#see power tuesdays: Mapping power in a networked world
Twitter Network (graph courtesy of Flowing Data)
This week, I start to work on the theoretical framing of the inter-dependent, hyper-competitive world we live in. Manuel Castells gave it a
name 20 years ago - the network society, brought about by information
and communications technology, as well as economic globalisation.
It is a world transformed, defying both international relations theory and theories on internal politics. Characterised by a space of flows and
timeless time, it is a world in which a separation between our day-to-day lives and the seat of
power has occurred: Power has migrated into networks, often transnational in nature, with consequences we are still in the process of grasping and digesting. Yet, “old” realities, such as the importance of geography, or the existence of states structuring domestic political life and the
international system have not for that matter disappeared.
As today is Tuesday, which aims to #see power, I thought it would be interesting to ponder some of the difficulties in mapping our network society, and power in it. At the heart lies the notion of geography, of space, and of how social actors use it.
ICT and globalisation have durably transformed the notion of space itself, which Hannah Arendt posited as one of the three realities given to human beings, together with reason and time.
The concept of space has changed at the level of the individual, and at the level of the state. And, I would argue, in the process, the nature of power itself has been modified.
What concerns individuals, they are no longer closed-off units, enclosed in a bigger geographical continuum that defines them. Thanks to modern means of communication, not only have they themselves become permeable. They now live and interact with social realities potentially thousands of kilometers away. So not only space, but how individuals use it as social agents (what French geographer Michel Lussault calls “spatialité”) has been transformed.
In our networked world, states have seemingly lost one, if not their most important determinant - their borders. In the process, their capacity to organise and control their territory, something that lies at the very heart of the tactics and strategy of power has been significantly reduced. Simultaneously, the links that connect any given territory with geographical realities near or far have increased dramatically.
To make matters even more confusing, a new space, cyberspace, has come into existence. In it, the actual world exists virtually. But the virtual world can have a real impact on the actual world. And the actual world on the virtual one…
To top it off, we have networks, which after all gave the name to our new world - within, and beyond states - which have siphoned power away from traditional actors such as states.
But, and this will be the ultimate cherry on top of this geopolitical mapping ice cream - Perennial factors such as geography, and specific modes of political organisation, such as the state, have not suddenly become irrelevant. They remain very much part of the power equation.
From Geospatial World, Industry Insight, January 2016
How to graphically depict these phenomena - the changed notion of space for individuals, the multiple links between territories, the existence of a parallel, virtual world, as well as superimposed networks which contain power? Well, it promises to be quite tricky.
Perhaps looking at each of the pieces of the puzzle individually - individuals, states, the virtual world, pondering the importance of networks in each case - might be a way to start.
Human interaction with both ICT and geographic space creates huge amounts of (flowing) data. One avenue would be to map new relationships of individuals with space pondering changed social usage and pontially changed power relations. What concerns networks and individuals, network mapping techniques could be put to good use.
Pondering the case of states, the first port of call would be to probe interdependencies. Some are well-known, such as trade, investment or migration flows, as well as infrastructure links, others need to be discovered. Strategist Parag Khanna has coined a suitable term for mapping such multiple ways of connectivity - connectography. As for networks and states, what networks exist on their territories that exert influence? And what actors from within states are part of networks that reach beyond territorial boundaries?
How about the virtual world? One way of making it visible would be to depict its underlying physical infrastructure - cables, servers, dominant firms. Then, there are the oceans of data linked to search engine and social media usage, for example. And there is the dark net, which thanks to novel ways of measuring is becoming less dark these days.
Mapping our network society will not only require creativity in terms of the ability to select and collect pertinent data, but also innovative ways of presenting information …
Further reading:
Michel Lussault, L'Homme spatial. La construction sociale de l'espace humain, Seuil 2007
Parag Khanna, Connectography. Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (available April 19, 2016)