Measuring the Materiality of Space. Can space syntax provide the tools for an analytical grounding of assemblage theory?

Abstract

In recent years, relational theories, including assemblage theory, have brought new perspectives to urban studies and challenged the ways through which researchers approach the study of the urban environment in their effort to truly understand the complex processes that define the ways in which the social is reflected in the urban form and vice versa. Although the implications of assemblage theory for urban studies, in particular critical urban theory, have been explored, a closer look on how this theory could be related to space syntax theory and the methods it employs has not yet been taken. A discourse on such a relationship lies at the heart of this paper, which focuses on Manuel DeLanda's idea of cities as assemblages (DeLanda, 2006) and space syntax's concepts and tools which appear to describe urban properties that fit this notion. The aim of the paper is to address the points made by Netto (2016) about the future of theory and the need to engage with new concepts and interact with ideas other than those from which each researcher starts their journey. In his words new approaches are needed to "escape the dead ends into which the different strands of urban socio-spatial knowledge have been drawn". The authors believe that an exploration of the linkages between assemblage and space syntax theories is a fundamental step forward in broadening space syntax's focus on a wider range of possible relations, and thus strengthening it as a socio-spatial theory. The paper starts with a discursive analysis comparing assemblage and space syntax theories. It then offers a detailed text analysis of chapter 5 (Cities and Nations) of DeLanda's A New Philosophy of Society. Based on the text analysis, relevant key space syntax concepts and their measuring tools are discussed in terms of their similarity to the definitions of components and processes which characterize cities as assemblages, as well as of their potential as tools for assemblage analysis. The main concepts discussed are connectivity, integration, segregation, centrality and scales of analysis. The main criticism to assemblage thinking as a potential research approach in urban studies is its genericity and lack of analytical specificity. The theory is seen as suggestive of themes for research and of methodological techniques, yet tending to be indeterminate due to the complexity of the theorization of cities as assemblages, the high level of contingency in the interaction between different components and the potentially infinite scales at which transformation processes can occur. This paper's objective is to assess whether assemblage theory can be made analytically relevant and specific to urban studies by deploying space syntax tools when analytically applying assemblage theory. The authors conclude that assemblage thinking could be seen as enhancing the theoretical background of space syntax and that space syntax tools and concepts could be used as practical instruments for assemblage analysis.