Philosophy and Social Media 5: Swarm Revolutions

PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

2011: year of the swarm

Gladwell versus Shirky

Malcolm Gladwell (1963-)

• ‘Small Change: Why the revolution will

not be tweeted’ (October 2010)

• ‘Strong’ versus ‘weak’ ties


‘[T]he fact that barely committed actors cannot click their way to a better world does not mean that committed actors cannot use social media effectively.’ Clay Shirky (1964-)


‘It would be impossible to tell the story of Philippine President Joseph Estrada's 2000

downfall without talking about how texting allowed Filipinos to coordinate at a

speed and on a scale not available with other media. Similarly, the supporters of

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero used text messaging to

coordinate the 2004 ouster of the People's Party in four days; anticommunist

Moldovans used social media in 2009 to turn out 20,000 protesters in just 36 hours;

the South Koreans who rallied against beef imports in 2008 took their grievances

directly to the public, sharing text, photos, and video online, without needing

permission from the state or help from professional media. … All these actions relied

on the power of social media to synchronize the behavior of groups quickly,

cheaply, and publicly, in ways that were unavailable as recently as a decade ago’


Bill Wasik (Wired 27/12/11: ‘Gladwell vs. Shirky: A Year Later, Scoring the Debate

Over Social-Media Revolutions’)

• Gladwell is right that activism requires more than good communication

• BUT: social media maintains strong ties between distributed friends and allies

• Emotion: the ‘glue’ of distributed relationships

Swarm theory: Coalition of the Willing

Flash mobs as social swarms

The joy of the gift: sorry everybody!

Occupy Wall Street

• On July 13th, 2011, Adbusters

posted an article titled

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET, calling

people to assemble in Manhattan

on September 17th, 2011

• July 14th, occupywallst.org web

domain registered anonymously

• On August 23rd, the Tumblr “We

Are the 99%” was launched to

curate messages submitted by

those planning to attend the

September 17th protests.

Occupy Wall Street

We should remember that there are many voices in this movement and as much

diversity among the protesters as there is in 99% of our population. These different

backgrounds, philosophies, and affiliations can and should come together under a

single cause: to end the corporate greed, corruption, and interference that has

affected all of us’ (Occupy Together http://occupytogether.org/)

http://occupytogether.org/

Occupy Wall Street

Building social capital

Social capital: the social or economic value deriving

from cooperation between individuals

• Robert Putnam (1941-)

’School performance, public health, crime rates,

clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy,

race relations, community development, census

returns, teen suicide, economic productivity,

campaign finance, even simple human happiness --

all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether)

we connect with our family and friends and

neighbours and co-workers’.


Mark Granovetter, ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’ (1973)


How is social media creating new forms of social capital?

1. Collaborative consumption: web-enabled ‘weak tie’ networks

2. DIY social activism: web-enabled ‘weak/strong tie’ solidarity networks

Peoples and multitudes

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Leviathan (1651)

• The social contract: members of the warring

multitude forge a ‘contract’ with the sovereign

• Individuals trade their ‘natural right’ to wage war

in exchange for security and civil order

The result:

1. Social order has a contractual basis. The

social contract is motivated by fear

2. In forging a social contract, the multitude

becomes a unified ‘people’ (under law)

Peoples and multitudes

Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677)

• No social contract: members of the multitude

collaborate for the sake of mutual benefit

• Bound together by social capital

The result:

1. Social order has an affective basis. The

motivation for participation and engagement

is love (common sense of empowerment)

2. A multitude is never established as a ‘people’.

Multitudes emerge under specific conditions

PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Education

Philosophy and Social Media 5: Swarm Revolutions