Volatile Agencies: Spacing Assemblages in Humanitarian Organizing

This paper draws on the Communicative Constitution of Communication (CCO) approach to understand the relational agencies involved in spacing and organizing. Methodologically, the paper draws on a case study of a non profit organization working in a forced migration hotspot in Lebanon and builds on ethnographic data. The paper identifies the different ways in which spacing assemblages (i.e., the relational weaving of practices, conversations, texts, territories, and other elements) exhibit volatile agencies and thus make a difference in the process of organizing. On the one hand, the findings show the conjunction of individuals, spaces and identities as assemblages control individuals’ work and movements. On the other hand, the findings illustrate the disjunction of individuals, spaces and identities as assemblages engender divergent identities for those organizing and dwelling in these spaces. The paper’s contribution is twofold. First, the paper contributes to a relational view of agency by showing how agencies of spatial configurations are formed through communicative relations between agents, but also how these agencies are impeded, restricted, or constrained by other agents, relations, or assemblages. Secondly, the paper shows how a CCO lens is relevant for fostering a communicative understanding of space that can bring to the forefront the political and ethical conundrums specific to spacing.