Exploring New Configurations of Network Politics

随着新媒体，特别是互联网的出现，社会结构被重新定位的方式导致了我们现在生活在一个“网络社会”的说法，这个词是由曼纽尔·卡斯特创造的。这种转变对生活的各个领域都有着深远的影响，包括各种形式的政治。这个项目的目的是描绘网络社会对传统政治（包括文化政治）的挑战。特别是广泛持有的代议制民主政治受到质疑的看法。我们看到政治等级制度被网络破坏，声称拥有专业知识的人日益受到压力，政治主体的概念，由每四五年一次的投票所定义，在这种新形势下不再有意义。因此，我们的目标是探索这样一种观点，即可能存在一种新的政治，一种新的政治可能带来的意义，即将实现。我们的目标是通过对新兴的理论方法和政治实践的新形式的讨论，在基层和正式的政治制度层面上，发展一个关于这可能是什么的视角。为了实现这一目标，该项目将聚集知名和新兴学者，他们将讨论的主题包括：另类全球化运动；社交网络作为一种新的政治力量；黑客是一种新的异议范例。还需要探索一系列新的概念和社会形式，例如：智能暴徒；病毒活动;开源生产；集体智慧;根茎群，在其他中。自然，使这一切成为可能的新媒体技术也将是一个关键的调查地点，并将成为整个项目的中心主题。项目，以及预定义的议程，必须认识到这样一个现实，即这可能不足以捕捉所描述的复杂的新兴现象。因此，灵活性和适应性的需要将得到承认和鼓励。例如，网络将致力于对社会关系、身份、政治形式、话语和行动主义的新兴形式进行新的、更内在的分析。这应该包括掌握集体存在、组织和互动方式的创新方法，而这些方法可能只会作为项目过程的一部分出现。因此，网络项目不是从一个完全预先确定的议程开始，而是旨在对新的概念和主题方法保持开放。当然，我们必须从参与现有的思想框架开始，因此将从广泛的大炮中吸取教训，以鼓励方法的灵活性。本书将引用乔治·阿甘本、阿兰·巴迪欧、吉尔·德勒兹、约尔根·哈贝马斯、道格拉斯·凯尔纳和安东尼奥·内格里等思想家的著作。除此之外，该网络将批判性地评估主流政治和媒体的现有议程，并试图找到盲点，被忽视的问题和进一步合作的新想法。因此，该网络的指导原理将是利用学术界不同学科的广泛专门知识。这些课程将主要是媒体和传播研究、哲学、社会理论和文化研究，但将涉及更广泛的社区，包括来自其他来源和机构的知识，例如艺术家、从业者、活动家和技术专家。作为一种全球现象，国际视野势在必行。因此，该网络将从广泛的经济、地理和文化观点中汲取贡献。在此背景下，北美学者的研究专长、具有理论创新性的跨学科中心以及美国作为经济和技术中心的作用对该网络具有重要意义。发展与亚洲和欧洲大陆研究所的联系也同样重要。

The way in which social structures have been reoriented in the wake of new media, particularly the internet, have led to the claim that we are now living in a 'network society', a term coined by Manuel Castells. Such a shift has profound implications for all areas of life, including politics in all its forms.The aim of this project is to map the challenge to traditional politics (including cultural politics) that this network society poses. In particular the widely held perception that representational democratic politics are under question. We see political hierarchies undermined by networks, claims to specialist knowledge increasingly coming under strain, and notions of the political subject, as defined by a vote every four or five years, no longer making sense in this new situation. Thus we aim to explore the idea that there may be a new kind of politics, and a new sense of what the political might entail, coming to fruition. We aim to develop a perspective on what this might be, through an address to emerging theoretical approaches and to new forms of political practice, both at the grass roots and the formal institutional levels of politics. To achieve this aim the project will gather together established and emerging scholars who will address topics including: the alter-globalization movement; social networking as a new political force; hacking as a new paradigm of dissent. Also to be explored is a range of new concepts and social forms, for example: smart mobs; viral campaigns; open source production; collective intelligence; rhizomatic multitudes, amongst others. Naturally the technologies of new media that make this all possible will also be a key site of enquiry, and will be a central theme across the whole project.The project, as well as having a predefined agenda, must recognise the reality that this may not be sufficient to capture the complex emerging phenomenon described. Thus the need for flexibility and adaptability will be recognised and encouraged. For example, the network will work towards a new, more immanent analysis of the emerging forms of social relations, identities, political forms, discourses and activism. This should include innovative approaches to grasping collective ways of being, organising and interacting, and what these will be is likely to only emerge as part of the process of the project. Hence, instead of starting with an entirely predetermined agenda, the networking project aims to stay open to new conceptual and thematic approaches. Of course, we do have to start by engaging existing frameworks of thought, and will therefore draw from a broad cannon to encourage a flexibility of approach. Here thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Gilles Deleuze, Jürgen Habermas, Douglas Kellner and Antonio Negri, will be drawn upon. Beyond this the network will critically evaluate the existing agenda in mainstream politics and the media, and try to find blind spots, neglected issues and novel ideas for further collaboration.Thus the guiding rationale for the network will be to draw on a broad range of expertise from different disciplines within academia. These will be primarily media and communication studies, philosophy, social theory and cultural studies, but will address the broader community to include knowledge from other sources and institutions via, for example, artists, practitioners, activists and technologists. As a global phenomenon, international perspectives are imperative. As such the network will draw contributions from a wide range of economic, geographic and cultural points of view. In this context, the research expertise of Northern American scholars, with theoretically innovative interdisciplinary centres and the role of the U.S. as an economic and technological hub, are of high significance for the network. Similarly significant will be the development of links with institutes in Asia and continental Europe.