Simon Collister, PhD

Strategy + Consulting

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Anarchism & Social Technology: Contextualising the (non?)-field? – Full conference paper

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I blogged a couple of months ago about hosting and facilitating a conference stream at the Anarchist Studies Network’s conference, Making Connections, about the relationship between anarchism and social technology. We had two presenters come along and discuss their research which focused on and explored some novel theoretical approaches to social media and technology from a distinctly anarchist or libertarian communist perspective.

Aaron Peters spoke about the network society, public-private spheres and Paolo Virno‘s ‘Soviets of the Multitude‘ in relation to the networked social movements we’ve seen emerge around the globe post-economic collapse. While Thomas Swann discussed the potential for cybernetic theory to be brought into play to account for the decentralised organising seen during last year’s riots and what this might mean for a conceptual model of anarchist organising. You can get download Aaron’s paper via Scribd here and Thomas’ paper here.

Aside from facilitating, I presented a short paper that aimed to contextualise what Gordon (2008) has described as the “ambivalent relationship” between anarchism and technology. This ambivalence as one of the reasons we proposed the stream originally as despite the conference organisers citing the #Occupy and Arab Spring movements as powerful, contemporary anti-authoritarian social media-enabled forces rising from the grass-roots, there were few attempts to engage with and analyse technology directly within the conference’s extensive agenda. My paper attempts to understand why this is and suggest what might might be done:

Ultimately, the paper – and the wider conference stream – aimed to kick-start a debate about the role technology plays (and the potential it possesses) in political resistance and social struggles as well as to stimulate renewed theoretical as well as practical engagements with the topic. What this might look like, I’m not entirely sure yet – although I’m fairly soundly convinced it will need to include a greater level of scholarly and activist reflection and praxis – but I’d love to hear any suggestions.

Frames-as-Assemblages – Full conference paper

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I’ve eventually found time to finish writing and editing a full version of the conference paper I presented at the Caught in the Frame conference at the University of Leicester last month.

You can see the presentation that accompanies this paper in the post below, but this fuller paper give a more detailed overview of the context in which I’m seeking to develop the notion of frames-as-assemblages. It also draws attention to a number of specific features within assemblages that might offer potentially powerful routes for analysing mediated communications in networked environments.

Towards a general “internet theory”

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I’ve just picked up Geert Lovink‘s latest book-length contribution to the debate on social media and theory, Networks Without A Cause: A Critique of Social Media. It’s extremely prescient and chimes with a load of thoughts I’ve been having around a number of issues since earlier this year (and most recently this past weekend).

I think I’ll save a more detailed analysis when I’ve read more of the book – perhaps as a sort of review using Geert’s work as a jump off point for/exposition of my own thoughts.

In the meantime I really wanted to share the final (extensive) paragraph from the book’s introduction which resonates with a number of themes I’m trying to explore and unpick for my own research. Enjoy…

“Why, after two decades, does no (general) “internet theory” exist? Are we all to blame? We need a contemporary network theory that reflects rapid changes and takes the critical and cultural dimensions of technical media seriously. Network theory still emphasizes the science-focused “unified network theory,” to paraphrase the language of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. But we cannot merely study potentiality and growth patterns as pseudo-natural phenomena. There is hope: we can revolt against the mathematical shapes of networks. Humanities should do more than describe the times we’re living in. We can match untimely aphorisms with future scenario planning, speculative thinking with data journalism, and computer programming with visual studies. The overall aim is to ignite speculative futurism and celebrate singular modes of expression rather than institutional power plays. Many want to know how networks can guarantee “trust” while remaining open, flat and democratic. How can rapidly emerging concentrations of power be counter-balanced? If networks are so distributed and decentralized in nature, then why don’t they oppose the economies of scale that produce the Googles and Facebooks?”

More at Networks Without A Cause.

Frames-as-Assemblages: Theorising framing in contemporary media networks

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I presented a paper at the University of Leicester’s Caught in the Frame conference yesterday covering some of the main theoretical issues I’m working on for my PhD. You can view my presentation below and I should have a more substantial account of what I was trying to convey coming shortly which I’ll share via the blog too.

