Conclusions: Assemblage Theory and Its Future

Abstract

In the concluding chapter of the book the philosopher Graham Harman looks back at the arguments made by the various contributors, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches. He argues that there are considerable tensions and contradictions within assemblage thinking, which may eventually lead to its transformation into another type of theory altogether, although not, perhaps, until it has had a transformative impact itself on existing theories. Harman lauds the contribution of assemblage thinking in the battle against abstraction and stasis — but he also argues that the next step is to recover the non-relational autonomy that assemblages employ to stabilize themselves.