Network Politics

Information
Course Coordinator: Marianne van den Boomen
ECTS: 7,5

Description
The emergence of the  network society and the networked public sphere has deep implications for practices and conceptions of power, control and democracy. This course explores network politics from several angles in order to contribute to a network theory of politics and a political theory of networks that can explain the socio-technological assemblages we live in nowadays.  The notions of both ëpoliticsí and ënetworkí are critically addressed, by mobilizing several theories and perspectives: public sphere conceptions, political philosophy,  actor-network theory, social network analysis, network science, connectionism and complexity theory.

Authors to be read are, amongst others,  Castells, Benkler, Sassen, Terranova, Dean, Latour, Barabasi, Wellman and Galloway. Research methods to be studied and/or to applied in case studies are: network ethnography, hyperlink analysis, quantitative and qualitative social network analysis, ideology critique, discourse analysis and deconstruction.

In block 2 network politics will be approached from a focus on politics (institutional and informal/activist), democracy (institutional and radical)  and the networked public sphere (social-cultural and political);

in block 3 the primary focus will be on networks (social and technological), power laws (statistical and political) and protocols (technological and political).  Moreover, the objective is to train the students in essayistic and academic writing and creative thinking.

Goal
Aim of the course is to recognize, master and advance different analytical and theoretical approaches of network politics. Students gain insight in the various forms of contemporary politics and its connections to technological and social networks, and are expected to critically analyse and contribute to the theoretical debates on networked politics and the politics of networks. Moreover, the objective is to train the students in essayistic-academic writing and creative thinking.