Human/Non-Human Assemblages in STAIR

Abstract

My worldview of STAIR is based in assemblage theory. In this chapter, I first identify the relevant literature in assemblage theory through a discussion of three key aspects of the assemblage: (a) it is comprised of discernible but interacting human and non-human parts; (b) it works at all scales; and (c) it distributes agency broadly. I then examine how this assemblage-based approach has shaped my own work through a case study of the Internet-as-assemblage and how the Harlem Shake meme functioned in post-Arab Spring Tunisia and Egypt. In the final section I reflect on what an assemblage-based approach has to offer STAIR as a field of study with particular attention to the ways in which human and non-human actors from science, technology, and art participate in IR. The final section also highlights the value of including popular culture texts in the study of IR as an example of what can be done within STAIR.