Networked Individualism

Sokat gondolkoznak a digitális városokról. A világ nem csoportokból áll, hanem szociális hálózatokból. A cikk tartalma: hogyan alakultak át a közösségek a sűrű szövésű „skatulyákból” „glokalizált” hálózatokká. (Ritka szövésű, ám csomópontokkal, lokális és globális összekapcsolódással) a hálózati individualizmusig (ritka szövésű, lazán összekapcsolódó emberi hálózat). A számítógépes rendszerek elősegítik az ilyen digitális városok működését.

Networked individualism enables Internet users to connect and socialize via their loose and transient multiple networks, whereas digital media literacy is a precondition of effective Internet use. In this study, an attempt has been made to find the link between networked individualism, digital media literacy, and young people’s perception of their social capital. A nationally representative face-to-face survey was conducted with Korean adolescents in 2013. Networked individualism was higher in adolescents who frequently engaged in online activities and who demonstrated greater digital media literacy. Belonging to multiple, diverse networks and having many connections was positively correlated to adolescents’ online social capital. Findings indicate that online activities and skills influence the ways adolescents connect to others and perceive of their social connectedness.

This chapter argues for the rigid dichotomies between online and offline in current discourse on social interactions to be reconsidered. By identifying that space is produced by the intersection of interactions it can be said that online and offline narratives are situated relationally rather than dichotomously.

Drawing on the concept of affordances (Gibson, 1977, 1986; Norman, 1988; Hogan, 2009) and the work of Doreen Massey (1994, 2005, 2009), it can be shown that subjects act on perceived affordances in narratives of online and offline relations which intersect to produce the spaces in which social interactions are situated.

This chapter proposes the concept of ‘networked spaces’ as a strategy for resolving the problematic binary of online and offline. Networked spaces are dynamic, the contexts or narratives within them relational. It is through the lived experiences of interactions in these spaces that the contexts of social interactions are suggested to be best examined.

In essence, every network is the sum of nodes and ties among them. In physical networks, it is difficult to track nodes and identify ties among them, especially when the scale is greater. While it is possible to track, identify and map physical networks, this possibility is limited in time, space and human capability. However, the ability to track and identify nodes and ties among them on digital networks is possible because every single click leaves a digital trace and we can track, identify, collect, and analyze these digital traces. In this context, social network analysis provides techniques, tools and approaches to practice social networking, while social network theory provides the conceptual background to interpret the network data. This is where this book steps in and provides a systematic walkthrough for those interested in social network analysis. With a special focus on social networking in digital networked spaces, “Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World” explains how to practice social network analysis by using NodeXL software.

"What holds society together?" This is one of the most challenging questions  since early developments of sociological theory: the need to better understand cooperative action still promotes new theoretical approaches and empirical analysis models, focusing on social actors ability to create new social worlds beyond individualism.
Social capital, as different theorist  agree, is inherently cooperative:  well-being for individuals is entirely entrusted to the ability to cooperate through a more equitable redistribution of tasks and resources. Many theorist recognize trust , reciprocity and responsibility as fundamental  requirements of Social Capital .
The aim of the theoretical analysis here proposed is to provide some suggestions and insight to build a "middle range theory", useful to operazionalize research on social capital in the light of the conceptual and empirical links between the concepts of self-organized system, identity, culture, communication, network.
There are at least three major theoretical  reasons  that inspired this reworking of communicative theories, social capital and social networks analysis. First, current definitions of social capital emphasize the importance of trust, norms and values (Putnam, 1993, Fukuyama 1996 Coleman, 2005) without clarifying role and relevance of communication processes in building trust between people or  within groups or communities (Gili, 2005).
Second, social capital theories  tend more and more to operationalize research through social network analisys  methods and techniques : much of the literature on social networks, while recognizing communication relevance as matter of principle, tends to ignore actual communication processes involved into building social networks (Monge and Contractor, 2003).
In addition, as Emirbayer argues in his provocative reading on social networks (Emirbayer and Goodwin, 1994), much of the literature on the subject seems to move from one anticategorical imperative which rejects any attempt to explain social behavior in terms of shared categorical attributes as age, gender, religious beliefs, ethnicity, only giving importance  to  social structure configuration . By this point of view, this means neglecting cultural and normative dimensions of voluntary choices (Emirbayer and Mische, 1999).
The consequence is a tendency to underestimate cultural aspects (especially norms and values ) which can support  relationship establishment in actual social networks. Network scholars, indeed,  are inclined to conceptualize and problematize communication mainly in terms of optimization of the information flows between nodes in a network (Cross, Borgatti and Parker, 2002) and / or access to strategically relevant information or knowledges (Granovetter, 1973).
Finally, conditions under which an actor / node decides to invest in building relationships with others also needs to consider the determining value of trust, that still remains a difficult issue to deal with from an empirical point of view (Barber, 1983; Glaeser, Laibson, Scheinkman and Soutter, 1999; Khodyakov, 2007).
These elements highlight the need for a better understanding of  the "weight" of communication along two distinct dimensions:  at a micro level, focusing  on role and functions of communication to establish relations among individuals, and a macro level to describe and test how communication processes can affect mobilization of social capital.

