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The University as a Socio-Material Assemblage: Promotional Videos—Codes, Territories, and Globalization

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

Published
  • Biliana Popova
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Publication date2023
Number of pages199
QualificationPhD
Awarding Institution
Supervisors/Advisors
Publisher
  • Lancaster University
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to explore and subsequently develop the
concept of the university as a socio-material assemblage with regard to three
key concepts of assemblage theory: codes, territories, and globalization
(different from the traditional views of globalization). The thesis does this
building on a multimodal analysis of data gathered from 26 promotional
YouTube videos from UK and Canadian universities. It introduces a new
middle-range (mesolevel) theoretical framework by combining concepts from
assemblage theory (AT) (DeLanda, 2006; Deleuze & Guattari, 2013), and the
inquiry graphics approach (IG) (Lacković, 2020).

The methodology focuses on exploring the meanings of the universities’
spaces, physical objects, actors (human and non-human), and the relationships
among actors through inquiry graphics analytical lenses. It then establishes
codes and territories based on the analysis that territorialize the university as an
assemblage, as well as the decodifying and deterritorializing processes within it.
Finally, it analyses the observed codes and territories through the lenses of
homogenization and hybridization globalization theories.

The thesis concludes that the university can be conceptualized and
interpreted as a socio-material assemblage whose components are interrelated
and have both material and social expressive roles. Further, codes and
territories are defined by the strength of the links between their iconic and
symbolic expressions. Each university assemblage is connected to other
assemblages through the various multi-layered networks that each component
belongs to, yet the interaction among the components of an assemblage is
interpreted within its specific territories, codes, and semiotic systems. These in
turn, are defined by applying the semiotic principles of the IG approach.

Finally, the thesis makes three major contributions: it conceptualizes the
university as a socio-material assemblage, it develops a middle-range theoretical framework by combining concepts from assemblage theory and the
inquiry graphics approach that can be applied to understand other sociomaterial assemblages, and it explains the relation between globalization,
territorialization and codification of universities as socio-material assemblages.