciative assemblages within social fields." (author's abstract)