Two affordances of digital communication technologies, persistent contact and pervasive awareness, are ushering in fundamental change to the structure of community. These affordances break from the mobility narrative that has described community since the rise of urban industrialism, including accounts of networked individualism and a postindustrial or a network society. In contrast to images of late modernity, which suggest that mobility will be maximized to the point where people are nearly free from the constraints of time, space, and social bonds, persistent–pervasive community renews the constraints and opportunities of premodern community structure. As a result of persistence—a counterforce to mobility—relationships and the social contexts where they are formed are less transitory than at any time in modern history. Through the ambient, lean, asynchronous nature of social media, awareness supplements surveillance with the informal watchfulness typified in preindustrial community. It provides for closeness and information exchange unlike what can be communicated through other channels. Social media and the algorithms behind them generate not only context collapse but an audience problem that, when managed through a dynamic balance between broadcasting and monitoring content, enhances indicators of awareness and availability of social ties. Persistent–pervasive community represents a period of metamodernity. It is a hybrid of preindustrial and urban-industrial community structures that will affect the availability of social capital, the success of collective action, the cost of caring, deliberation around important issues, and how lives are linked over the life course and across generations.

WikiLeaks (WL) entered the global spotlight for publishing online classified documents which prompted a wave of public debates. However it also triggered a huge social mobilization in support of freedom of speech online and against online censorship.  Since the end of 2010, hundreds of people not directly linked to the core WL group joined the struggle: they provided technical support; they contributed to spread WL content by mirroring the website; they mobilized in support of WL, for example by attacking its ‘enemies.’ These mobilizations have sprung out of a renewed wave of cyberactivism and hacktivism.

WL has served as a catalyst for new forms of online collective action that point to an evolution of contemporary political activism. This chapter analyzes the significance of WL-related processes and events for contemporary online activism. It looks at WL through the eyes of internet activists, and sheds light on the features of contemporary cyberactivism in relation with societal norms.  For these groups, internet is a (cultural) laboratory for experimentation, where rules of real life do not apply. Activists constitute a subcultural community with loose boundaries but well-defined core values and behaviors. Whenever these values are under threat, activists react adopting transgressive and defensive tactics. Although cyberactivism as such is not new, its scale in the wake of the WL saga is unparalleled, and so is the awareness of the disruptive potential of hacking techniques. WL-related mobilizations have shown that cyberactivism can lead to significant results, as disruptive software-based tactics have an almost real-time impact. This activism might be a manifestation of a ‘new’ wave of movement activity that uses the internet as its main platform for action, recruitment and identification. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered through online participant observation and online asynchronous interviews with activists.

Der moderne Individualismus hat viele Facetten, die von den einzelnen Disziplinen unter ganz verschiedenen methodischen Vorzeichen akzentuiert werden. Dass der moderne Mensch sich dem Anspruch ausgesetzt sieht, sich selbst zu finden oder gar zu erfinden, scheint auf verschiedene Transformationsprozesse und Tendenzen zurückführbar. Das Spektrum der Ausdrucks- und Reflexionsformen reicht von der Kunst über die Philosophie bis zur Soziologie. Gerade an den Schnittstellen der Disziplinen entstehen im deutsch-französischen Austausch neue Einsichten in die Genealogien des Individualismus. Der Band versammelt Beiträge von Julien Acquatella, Cristóbal Balbontin, Cédric Duchêne-Lacroix, Alain Ehrenberg, Felix Heidenreich, Edouard Jolly, Susann Köppl, Detlef Lienau, Robert Lukenda, Angela Oster, Andrea Stahl.

