ABSTRACT
Guattari’s solo works offer a politically engaged way to trace the assemblage of subjectivity within the broader molar and molecular articulation of the social field, therefore offering poignant insights on how to approach the ‘human’ through a vitalist ontology. After an illustration of Guattari’s distinctive approach, this chapter presents a number of pathways to the machinic subject that may be seen as an attempt to translate the sophistications of a vitalist approach to subjectivity into fieldwork practice. These reflections are carved out of the author’s ethnography work with disenfranchised urbanites, which attempts to deconstruct claustrophobic narratives of the self through a grounded engagement with the performances and propositions of life at the margins.
