[P2P-F] .Tracing and reconfiguring networks to build a political alternative

[Michel Bauwens]

http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/category/networks-and-rhizomes/Dear
Mayo,
if you have any comments on this, I'd like to publish them on the p2p blog,

Michel


Tracing and reconfiguring networks to build a political
alternative<http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/tracing-and-reconfiguring-networks-to-build-a-political-alternative/>
21 10 2009

Just published:

“Knowledge and praxis of networks as a political project”

Published in: *Twenty-First Century Society*, Volume 4, Issue 3, November
2009, pages 277-295.

*Abstract:*

Modern-day society is increasingly described as an extensive web of
networks, but as such, it is often perceived and experienced as elusive. In
light of this paralysing description, this paper aims to highlight the
potentially political dimension of network analysis, namely as defined in
the social sciences, and of the notion of networks itself. It will be shown
that a political project could, in this case, be built on the desire to know
this reticular world better, but also to be able to act appropriately
towards it. Three steps are proposed to specify how such a political project
could be built. The first step aims at deploying knowledge of networks and
emphasises the usefulness of a procedure to trace them. The second step
shows the possibilities that this knowledge offers, particularly in allowing
one to find one’s bearings in a world which is frequently described as
veering towards an increasing complexity, and by helping to rebuild the
selection criteria for connections in this world, thanks to an additional
degree of reflexivity. The third step draws on these points to extend them
and bring out potentialities with regards to the intervention capacities in
network configurations.


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