Over 22,000 sherds of pottery were recovered during the excavation of the small islet of Eilean Dòmhnuill in North Uist in the late 1980s. Analysis of the assemblage has demonstrated that all of the main vessel forms and decorative motifs recognised at the site were already in place when settlement began in the earlier 4th millennium BC and continued to be deposited at the site until its abandonment over 800 years later. Statistically significant stylistic variation is limited to slow drifts in the relative proportions of certain rim forms. Across the Outer Hebrides, decorative elaboration and the presence of large numbers of distinctive vessel forms would appear to mark out certain assemblages seemingly associated with communal gathering and feasting events at key locales within which a distinctive Hebridean Neolithic identity was forged. Throughout, this study takes a relational approach to the issue of variation in material culture, viewing all archaeological entities as dynamic assemblages that themselves form attributes of higher-level assemblages. It is argued that the various constraints and affordances that arise within such assemblages constitute significant structuring principles that give rise to commonly held expectations and dispositions, resulting in the kind of constrained temporal and spatial variation that we observe in the archaeological record and which in turn gives rise to the concept of the archaeological culture.

This master thesis comprises an assemblage theoretical approach to a Viking Age burial mound. Traditionally assemblages in archaeology are static and homogenous arrangements. Recent research though looks to assemblages as constantly transforming and in flux. These vibrant matters consistent of different components neatly tucked together and intertwined always becoming and changing at the same time. With this approach of assemblage theory to a material of the burial mound “Gullhögen” the main focus will be to recognize which possibilities and what restrictions this kind of perspective has to offer to burial archaeology. Also, the aim of this study is to try and see how relations can become when human and non-human entities interact with the mound. Also, how the mounds inner and outer burial forms effect can have caused an affect in the past and still causes an affect today. This is done through different examples and a case study. With support in earlier interpretations it is argued here what the assemblage theoretical approach “intrinsic assemblage” has to offer in ways of a more vivid and nuanced way to interpret the burial mound and its monumentality as an arrangement with its own intentions and true capabilities to affect its surroundings and the humans and non-humans entities that interact with it.

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Ongoing scholarship on the impact of speculative fiction demonstrates how science fiction and fantasy are fundamentally concerned with interrogating the socio-political networks that define contemporary life, and in constructing alternative environments that both critique and offer solutions to present-day inequalities. This project contributes to this scholarship by focusing on the ways in which recent speculative fiction re-envisions space—including urban sites, new architectural forms, and natural landscapes—to theorize innovative forms of socio-political organization. This work draws from the spatial turn in cultural studies and critical theory that has gained popularity since the 1970s, and which takes on assumption that space and politics are always intertwined. Drawing predominantly from assemblage theory, assemblage urban theory, and new materialist theory, this project examines how human and nonhuman agents—including space itself—interact to create new spaces and relations that resist hegemonic neoliberal modes of spatial, political, and social organization. Chapter Two analyzes utopian assemblages and spaces in Bruce Sterling’s novel Distraction, deploying Noah De Lissovoy’s concept of “emergency time” and David M. Bell’s theories of place-based and affective utopias. Chapter Three examines place-making tactics in Lauren Beukes’ novel Zoo City through the lens of Abdou-Maliq Simone's concept of people as infrastructure, Deleuze and Guattari's theory of nomadology, and Jane Bennett's theory of “thing power.” Chapter Four uses the work of Bruno Latour and Jane Bennett to explore the thing power of the non-human and nature in China Mieville’s Kraken and Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. In sum, this work attempts to demonstrate how examining speculative spaces through the lens of assemblage theory can illuminate new paths for political resistance. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No / Rosemary Joyce’s research in gender archaeology and archaeologies of the body and identity have not only impacted on our interpretations of the body and identity in the past, but have contributed vastly to our understandings of epistemologies of academic practice, particularly with relation to addressing the androcentric and hetero-normative frameworks in which the disciplines of archaeology and anthropology have traditionally operated. Furthermore, through reassessing ways of viewing, researching, and interpreting the past, Joyce and her contemporaries have changed the face of archaeological theory, method and practice, pre-empting current theoretical concepts (for instance, Ingold’s ‘meshworks’ and Hodder’s ‘entanglement’ theories as lenses for interpreting the past (and the present)) by over twenty years. This paper explores Joyce’s contribution in redressing our epistemologies, which influence our understanding of the past, and impact on archaeological research and practice. For instance, recognition of multiple narratives and the democratization of the archaeological voice have created new understandings and interpretations of our archaeological record. Taking a case study of an archaeological field school and research excavation, the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, this paper explores how an approach grounded in feminist ways of seeing the world, and a democratization of communication, impact on student learning, both in the field and the classroom, and ultimately, in our archaeological interpretations and understanding. Crucially, this paper also highlights that our discipline has some way to go in realizing the foundations laid by Joyce and her contemporaries.

