With or without U? Assemblage theory and (de)territorialising the university

ABSTRACT

Contemporary changes in the domain of knowledge production are usually seen as posing significant challenges to ‘the University’. This paper argues against the framing of the university as an ideal-type, and considers epistemic gains from treating universities as assemblages (e.g. DeLanda, M. 2016. Assemblage Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) of different functions, actors and relations. It contrasts this with the concept of ‘unbundling’, using two recent cases of controversies around academics’ engagement on social media to show how, rather than having clearly delineated limits, social entities become ‘territorialised’ through boundary disputes. The conclusion extends this discussion to the production of knowledge about social objects in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Universities
• assemblage theory
• unbundling
• territorialisation
• social media
• academic freedom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Jana Bacevic http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1801-5222

Notes

1 https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/11/drexel-places-controversial-professor-leave.

2 https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/02/controversial-drexel-professor-resigns.

3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/10/10/conservatives-are-the-real-campus-thought-police-squashing-academic-freedom/?utm_term=.ed65426b7dfa.

4 http://drexel.edu/now/experts/Overview/ciccariellomaher-george/.

5 www.bbk.ac.uk/bih/aboutus/staff/zizek.

6 http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/06/02/slavoj_zizek_calls_students_stupid_and_boring_stop_worshiping_this_man_video.html.

7 https://janabacevic.net/2017/12/18/between-legitimation-and-imagination-epistemic-attachment-ontological-bias-and-thinking-about-the-future/.