Network Society
Description
1.
"According to M.Castells, networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies
“…the definition, if you wish, in concrete terms of a network society is a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks. So it’s not just about networks or social networks, because social networks have been very old forms of social organization. It’s about social networks which process and manages information and are using micro-electronic based technologies.”
(https://medium.com/@cryppix/mission-possible-7fe2129214fa)
2.
“Van Dijk defines the network society as a society in which a combination of social and media networks shapes its prime mode of organization and most important structures at all levels (individual, organizational and societal). He compares this type of society to a mass society that is shaped by groups, organizations and communities (’masses’) organized in physical co-presence.”
(http://www.bravenewcollaboration.com/concepts/)
Characteristics
Mark Whitaker et al. :
"This new media society has been called the ‘network society’ because even though we have always lived in networks, we are now living in microelectronic-enhanced networks that alter the way we organize networks in four ways:
(a ) Flexibility : Electronic networks can reconfigure "according to changing environments, keeping their goals while changing their components. They go around blocking points in communication channels to find new connections.” Past networks lacked such capacities (Castells, 2004)
(b) Scalability: Electronic networks "can
expand or shrink in size with little disruption." It
was very costly to expand networks in the past,
though once a particular platform is set up now,
the scalability of electronic networks can be global
relatively quickly (Castells, 2004) Similarly, in a
Blockchain-based network, any node can join and
leave to facilitate the network scalability.
(c) Transparency: Electronic networks can
be fully transparent and open to all. All the nodes
can connect through the internet to maintain
awareness of all transactions, which is particularly
clear using platforms based on distributed ledgers
wi t h a Bl oc kc ha i n ne t work coll abora tive l y.
Shared ledgers are now available to solve the
double-spending problem and corruption without
clearing transactions. Since such networks are
publicly available and incorruptible, this introduces
transparency to the system (Singh, Singh, & Kim,
2018)
(d) Survivability: “[B]ecause they have no
center,” electronic networks "can operate in a wide
range of configurations, and networks can resist
attacks on their nodes and codes because the codes
of the network are contained in multiple nodes that
can reproduce the instructions and find new ways to
perform. So, only the physical ability to destroy the
connecting points can eliminate the network." Older
networks were easily disrupted in such ongoing
deliberations, while current electronic networks find
such disruptions just a challenge of reorganization
instead of an existential crisis (Castells, 2004)."
(https://scholar.kyobobook.co.kr/article/detail/4010028079805)
More information
- Book: Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy. By Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014
URL = http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137415066
Source
The term Network Society was coined by Jan van Dijk in his Dutch book De Netwerkmaatschappij (1991)…