<p>This dissertation examines the relationship between legislation and advocacy as forms of professional communication and interrogates their influence on mental health in the United States. Through a case study of one mental health nonprofit’s advocacy materials and interactions with the legislative process, this dissertation demonstrates the entanglements between legislation and advocacy materials and how their circulation impacts mental health outcomes at the national, state, and local levels. I use two major research strategies to conduct my case study: 1) structured interviews with staff members from the nonprofit’s national, Indiana state, and local offices and 2) a qualitative analysis of mental health legislation at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as the nonprofit’s advocacy materials using Rhetorical Ecologies and Assemblage Theory as the primary theoretical frameworks. My findings suggest that, although both the organization and legislative bodies in the United States have some hierarchal tendencies, they function more like a rhizomatic, multilevel assemblage that is constantly evolving and growing as a result of the communicative interactions among its various components. This is due largely in part to the organization’s grassroots structure, which enables staff and supporters from the state and local levels to affect change within and beyond the organization. Although components at the federal/national level have the most significant affects across the assemblage, my findings demonstrate how state and local components can disrupt or <i>deterritorialise</i> the assemblage to create new “lines of flight” or “flows” that expand the assemblage (DeLanda, 2006, 2016; Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Fox & Alldred, 2015).</p><p>The findings and conclusions generated from this dissertation have several implications for mental health advocacy organizations, Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) pedagogy, and the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (RHM) and the broader field of Rhetoric and Composition. For advocacy organizations, it provides a framework for tracking the potential material impacts of advocacy initiatives and legislation. For TPC pedagogy, it enables instructors to frame professional genres as components of a larger assemblage or organizational/institutional system, rather than as static artifacts. Finally, for RHM and Rhetoric and Composition, it provides a methodology for engaging in institutional and systems research that can be adapted to other rhetorical contexts.</p><br>

E-readers have been available for many years, yet many people are still hesitant towards reading digitally in their spare time. In previous studies in the field of Human-Computer interaction (HCI), new e-readers have been designed, e-readers have been evaluated, and the attitude towards digital reading have been studied. The need to look at books from a larger perspective have been identified, to understand what properties desirable e-readers should have. Now, e-readers almost exclusively let users read books but fails to enable other actions that paper books allows. In this study, to allow for an analysis of books in different contexts and what roles books play in those contexts,DeLanda’s assemblage theory have been used. The research question this thesis answer is: what material and expressive properties of paper books are important in different contexts and how should these be implemented into e-reader? The study followed an ethnographic approach by collecting data from interviews with eleven book lovers, at home observations, and public observations in places where books were present. From the gathered data, ten assemblages were identified and four of them, namely ‘Evening with friends in the living room’, ‘Time for bed’, ‘Let time fly by during the flight’, and ‘Browsing the library’, were described in depth. After identifying what material and expressive roles of paper books were important in these contexts, seven implications for design of e-readers were presented. Inconclusion, aspects that should be implicated into e-readers are ‘Travel compatible’, ‘Reminding’, ‘Personalized organization’, ‘Display collections’, ‘Encourage nostalgia’, ‘Provide inspiration’, and ‘Security and continuity’ to accommodate for the goals users have when using books in different contexts.

