R|D: Articulation and Representational Divergence

Articulation theory is the study of how relations of subordination and dominance emerge. The function whose operation places the dominant over the subordinate expresses the concept of overdetermination. In the following chapters, we will model this concept’s formation by way of a series of events whose inner relations compose a vector that models the activity of the subjects whose relations constitute the conditions in which that vector is considered significant. We formalize the encounter between the forms of life implied by these subjects’ activity—the cross-product between the frames of reference they employ—to indicate how two or more levels of society and/or of individuals (events, persons, institutions) constitute the state of affairs under consideration. In so doing, we can analyze things that are by definition dynamic, moving, and paradigmatically constructed. Articulation theory being the study of how dominance and subordination emerge, we shall develop a method to apply this framework to our current state of affairs.