In the context of interconnected crises and shifting geopolitical dynamics, the imperative to reimagine how development is practiced and studied has grown increasingly urgent. This paper advances a methodological intervention in development research by drawing on insights from multisited empirical work that examines development governance through the lens of assemblage thinking. Using illustrative cases from studies from Ukraine and Costa Rica, we demonstrate how assemblage approaches can illuminate development governance as a dynamic, relational, and multi-scalar field of practice. Assemblage thinking pushes analysis beyond fixed spatial, temporal, and institutional frames by foregrounding the contingent configurations through which development interventions are continually assembled and the shifting relations of power and knowledge that underpin decision-making. The paper highlights both the possibilities and methodological tensions of operationalising assemblage thinking in empirical development research. The empirical cases engaged serve to illustrate how assemblage-oriented inquiry can help trace emergent and uneven forms of coordination and cooperation, while bringing issues of positionality, coherence, and contextuality into view. By engaging assemblage thinking as both an analytic and methodological orientation, the paper contributes to ongoing dialogue on advancing more situated, plural, and reflexive methodological approaches to studying development governance.

Keywords: Development, Assemblage Thinking, Stakeholder Mapping, Methodology, Governance