There are three slightly different ways that language and languages can be considered in relation to the idea of assemblage: assemblages as combinations of linguistic items (language assemblages), assemblages as semiotic gatherings (semiotic assemblages) and assemblages as material arrangements that involve language (sociomaterial assemblages). Looking at language in terms of assemblages emphasizes the processes of communication as people draw on varied resources to make meaning. The notion of semiotic assemblages opens up ways of thinking that focus not so much on language use in particular contexts – as if languages pre-exist their instantiation in particular places – but rather on the ways in which particular assemblages of objects, linguistic resources and places come together. This is to approach language not as a pregiven or circumscribed entity but rather as something that is constantly being put together from a range of semiotic and resources. Sociomaterial assemblages similarly focus on things and places in relation to linguistic resources and consider language to be embodied, embedded and distributed, where language is not so much an abstract system of signs as changing sets of material relations.

When José Eusebio Llano Zapata travelled from Peru to Spain in the middle of the eighteenth century, he remarked on the difference between the book markets. The Peruvian scholar who had travelled across the Atlantic, and had experienced both places, clearly judged the colonial book market favourably, and saw it as as bearing comparison with Europe's. In characterising the trade, he emphasised the wide variety of books that were available. In addition, he outlined a broad readership composed of both men and women, conveying the impression that books were an accessible object. In the following decades, more and more people in colonial society gained access to locally printed and imported books. This Introduction sets the historical and historiographic scene. It calls for a social history of books and prints, and reflects the status of Lima as a ‘Lettered City’ with social and spatial hierarchies.

This chapter presents salient concepts to understand a vast literature on dynamics of charged macromolecules. Starting from a description of hydrodynamic interaction, dynamics of folded proteins, colloids, flexible polyelectrolytes, DNA are described. For flexible macromolecules, the models of Rouse, Zimm, reptation, and entropic barrier are developed in increasing order of complexity. Using this groundwork, the phenomena of ordinary-extraordinary transition, electrophoretic mobility, and topologically frustrated dynamical state are explained.

This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the mechanical behavior of Network materials, with emphasis on the structure–properties relation. Crosslinked and non-crosslinked Network materials are discussed in separate sections. The behavior of crosslinked networks in tension, shear, compression, and multiaxial loading is described. The effects of fiber tortuosity, fiber alignment, crosslink compliance, network connectivity, and variability of fiber properties on network stiffness and nonlinear behavior are discussed in detail. The size effect on linear and nonlinear material properties is evaluated in relation with network parameters. Three types of nonlinear behavior are identified, corresponding to networks that stiffen or soften continuously during deformation, and networks with an approximately linear response. Numerous examples of each type are presented, including collagen networks, fibrin and actin gels, elastomers, paper, and nonwovens. The response of non-crosslinked athermal networks, such as fiber wads, is studied in compression and tension. The effect of entanglements in athermal networks is analyzed and a parallel drawn with the mechanics of thermoplastics.

In this introductory chapter, we establish a theoretical framework for the book, drawing on the concept of 'queer entanglements' to argue for what a 'queer menagerie' might look like in terms of research, theory, and activism in regard to the intersections of gender, sexuality, and species. The chapter also provides definitions of the populations we focus on and outlines our reasons for our specific areas of focus. We also discuss our positionality as authors. In elaborating our theoretical framework, we focus on histories and presents of animal and LGBQTNB human lives, and we map out some potential ways of understanding why it would seem that such histories and presents take unique forms in the lives of LGBQTNB people and the animals they live with. We finish the chapter by outlining our two key concepts, ‘enmeshment’ and ‘irreducibility’, that help us to understand and represent the work of curating a queer menagerie. This introductory chapter concludes by providing an overview of the chapters included in this book.

In this introductory chapter, we establish a theoretical framework for the book, drawing on the concept of 'queer entanglements' to argue for what a 'queer menagerie' might look like in terms of research, theory, and activism in regard to the intersections of gender, sexuality, and species. The chapter also provides definitions of the populations we focus on and outlines our reasons for our specific areas of focus. We also discuss our positionality as authors. In elaborating our theoretical framework, we focus on histories and presents of animal and LGBQTNB human lives, and we map out some potential ways of understanding why it would seem that such histories and presents take unique forms in the lives of LGBQTNB people and the animals they live with. We finish the chapter by outlining our two key concepts, ‘enmeshment’ and ‘irreducibility’, that help us to understand and represent the work of curating a queer menagerie. This introductory chapter concludes by providing an overview of the chapters included in this book.