Showing papers in "Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory in 2014"
TL;DR: Taylor et al. as mentioned in this paper presented Taylor and Francis' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article, which is the authors' accepted, refereed, and accepted manuscript for the article.
Abstract: © 2014 Taylor & Francis. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the tensions that occur when indicators have not yet become stable entities, when the conditions of possibility for the indicator's continued existence are less assured, and the labor it takes to build numbers into something socially meaningful becomes surprisingly visible.
Abstract: Indicators with long social histories, such as the Consumer Price Index, often serve as nodes of calculative infrastructures. They create a field of social action, making some relations between people, institutions, and materials possible, and other relations less possible. By reflecting on two experiments in do-it-yourself sensor data, this article explores the tensions that occur when indicators have not yet become stable entities. When the conditions of possibility for the indicator's continued existence are less assured, the labor it takes to build numbers into something socially meaningful becomes surprisingly visible. This labor proceeds in stops and starts, as the various material and epistemological and social resistances reveal themselves. Sensors shape these starts and stops. Sensors give their users an indication of a possible whole entity whose contents they cannot fully imagine, and either must create or abandon. Far from producing certainty, sensor data often provokes a sense of vagueness th...
59 citations
TL;DR: The capacity to evaluate and modify the self that Klout affords is intricately tied up with the agency and (self-)valuation of Klout as a tool itself, and the interlinked movement of numbers, media, and value in social media as a kind of dynamic assemblage is explored.
Abstract: This paper takes tools of self-valuation in social media as an empirical focus. By way of a case-study of Klout, an influential measure of influence, we suggest that the forms of reactivity and self-fulfilling prophecy that have been identified as a problem with some forms of measurement are actually an intentional effect of such tools: that is, the measurements that such tools produce are not designed to capture a separate reality, but are deliberately employed to modify the activity that they themselves invite. In other words, they expect and exploit reactivity. We suggest that such media are indicative of the rise in what might be called participative metrics of value. We further suggest that the capacity to evaluate and modify the self that Klout affords is intricately tied up with the agency and (self-)valuation of Klout as a tool itself. An intermediate layer of the argument is that this tying up is achieved through the production of numbers as specific kinds of ‘enumerated entities’. We use this term to draw attention to the ways in which numbers are never simply abstractions, but always have specific material-semiotic properties. In this case, we show that these properties are tied to the use of media-specific operations, and that these properties, including those of inclusion and belonging, inform how Klout participates in particular kinds of ordering and valuation. We thus explore the interlinked movement of numbers, media, and value in social media as a kind of dynamic assemblage.
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors contribute to the social study of number, a field which has acquired renewed significance in recent years with a revival in forms of self-and collocalization.
Abstract: In putting together this Special Issue we seek to contribute to the social study of number, a field which has acquired renewed significance in recent years with a revival in forms of self- and coll...
34 citations
TL;DR: A standard narration has emerged, which depicts Western cosmopolitan thought as being made up of several key periods: ancient Greek and Roman metaphysics, eighteenth-century political philosophy, post-1945 institutionalizations of cosmopolitan political structures, and the contemporary diversification in cosmopolitan thinking, encompassing both political philosophy and the sociological/anthropological analysis of'really existing cosmopolitanisms' as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Contemporary cosmopolitan thought is rich and diverse, encompassing a broad range of themes and issues. Like other intellectual fields, cosmopolitanism today is partly constructed through narrations of its history, which debate and define what is living and dead in previous forms of cosmopolitan thinking. A standard narration has emerged, which depicts Western cosmopolitan thought as being made up of several key periods: ancient Greek and Roman metaphysics, eighteenth-century political philosophy, post-1945 institutionalizations of cosmopolitan political structures, and the contemporary diversification in cosmopolitan thought, encompassing both political philosophy and the sociological/anthropological analysis of ‘really existing cosmopolitanisms’. Yet this standard narration threatens to become unquestioned truth, unhelpfully restricting how the field understands itself, and paradoxically encouraging parochial modes of thinking within cosmopolitan studies. Against this prevailing trend, this paper propos...
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Chantal Mouffe discusses her theoretical endeavour since the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; the theory of politics via the combined critique of Marxism and liberalism; Carl Schmitt and the formulation of an agonistic politics; as well as the limits of pluralism and the necessity of exclusion.
Abstract: In this interview, Chantal Mouffe discusses her theoretical endeavour since the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; the theory of politics via the combined critique of Marxism and liberalism; Carl Schmitt and the formulation of an agonistic politics; as well as the limits of pluralism and the necessity of exclusion.
25 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the main philosophical sources of Laclau's theory of space and antagonism are discussed and a discussion provides the basis for a more general plea to take account of the philosophical implications of the differentiation between space and time, or the social and the political, as both are different aspects of one and the same phenomenon: antagonism.
