Marx, networks and the social logic of interaction

In the last two decades or so, gradually but steadily, the concept of network has acquired a considerable importance, mainly as a metaphor through which to filter our understanding of society. Cultural theorists and specialists in media studies have been at the forefront of this development, often borrowing keywords from the work of social physics and transforming them into loose metaphors (i.e. Barabási, 2002; Castells, 1996; Prey, 2012). The affirmation of such a trend, though, has not occurred without criticism. Boltanski and Chiapello (2005), for instance, have stigmatised the tendency to apply the logic of networks to the analysis of contemporary social phenomena. In their view this is a very recent development that flattens dynamics of exploitation in a dualistic dichotomy of inclusion vs. exclusion and that projects a negative ‘halo’ on those who are excluded. Without endorsing the efficacy and versatility of the inclusion/exclusion paradigm tout-court, it is certain that, although deficient, this paradigm is not limited to capitalism and the modern Internet society. Indeed, as recognised long ago by anthropologists (e.g. Barth, 1969), the inclusion/exclusion dynamics is critical to many premodern contexts e.g. in various forms of membership, identity formation, and ethnicity. However, the problem runs deeper and underlies the basic question of whether focusing on inclusion/exclusion is enough; that is, if the network metaphor has completely cancelled the need for more traditional theoretical tools in order to make sense of society and its multiple facets. Have networks superseded “class”?