Underdetermination, Assemblage Studies and Educational Technology: Rethinking Causality and Re-Energising Politics

Abstract

Tis article examines underdetermination as a key theoretical assumption in an emerging body of educational research. Underdetermination is described as a broad philosophical position that assumes that social, scientifc and technological phenomena cannot be reduced to linear relationships between antecedents and consequences, for instance through the canonical progression from scientifc hypotheses to experimentation and then empirical truths. Rather, phenomena are underdetermined by constellations of social and material infuences that make the choice of univocal explanations problematic. Te principle of underdetermination is implicit in a recent strand of educational research that critiques orthodox interpretations of scientifc practices, innovation processes and policy dynamics, recasting them as social, material and political “assemblages”. In the article, I analyse the philosophical and epistemological tenets of underdetermination, in order to clarify its nature as a “frst principle” in this emerging body of research. By doing so, the article brings into view a broader theoretical debate that has great bearing on future research eforts. Te article critically considers the continued theoretical relevance of underdetermination, whilst acknowledging critical arguments mounted against it, namely ontological relativism and political weakness. Some supplementing theoretical ideas are explored in the conclusion.