Abstract: Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory is remarkable for bringing in a balance empirical analysis and philosophical considerations. The way this balance is reached is illustrated by discussing the main philosophical sources of Laclau's theory of space and antagonism. It is shown that Laclau's theory of social space relies on Husserl's phenomenology and critique of objectivism. Furthermore, it is shown in what way Laclau's differentiation between time and space corresponds to his differentiation between the two notions of the political and the social. This philosophical as well as political approach to the question of social space is contrasted with conceptions of space that are dominant in critical geography. The discussion provides the basis for a more general plea to take account of the philosophical implications of Laclau's differentiation between space and time, or the social and the political, as both are different aspects of one and the same phenomenon: antagonism.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the long and expanding genealogy of use, from descriptive to governmental to probabilistic, gives it persuasive as well as instrumental power, as people come to grips with novel terms of life by drawing on old concepts.
Abstract: As sequel to an earlier paper on ordinal ranking, this paper focuses on another old, but increasingly widespread, numerical expression, in both technical and public domains: namely, the percentage. It argues that the long and expanding genealogy of use, from descriptive to governmental to probabilistic, gives it persuasive as well as instrumental power, as people come to grips with novel terms of life by drawing on old concepts. The ‘one hundred’ offers a sense of understanding, while in public expressions, there appears to be an increasing vagueness of the specific nature of the one hundred as denominator and a new potential for one hundred to gesture towards an aspirational future rather than any simple description of the present. The second section engages with Helen Verran's approach to number, where she shows how numerical expressions can move from one mode to another through the possibility of expressing both one/many and part/whole relationships. The next section illustrates the applications of per...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore complicated connections of biological traits to both national and post-national modes of citizenship, and demonstrate that biology plays an important role in decision-making on citizenship rights and inclusion and exclusion in the nation-state even today.
Abstract: This paper aims to broaden the view of the implications of advanced biomedical technology to biopolitical subjectivity through an analysis of the use of DNA profiling for family reunification of immigrants in Finland and Germany. By exploring complicated connections of biological traits to both national and ‘post-national’ modes of citizenship, the paper demonstrates that ‘biology’ plays an important role in decision-making on citizenship rights and inclusion and exclusion in the nation-state even today. In family reunification through DNA testing, biological criteria may back up ‘post-national’ citizenship and the personal rights of the asylum seeker or immigrant, since the biological tie to his or her family (and not to the nation) provides the basis for the right to enter the country and stay there. However, the ways DNA testing is used by immigration authorities tend to narrow down the applicant's rights by demarcating the family to a biological nuclear family model, by focusing DNA testing in an ethn...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use Anonymous as an illustrative case for more general reflections on collectivities in the age of computerization that are not based on shared identities and explore the dynamics of constituting collectivity with a new materialist perspective that asks to what extent Anonymous can be interpreted either as swarm, network, or multitude.
Abstract: I use Anonymous as an illustrative case for more general reflections on collectivities in the age of computerization that are not based on shared identities. Whereas theories of collective behavior focus on circular reaction within assemblies of bodies, for the phenomena that this article addresses, communication technology plays a constitutive role in the process of connecting people and turning connectivity into collectivity. In order to explore this Internet-based connectivity and its processes of assembling collectivity outside and beyond practices of representation, I approach Anonymous with the notion of Tarde's public and further investigate the dynamics of constituting collectivity with a ‘new materialist’ perspective that asks to what extent Anonymous can be interpreted either as swarm, network, or multitude. A focus on the interplay of Internet infrastructures and affection, which can produce experiences of the common and thus constitute collectivity, challenges the distinction of mediation and ...
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce and argue in favour of Laclau and Mouffe's ontological dimension in their post-structuralist discourse theory, and contrast their ontological thinking with Luhmann's claim of remaining within epistemology.
Abstract: In this article, I introduce and argue in favour of Laclau and Mouffe's ontological dimension in their post-structuralist discourse theory. Their ontological thinking is contrasted to Luhmann's claim of remaining within epistemology to show how the notion of radical negativity brings Laclau and Mouffe beyond an ‘old European metaphysics of substance’. Ontological negativity is then contrasted to Foucault's ‘modest positivism’. The problem with such a positivism is not that it overlooks ‘deeper’ layers, but rather the absence of the dimension of negativity is needed in order to grasp a discursive logic of articulation. Having established the necessity of including an ontological dimension of negativity, however, I question the claim that negativity equals antagonism and that the political may therefore be granted a primary ontological status. This claim is ‘one step too far', and the theory must be rethought accordingly. I point out some of the theoretical implications of a ‘de-ontologization’ of antagonis...