My starting point took slight issue with to the conference’s original call for papers: ‘Frame analysis continues to offer valuable insights into the relationship between institutions, representations and audiences’. In response, my paper aimed to question the relevance of such values in a contemporary networked ‘hybrid media system’ – that is an environment characterised by the fluid interaction of new and traditional media, the disintermediation of institutions and institutional actors, dissolution of easily definable and discrete audiences and the crisis of representation brought about by the materialist turn in communications research.

I proposed a revised and renewed approach to framing by synthesising Stephen Reese’s (2001) notion of frames as “organizing principles that … structure the social world” and the Deleuzian concept of ‘assemblages’. Using Manuel DeLanda’s schematic Assemblage Theory I developed a cohesive yet dynamic model – tentatively termed ‘frames-as-assemblages’ – for analysing the representational and material components and dynamic forces of territorialization and deterritorialization that constitute frame production in a contemporary networked media space.

The new model hopefully offers a radical re-engagement with, and contribution to, the conceptual debate surrounding one of the most widely applied theories in the field of communication studies.

Hopefully 🙂 Let me know what you think.

Anarchism and social technology: conference panel

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I’m going to be facilitating a panel on anarchism and social technology at this year’s Anarchist Studies Network conference in Loughborough next week. You can read the abstracts below.

There are a couple of really interesting papers up for presentation that seek to account for the social changes we’re witnessing around the globe. Both papers draw on some really interesting and novel theoretical approaches to social media and technology that – in the true ethos of the internet – hack existing theories to account for contemporary radical projects or event. For example, Aaron Peters takes Paolo Virno‘s ‘Soviets of the Multitude‘ – an extremely far-sighted perspective that appropriates Marx’s notion of the ‘general intellect’ and uses it to account for the decentralised and autonomous techno-social productivity that we’re witnessing with the social web. Thomas Swann, meanwhile, draws on (the often maligned) cybernetic theory to account for the decentralised organising seen during last year’s riots.

Aside from facilitating, I want to use my time to give a short overview of what has been described as the “ambivalent relationship” between anarchism (and anarchists) (Gordon, 2008). This relationship appeared to be manifest when trying to generate interest in this conference panel. Despite the organisers citing the #Occupy and Arab Spring movements as powerful, contemporary anti-authoritarian forces rising from the grass-roots it has not been easy to identify researchers or practitioners to take part.

I plan to address this issue and hopefully put it into some context before attempting to briefly point a way out of the ambivalence!

Maybe see you there 🙂

Share This: Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals

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I’ve been involved with a great project over the past few months which finally came to fruition last week as the CIPR’s Social Media Advisory Panel launched a new social media and PR handbook.

Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals contains 25 chapters spanning strategic resources, practical guidance, industry change and tools and technologies across a range of different sectors written by a range of experienced practitioners.

The book came about, as fellow panel-ee Julio Romo writes, because after three years providing social media counsel for the CIPR:

“last year we thought that the time was right to put together a book for everybody in business – those in PR and communications, as well as those in marketing, finance, sales and customer service. After all, social cut’s across business disciplines.”

Since being listed on Amazon the book has sold out – not a bad performance by a book originally conceived as a sharable pdf ebook. Ever the inquisitor, I was thinking about what has made the book so popular earlier this week and I believe I’ve distilled it into the following factors:

  1. Firstly, the handbook draws together a wealth of smart and experienced senior practitioners who cover a wide range of different topics yielding comprehensive, expert content
  2. Secondly, the book provides specific cases and practical detail for the changing nature of social media and PR – not just repeating platitudes about how social media is ‘changing everything’
  3. Finally, many social media books are written by US authors whereas Share This comes at the topic from a clear UK context, incorporating case studies; campaigns results; statistics and insight from UK-based practitioners

My contribution, ‘Social Media and The Third Sector’, features in the industry change section and examines how organisations in the non-profit sector need to think about their communications and campaigning strategies in relation to what I term the ‘new networked reality‘ in which they now operate.

I suggest that the nature of the sector should be ideally suited to the socially motivated aspects of this networked space but that a lot of the strategic and tactical changes that organisations need to make can run counter to conventional organisational thinking.

The chapter concludes by pointing to a future where organisations will need to become ‘hybrid’ and work with strategically aligned online networks of supporters, partner organisations and the increasingly networked and active public.