ABSTRACT The ubiquitous use of mobile smartphones and Internet-based applications commonly known as “apps,” can be viewed as simultaneously empowering and constraining for women's experiences and identities due to their potential to foster “always on” forms of sociability in both public and private spheres. We conduct in-depth interviews with women who daily use smartphone apps to understand how they use and make meaning through social media and popular apps to do with parenting (using the “Total Baby” app), fitness (“Runmeter”), finances (“Mint”) and daily tasks (“Evernote”) through Judy Wajcman's technofeminist approach, which suggests that people and artifacts co-evolve, and technology can facilitate and restrain gender power relations.

PhD thesis: Awarded April 2021

This thesis offers an examination of media fans, fan practice and online media fandoms in the digital era through presenting an in-depth case study of fans of the novel and television series Outlander who belong to an Outlander Facebook fan group called Outlandish UK. Through critically engaging with academic discourse on fans and fandom this thesis questions the prevalence of the ‘fandom-as fan community’ approach to fandom as the diffusion of digital technologies in fandom has introduced new pathways to experiencing fandom outwith fan communities. By adopting an innovative methodological approach that blends the researcher’s aca-fan identity with ethnographic and netnographic methodologies this thesis aims to find a balance between fandom-as-fan community discourse and emergent discourse on how fans independently engage in media fandom. As such, this thesis draws on sociologist Barry Wellman’s social operating system ‘networked individualism’ to introduce a new paradigm called ‘networked fandom’ which bridges the notions of fandom-as- fan community and fans as individuals through re-positioning fans, fandom and fan practice in relation to being networked. Each chapter explores a different aspect of the ‘networked fandom’ paradigm with the chapters being framed around a specific topic of fandom discourse including broader understandings of media fandom, fan identity and fan practice, the networked relationships of fans and notions of community within fan groups. Through the lens of this paradigm and drawing on the Outlander case study, this thesis offers a fresh contribution to the discipline of sociology and the field of fan studies by arguing that media fans and fandoms of the digital era are networked and grounded in fan-centric, rather than community-centric, networks with fans moving between different types of fandoms, and in the process, create, join, lurk in and leave fandoms. While introduced using a media fandom case study, the ‘networked fandom’ paradigm can be applied to other types of fandoms.

En este trabajo se analiza de manera crítica la transformación que el individuo contemporáneo experimenta en cuanto a su concepción del tiempo. Este cambio está determinado por la influencia que los nuevos espacios de flujo de información ejercen sobre la dimensión espacio-temporal. Algunos efectos de esta modificación pueden ser observados en comportamientos que dan forma al individuo que enfrenta la dimensión del tiempo atemporal característico de la tecnología actual.
Palabras clave: Tecnología, tiempo, espacio, individuo, red.
ABSTRACT Developments in information technology and new spaces of information flow in the space-time dimension have altered the experience of time for contemporary individuals. This essay discusses the circumstances of this evolution and its effect on human behavior and contemporary thought.
KEY WORDS: Technology, Time, Space, Net.

This chapter discusses the development of a conceptual model through which to ‘nowcast’, rather than forecast, the environmental niche of a digital community. As will be presented in this chapter, the model of data intersections from networked individual to digital community has two possible and interrelated applications. The first and most applied aspect is the capacity of the model proposed to assist the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses, clarifying relationships between sets of variables and theoretical ideas that can be used to analytically describe a community under study. The model has been derived from data collected for the case study of the Herpers, a community of people with common interests in reptiles and amphibians (Maddox 2015). Drawing upon data collected from 1,498 survey respondents across 47 countries, and interviews and participant observation conducted across 12 countries, the model proposed aims to collapse the digital dualism of online and offline social behavior inherent to many community studies. The second and more speculative application of the model explored in this chapter involves the capacity for egocentric data collected at the level of the networked individual to be aggregated to produce a dimensional model of social form, an approach to increase accuracy in nowcasting the digital present. The contribution of this application is anticipated to assist in the

visualization of communities that occur across open social structures characterized by global distribution and technological mediation. These structural characteristics make new forms of digital community conventionally invisible to methodological approaches and concepts commonly deployed within community studies.