TL;DR: The concept of political friendship deals with the problem of how anonymous strangers can feel a principled solidarity, such that they recognize each other as moral equals and show a willingness to act in each other's interests as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article addresses the contribution that Durkheim's sociology can make to recent scholarship on the public and political significance of friendship. The concept of political friendship deals with the problem of how anonymous strangers can feel a principled solidarity, such that they recognize each other as moral equals and show a willingness to act in each other's interests. Because the new scholarship on political friendship aims to reveal the social bonds that underlie the political, we argue that this literature will benefit from a deeper engagement with social theory, particularly Durkheimian sociology. A Durkheimian approach reveals how friendship is not just a personal and private bond between individuals, but also a collective representation expressing some of the highest ideals of social relations, including justice, equality, and respect. Ultimately it is these idealized – or better, sacred – meanings of friendship that are driving the current interest in political friendship, hence the need ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on Foucault's lectures on the history of governmentality and propose a new mode of governing events in the texts of the Physiocrats, which he contrasts with the Machiavellian paradigm of virtu and fortuna.
Abstract: The field of governmentality studies extends the analysis of power relations beyond the state, and has thereby widened the understanding of government. However, the dominant conceptualization of governmentality as conduct of conduct and the empirical focus on subjectivating modes of power limit the potential of the governmentality approach. In this paper I want to explore the possibilities of transcending this perspective by redescribing governmentality as event management. I will therefore draw attention to a couple of remarks on the government of events in Foucault's lectures on the history of governmentality. Foucault identifies a new mode of governing events in the texts of the Physiocrats, which he contrasts with the Machiavellian paradigm of virtu and fortuna. In contrast to Machiavelli's political concept of governing the eventful by relying on the virtuosity of the prince, the Physiocrats develop a genuinely economic rationality of event management based on the assumption that markets establish a ...
TL;DR: This paper reconstructs a symptomatic crisis event, the 2009 A/H1N1 ‘swine flu’ influenza pandemic, from the standpoint of number flow in and around epidemiological models, and suggests that the convolution of numbers to predict and control epidemics, or to disentangle different aspects of events more generally, might provoke us to think of how numbers multiply in multiple ways.
Abstract: Contemporary data flows in science, business, government, and media draw numbers from two kinds of places. In some places, numbers are assembled and assigned through observing, counting, and measuring. In other places, numbers are assembled in a different way. Such places are usually defined mathematically as functions and implemented algorithmically in software. The numbers that come from them are not necessarily assigned to anything in the world as facts, keys, or codes. They are functional numbers. The time-space signature of calculation that results from the convolution of these two different supply chains of numbers has textures and traits that directly affect the unfolding of events. This paper reconstructs a symptomatic crisis event, the 2009 A/H1N1 ‘swine flu’ influenza pandemic, from the standpoint of number flow in and around epidemiological models. In their sometimes drastic reshaping of lived space-times, epidemics generate and attract a plethora of numbers relating to human/non-human populati...
TL;DR: In this paper, a focused content analysis of the texts of three influential Norwegian novels for their personal portrayal of the relationship between modernization, the new welfare state, poverty, and shame is performed.
Abstract: Bringing together social science and literary sensibilities, this article employs a focused content analysis of the texts of three influential Norwegian novels for their personal portrayal of the relationship between modernization, the new welfare state, poverty, and shame. As significant facets of public imagination, the big and little stories presented in the novels deploy a decidedly social psychology, in which individual accounts reflexively relate to social life. Featuring associated characters and identities, the novels construct possible experiences. In this context, emotions such as shame are taken to be indigenous ingredients of modernization and the welfare state. The lessons of a lyrical sociology for understanding personal experience and social change are discussed in the conclusion.
TL;DR: Ernesto Laclau as mentioned in this paper discusses his theoretico-political endeavour from the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; questions of radical democratic subjectivity; the social order, sedimentation and change; and finally his relationship to the work of Michel Foucault.
Abstract: In this interview, Ernesto Laclau discusses his theoretico-political endeavour from the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; questions of radical democratic subjectivity; the social order, sedimentation and change; and finally his relationship to the work of Michel Foucault.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define three common properties of electronic money: the cryptography, the network, and the privileges, and show that each of these properties does not match these three conditions identically because all are not equipped with the same technologies and related services.
