Network Culture: Politics for the Information AgeIn an age of email lists and discussion groups, e-zines and weblogs, bringing together users, consumers, workers and activists from around the globe, what kinds of political subjectivity are emerging? What kinds of politics become possible in a time of information overload and media saturation? What structures of power and control operate over a self-organising system like the internet?In this highly original new work, Tiziana Terranova investigates the political dimension of the network culture in which we now live, and explores what the new forms of communication and organisation might mean for our understanding of power and politics. Terranova engages with key concepts and debates in cultural theory and cultural politics, using examples from media culture, computing, network dynamics, and internet activism within the anti-capitalist and anti-war movements. Network Culture concludes that the nonlinear network dynamics that link different modes of communication at different levels (from local radio to satellite television, from the national press to the internet, from broadcasting to rumours and conspiracy theories) provide the conditions within which another politics can emerge. This other politics, the book suggests, does not entail the production of a new political discourse or ideology, but the invention of micropolitical tactics able to stand up to new forms of social control. |
Contents
Three Propositions on Informational Cultures | 6 |
Network Dynamics | 39 |
Free Labour | 73 |
Copyright | |
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Antonio Negri ARPANET artificial behaviour biological computation biological turn capacity capitalism capitalist cellular automata channel complex computer networks concept constitution cultural politics cybernetics differentiation digital economy distributed divergence effect electronic space emergence engineering entropy example formation free labour gene genetic genetic algorithm gift economy Gilles Deleuze global grid Ibid images immaterial labour individual information flows information theory informational dimension informational dynamics informational milieu informational space interaction Internet internetwork involves kind large number machines Manuel Castells mass Mathematical Theory meaning messages Michael Hardt mode movement multitude mutations nettime network culture node noise nonlinear notion open architecture open-source organization overall packet switching packets perception perspective physical politics of information population possible postmodern potential problem production public sphere relation relationship replicate representation segments selfish gene sense Shannon simply social specific statistical structure technical technologies television Theory of Communication Tim Berners-Lee users virtual