New Philosophy of Society
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £5.45
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £5.45, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Manuel DeLanda is a distinguished writer, artist and philosopher. In his new book, he offers a fascinating look at how the contemporary world is characterized by an extraordinary social complexity. Since most social entitles, from small communities to large nation-states, would disappear altogether if human minds ceased to exist, Delanda proposes a novel approach to social ontology that asserts the autonomy of social entities from the conceptions we have of them. This highly original and important book takes the reader on a journey that starts with personal relations and climbs up one scale at a time all the way to territorial states and beyond. Only by experiencing this upward movement can we get a sense of the irreducible social complexity that characterizes the contemporary world.
About the Author
Manuel DeLanda began his career in experimental film, later became a computer artist and programmer and is now Adjunct Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, USA. He is the author of the bestselling books War in the Age of Intelligent Machines and A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History and of Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, also published by Continuum.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This fascinating "Scherzo" is an exploration of Delanda's wider philosophical project- the development of an all purpose Deleuzian ontology- in the context of the social sciences. In the same way that Delanda's "Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy" was intended to popularise Deleuze within science/philosophy of science fields, this book is intended to do the same for Deleuze in the social sciences. Although Delanda's ontology is overtly Deleuzian, it bears the mark of a wide reading of philosophy of social science literature and suggests a prolonged engagement with the work of Roy Bhaskar. Designed to be- in the wake of Deleuze and Guattari's interest in the abstract machine- suitably flexible, this is perhaps where Delanda's book falls down slightly. In attempting to make a general ontology, as applicable to biology as it is to the social sciences, Delanda is left re-inventing the wheel in a number of areas.
None of this should discourage you from picking this up, though. For the social scientist, this acts as an excellent introduction to Delanda's work, whilst for those who are familiar with Delanda's other writings, this develops his ideas in new and interesting ways. The book begins by discussing personal relations, reaching larger and larger scales of complexity using the same mereological approach to ontology. As ever, Delanda is exceptionally erudite, operating within a wide variety of literatures, bringing together social science, complexity theory, geography, history and economics. Although this book- much like Delanda's philosophical project- is not without its flaws, it is one that I would highly recommend to anyone interested either in Deleuze's philosophy or ontologies used by social scientists.
None of this should discourage you from picking this up, though. For the social scientist, this acts as an excellent introduction to Delanda's work, whilst for those who are familiar with Delanda's other writings, this develops his ideas in new and interesting ways. The book begins by discussing personal relations, reaching larger and larger scales of complexity using the same mereological approach to ontology. As ever, Delanda is exceptionally erudite, operating within a wide variety of literatures, bringing together social science, complexity theory, geography, history and economics. Although this book- much like Delanda's philosophical project- is not without its flaws, it is one that I would highly recommend to anyone interested either in Deleuze's philosophy or ontologies used by social scientists.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Assemblage Intro
27 Mar 2008
Format:Paperback
I thought this was a very useful introduction to Assemblage theory. Of course, as with all of De Landa's work, it is unapologetically Deleuzeian, evinced by copious footnotes citing Deleuze and Guattari at length. This is just an introduction, and I think the title is horrible, despite his explicit statements that he wants to open the debate for an ontology of sociology (personally I think the title evokes a New Age contingent). Finally, the book is written in essay form (intro, body, conclusion) and his conclusions really are recapitulations of statements already made in the body of the text, although, his conclusions seem rushed and truncated, as though he just wanted to get the book to print.
21 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Dry. So very dry.
26 Jun 2007
Format:Paperback
I am an enormous fan of DeLanda. I literally keep copies of Virtual Science and 1000 Years in my desk to give to unsuspecting strangers. When I first cracked 1000 Years, it felt like I was finally seeing the clouds lift on a whole array of challenging subjects.
Which is why I was quick to pick-up A New Philosophy of Society. Yikes! I suppose if you live and breathe sociology and academic social theory, and have never touched anything else by DeLanda, this might be a good read. But otherwise . . .
Honestly, I'm not sure what is going on here. Most of it seems like a retread of ground that DeLanda plowed years ago. To be fair (although this fact seems like the most salient) - I never did finish the book. Its possible that the last 20 pages contain the sweet nectar promised by the books cover. If so, let me know, I'll be waiting for the next installment.
Which is why I was quick to pick-up A New Philosophy of Society. Yikes! I suppose if you live and breathe sociology and academic social theory, and have never touched anything else by DeLanda, this might be a good read. But otherwise . . .
Honestly, I'm not sure what is going on here. Most of it seems like a retread of ground that DeLanda plowed years ago. To be fair (although this fact seems like the most salient) - I never did finish the book. Its possible that the last 20 pages contain the sweet nectar promised by the books cover. If so, let me know, I'll be waiting for the next installment.
4 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Emergence of a Style
9 Dec 2007
Format:Paperback
DeLanda's latest book, whilst re-assembling many components from his previous books, is a masterful articulation of his own style. The book provides a rigorous and highly usable conceptual framework for the analysis of social networks or 'assemblages'.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