Abstract: Electronic money is a compound of currency and technology which takes its rise around 1970 while benefiting at the same time from the miniaturization in electronics and the democratization of informatics. Electronic money covers the payment cards with magnetic tape, chip cards, the contact-less payments by card, mobile phone, or tablet PC, and the logical moneys (often called ‘virtual moneys’ such as the Bitcoin, the Litecoin, the PPCoin, the Ven, the Linden dollar, the ‘gold’ as in the digital game World of Warcraft). These forms of electronic moneys have three common properties: the cryptography, the network, and the privileges. Cryptography conditions the ways to access the money. The network represents the kind of regulation of electronic moneys. The privileges differentiate the use of electronic moneys. Each form of electronic money does not match these three conditions identically because all are not equipped with the same technologies and the same related services. Nevertheless, the presence of the...
TL;DR: This paper argued that the element of solidity provides a key to understanding new forms of sociality emerging from crowd actions, thereby challenging Bauman's idea that the liquid has irreversibly replaced the solid.
Abstract: The revival of crowd theory has reignited interest in the meaning of mass society in late modernity. By discarding the old stereotype of crowds as aimless, irrational, and violent, theorists are now researching different types of collectivities as instances of dynamic communicative and micro-organizational action. Yet, the refocus on crowds has not been properly situated in a context that has shifted, as Zygmunt Bauman alleged, from solid to liquid modernity. Ostensibly, the perception of crowds as amorphous and fluid coincided with the solid phase of modernity. In the current phase that is defined as liquid, crowds are being reconsidered as social formations imbued with the potential for mobilization and power reconfiguration. It implies that the element of solidity provides a key to understanding new forms of sociality emerging from crowd actions, thereby challenging Bauman's idea that the liquid has irreversibly replaced the solid.
TL;DR: The second volume of the second volume contains an essentially different view of the social origins of passions as well as the social order as discussed by the authors, and it links Hume's work to Adam Smith's theory of sympathy.
Abstract: While sociologists have largely turned their back on the foundations of their discipline as a science of society, historians have recently focused on the first classical period of modern social science in the eighteenth century from this perspective. Mikko Tolonen has recently revised established interpretations of David Hume's and Bernard Mandeville's work. Mandeville has usually been considered to continue the Hobbesian tradition of the ‘selfish theory’, but the author claims that the second volume contains an essentially different view of the social origins of passions as well as the social order. Hume follows this train of thought and arrives at a theory of modern society that turns the Hobbesian tradition upside down. Government is necessary for the social order, but now it is seen to result from civil society processes, not as being their cause. Mandeville's idea of pride, sovereignty, or self-liking is central in Hume's argument. It links Hume's work to Adam Smith's theory of sympathy, but also to ...
TL;DR: In this paper, a close reading of artworks by Robert Mangold, Florian Slotawa, and Walid Raad is presented, where the authors consider three main ways in which number is figured in contemporary art.
Abstract: By means of close readings of artworks by Robert Mangold, Florian Slotawa, and Walid Raad, the paper considers some main ways in which number is figured in contemporary art. Mangold's Frame Painting series of the 1980s, Slotawa's Hotelarbeiten of the 1990s and Raad/The Atlas Group's series Let's be honest, the weather helped of the late 1990s/2000s are examined. Mangold's frame-based works are described first as articulations of number as geometrical relation; and second, following from their preoccupation with frame and centre, in terms of their equivocal containment of a central void. Slotawa's Hotelarbeiten are understood as inventories that become performatively and sculpturally recomposed. Raad's work is found to rhetoricize the tropes of the documentary inventory. Number here is figured as geometrical relation or as manifestations of the inventory. Art can thus offer ways of thinking and experiencing number other than as counting or measuring. It is argued that if, in postconceptual art (as in the w...
TL;DR: The idea for this theme section and for the two interviews with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe came about as a wish to take stock of the trajectory of their extraordinarily successful and influe...
Abstract: The idea for this theme section and for the two interviews with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe came about as a wish to take stock of the trajectory of their extraordinarily successful and influe...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that virtual money is as value-laden and morally entangled as any other form of money and explore how one type of virtual money, the Linden dollar (L$), and some associated practices are bound up with research participants' moral categories and judgments in the virtual world of Second Life (SL).
Abstract: Virtual monies present a limit case in debates about money's moral and political entanglements between sociologists, anthropologists, and economists. Digitized virtual monies seem ephemeral, almost ideal typical examples of money as a pure medium of exchange. This paper begins with the premise that virtual monies are as value-laden and morally entangled as any other form of money. This assertion is demonstrated by exploring how one type of virtual money, the Linden dollar (L$), and some of its associated practices are bound up with research participants' moral categories and judgments in the virtual world of Second Life (SL).Participants' accounts of virtual money practices are linked to moral attributes, sometimes in stark ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dichotomies, but also in more nuanced terms. These framings reproduce classifications of people and practices along a continuum with virtuousness at one end and maliciousness or harm at the other, passing through various states of possible moral dubiousness. For respond...