Agencement

Agencement 2 (Stratal Cycle)

Individuation (r): A part assumes a strong, distinct identity within the whole through expansion of the self, which can be maintained in a Virtuous Cycle. Ecologically, one can think of keystone species, whose success and importance dwarf those of other species. The preservation of identity and centrality are, however, nearly always undermined by entropy, whose threshold is the Dissipative Limit, where anti-entropic processes begin to collapse, as in biological aging or habitat loss. Ultimately, these reach a Degeneration Point where the part dissolves into other constituent parts, losing its identity.

Deindividuation (K): Death and decomposition of a part constitute a withdrawal from centrality, increasing connectivity (reducing boundaries) by making available spaces, resources, and opportunities for marginalized or new nodes that the agent otherwise consumes to enhance its individual potential. Though counterintuitive, this reflects the Indigenous Australian view captured by Bird Rose that “death is a move into connectivity… an Earth-based solidarity that embraces all of us” (Rose, 2011, 141). A given part can fall into a Death Cycle, where it serves exclusively as material for other parts, as when an overexploited plant struggles to establish a niche amidst other successful species while being actively sought and consumed by animals. The part can be eliminated entirely if trapped too long. The Spark of Life indicates the part reestablishing a toehold within the network, while the Complexity Threshold represents the point when individuation is assured.

Interdependence (a): A whole accumulates and conserves ties as a network, wherein new connections contribute to emergent properties that further code the whole as a unique entity. Wholes are able to stabilize in the Window of Vitality by maintaining adequate flows of energy and information among its parts while adapting to compositional change (similar to a forest mycorrhizome). The assemblage is deterritorialized because it remains capable of incorporating new components (it is not saturated) but it is coded because those new components must be able to articulate with the existing whole’s identity. However, should the whole overcode its parts, it can fall into a Rigidity Trap, characterized by low diversity, high connectivity, and brittleness (Stedman, 2016), catalyzing a process of dissolution as parts disconnect or collapse, reaching a point of inevitability at the Edge of Chaos.

Atomization (Ω): In the midst of dissolution, partitive assemblages of relative strength resist entropy and attempt to reconstitute themselves as the locus of the whole’s identity. Should they manage to do so successfully, they reach the Resilience Turn, where the assemblage can reconfigure around its new basin of attraction, ultimately achieving the ability to grow, exploit, and accumulate. However, failing to do so, the disconnected parts enter a Poverty Trap, a distributed property of self-reinforcing poverty, in multiple senses of the word (Radosavljevic et al., 2021). Within a Poverty Trap, there are insufficient resources and connectivity to catalyze the emergence of a greater whole. The loop of weak ties is territorialized because, with all parts atomized, a rigid boundary arises between external order and internal chaos; consider the region surrounding a volcanic eruption or an abandoned neighborhood.