Hunting is often summarised to the act of searching for and killing an animal. Due to this fact, hunting has in recent years, come under scrutiny for its’ morality and lack of environmental consciousness. The thesis will be countering this idea, by demonstrating the entanglement of hunting in specific social and material circumstances what is referred to here as the assemblage of hunting. Following this thread, it will highlight the relationship between hunting, conservation, rewilding, rurality. To illustrate this point, the thesis will be analysing the case of hunting in Alsace. With the help of five interviewees, including three Alsatian hunters, and two members of a local conservation organisation, Alsace Nature, I discuss how the local Alsatian hunting system is experienced, perceived and produced, within a local and more global context. By using theories of Actor-Network-Theory, Assemblage Theory, Landscape Theory, Lefebvre’s production of space, and Disturbance Ecology, I analyse how hunting in Alsace has been shaped by the industrialisation of agriculture in the 20th century, how the activity connects to tradition and the creation of a wider Alsatian identity as Germanic, how hunting, conservation, and agricultural policy intertwine to produce a set of practices – or territorialisations but also how they continuously challenge each other. In addition, I trace the prey animals as deterritorialising agents. Overall results show that hunting in Alsace, while not static, has seen little change when it comes to the local hunting system. This creates conflict, as the local Alsatian landscape has changed heavily. Debates on hunting, such as the return of the lynx, or rural-urban divides can be tied to this perceived divide between hunting and the local landscape. Despite these conflicts, hunting stays an important activity in the Alsatian landscape, and a valuable way of managing the environment according to the interviewees.

No / Assembling Archaeology provides a radical rethinking of the relationships between teaching, researching, and practicing as an archaeologist in the twenty-first century. At its heart, this book addresses the marketization of higher education, demonstrating how this fundamentally impacts contemporary archaeological practice. The book proposes a solution which is grounded in a theoretical rethinking of archaeological teaching, training, and practice. Archaeology is currently undergoing a material turn which sees the revaluing of artefacts, objects, and the non-human in understanding the world. Drawing upon this, Cobb and Croucher approach the discipline as a subject of investigation and offer a new perspective founded upon the notion of learning assemblages. The holistic approach they propose challenges traditional power structures and the global marketization of the higher education system. The issues addressed here are global and applicable wherever archaeology is taught, practiced, and researched. This book is therefore valuable to all archaeologists, from academics to those in Cultural Resource Management, from heritage professionals to undergraduate students, and provides significant insights for educators throughout higher education.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-08-07T16:06:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Nery Pandolfo_.pdf: 5370670 bytes, checksum: 1887be307d7a90ca3f5d84b8f708509d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T16:06:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Nery Pandolfo_.pdf: 5370670 bytes, checksum: 1887be307d7a90ca3f5d84b8f708509d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-26 / SICREDI - Banco Cooperativo SICREDI S A / Nos últimos anos, o mercado financeiro nacional vem observando a entrada de instituições financeiras digitais. Este movimento tem provocado uma mudança nos hábitos de consumo de produtos financeiros. As fintechs e os bancos digitais vêm entrando no mercado oferecendo produtos e serviços com alta tecnologia embarcada. O presente trabalho busca trazer uma visão sobre estas mudanças, sustentado na teoria do arranjo desenvolvida por Deleuze e Gattari e explorada por outros pesquisadores como Manuel Delanda, Jon Roffe e Bernardo Figueiredo. De caráter qualitativo exploratório, o estudo entrevistou oito consumidores que possuem uma utilização constante de produtos e serviços digitais. Os resultados destas pesquisas apresentam quais são os elementos que compõem este ambiente complexo e de que forma elementos externos vêm auxiliando seu processo de transformação. Sob a perspectiva acadêmica, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo ampliar as discussões a respeito da teoria do arranjo, demonstrando de que forma ela pode ser aplicada para analisar mudanças nas práticas de consumo. No olhar da empresa, ele fornece informações importantes sobre este processo de transformação dos hábitos de consumo no mercado financeiro, auxiliando as organizações nas tomadas de decisão estratégicas sobre este mercado. / Recently the national financial market has been watching the entry of digital financial institutions. This movement has caused a change in the habits of consumption of financial products. Fintech and digital banks are entering on the market offering products and services with high technology embedded. The present work seeks to bring a vision of these changes sustained in the assemblage theory, developed by Deleuze and Gattari and explored by other researchers like Manuel Delanda, Jon Roffe and Bernardo Figueiredo. With an exploratory qualitative research, the study interviewed 8 consumers who have a constant use of digital products and services. The results of these researches present what are the elements that make up this complex environment and how external elements have aided its transformation process. From the academic point of view, this paper aims to broaden the discussions about the theory of the arrangement, demonstrating how it can be applied to analyze changes in consumption practices. In the company's view, it provides important information about this process of transforming consumption habits in the financial market, helping organizations to make strategic decisions about this market.