Steve Shaviro has posted a very interesting review of Manuel DeLanda's new book, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity (Continuum, 2006). While a good bit of the review is devoted to Shaviro looking at Deleuze's ontology from a Whiteheadian perspective, on which I'm not qualified to comment, he does say this as well, which caught my eye:
But it seems to me, again, that DeLanda’s (often expressed) hostility to Marxist formulations is not an inevitable consequence of his ontology; and that adopting this ontology (or better, the Whiteheadian version of it that I have tried to point to here) actually has significant advantages for Marxist theory, as well as for much else.
This recalled to me a few exchanges I've had with DeLanda on similar topics that are available on the net. This one was arranged by Torkild Thanem of the Stockholm University School of Business for the organizational theory journal Tamara, while this one was arranged by Evan Selinger of the Department of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology for the on-line journal CTheory.
I'd be happy to hear feedback from people on the issues discussed in any of these pieces.
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