ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on what thinking with assemblage can add to planning studies. It applies an analytical framework based on the concept of practices of assemblage to explore the implementation of the emerging localism agenda in England. The chapter addresses some of the debates about the possibilities and limitations of assemblage thinking; in particular whether an empirical focus on the work of bringing and holding together initiatives can account for the operation of power and the identification of political alternatives. It begins by outlining a critical framework based on assemblage and the practices of assemblage. The chapter uses this to frame a case study of the rolling out of localism and the Big Society, the UK government's latest attempts to recast the boundaries between the state and civil society in England. This includes the ability to reveal a complex picture of the contested nature of the remaking of publics, places and contingent nature of governing the local.
