Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

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8 The map is not the territory To conclude we would like to locate our account of complexity and global social movement within some of the wider theoretical stakes associated with complexity theory, having demonstrated that the AGM is a social expression of complexity. As such, we build on David Byrne’s concluding conclusion that whilst complex-based social science can inform social action such rational knowledge cannot be determinate due to agency. His hope that the agency in question be that of ‘free-citizens’ acting as a ‘perturbative force which chooses the future’ (1998: 167) is embodied within the AGM. As we have argued the commitment to open processes within the AGM maximises the operation of weak ties, a key step in socially ‘engineering’ plateaux optimising the potential for ‘free-acts’. Taken together the totality of such free acts constitutes the AGM as a particularly dense strange attractor enunciating the other worlds that are possible. This commitment to the maintenance of open boundary conditions is a necessary condition for emergence. The resultant fluidity of network forms associated with the AGM enables the declaration of collective stakes and their symbolic coding and deployment as free-floating signs and embodied forms of expression in the ecology of action. These associative forms combine multiple identities and force relations spanning North and South to constitute a parallelogram of forces enabling the pursuit of common antagonistic objectives and multiple pro-active ways of becoming and intervening. The meld here includes peasant, socialist, anarchist, feminist, radical liberal and environmentalist sensibilities. These constitute innovative margins where the aesthetics and ethics underlying the pursuit of knowledge are driven by intensities of feeling far removed from the dangerous ‘habits of mind’ identified by Bateson. Both the technical expression and social relations associated with these processes depart widely from those central to the prevailing neo-liberal axiomatic conceived as the antagonistic other. The apparent marginality of these actors and their projects can make them appear insignificant compared to the ‘cutting edge’ developments within supra-state scientific and technical projects and corporate product development systems. However, as technical innovations are vitally dependent upon socially negotiated rules and are
148 The map is not the territory therefore contingent upon cultural norms, these rules include rates of return, amortisation periods, forms of ownership, liability and so on. These are the social constructs shaping market formation and the currently exploitative relations associated with ‘turbo-capitalism’, which are consolidated within legal traditions where the sanctity of private property represents the axiomatic orchestrating the entire assemblage. The exploitative intensity associated with these constructs increases with distance from the centres of modernity but the underlying anatomy of priorities remains the same. It is worth noting that profit before people and planet and innovation within existing supply chains are habits of mind that produce incremental refinement of established technologies and techniques consolidated in the nineteenth century. These habits and relations were formalised in relation to the production of material products but extend now to an era where immaterial labour has become an increasingly important phenomenon and immaterial products increasingly problematise these constructs. Compare buying a pressed vinyl record to downloading a digital signal through peer-2-peer file sharing and one arrives at the situation where Sony takes its consumers to court. Commodified platforms (e.g. MP3 players) and immaterial exchange (P2P Networks) have thus perturbated the relations governing the exchange of the product of immaterial labour (e.g. music). The hacking, replication and assimilation of immaterial product is in its infancy but is growing precisely because the manipulation of information (electronic, genetic etc.) remains embedded within established commercial relations underpinned by the notion of an abstract self-interest maximising individual. Established habits of mind typically incorporate innovations within the familiar resulting in inappropriate initial applications, an area where computing stands out as a particularly clear example (Levy 1984), with sustainable energy production being another. For instance, market-led wind turbine development requires that generators are aligned to central grid provision under rates of return requiring turbine location in prominent windy positions, thereby fuelling controversy over the damage done to the aesthetics of wilderness. Wind farms are perceived commercially as broad equivalents to power stations, whilst dispersed generating approaches remain the preserve of entrepreneurial margins hampered by prevailing social constructs. Until recently, reverse metering (selling surplus domestically generated electricity back to the grid) was not permitted and technically difficult. The advent of micro-wind generator systems suitable for rooftop mounting offers the prospect of households generating significant amounts of electricity reducing demand on centralised generating systems, whilst free fuel removes a key step in prevailing supply chain, commodity, and exchange relations. A shift in cultural orientation towards dispersed networks and autonomous production coupled to the availability of nonproprietary technologies, as is already taking place around broadband wireless technologies could quickly tip the balance with regard to patterns of ownership and control.
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Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
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Acknowledgements With thanks to all
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Preface ix activists and engaged ci
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2 Introducing global movements poli
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4 Introducing global movements arou
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18 Introducing global movements for
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20 Introducing global movements and
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2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
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24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
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26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
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28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
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30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
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32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
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34 Prefiguration and emergence The
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36 Prefiguration and emergence Glob
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38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
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40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
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42 Prefiguration and emergence from
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44 Identities, protest dynamics and
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68 States fight back when trust in
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70 States fight back academically,
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72 States fight back streets from d
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74 States fight back ‘green Parli
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76 States fight back to trivialise
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78 States fight back beneath Big Be
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80 States fight back ran out. The p
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82 States fight back The attempt to
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84 States fight back Accounts of th
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86 States fight back hair, infringe
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88 States fight back crisis is in e
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5 Ecologies of action within global
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92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
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94 Ecologies of action embedded in
Page 107 and 108: 96 Ecologies of action The assimila
Page 109 and 110: 98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
Page 111 and 112: 100 Ecologies of action linking up
Page 113 and 114: 102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
Page 115 and 116: 104 Ecologies of action leading to
Page 117 and 118: 106 Ecologies of action siege of in
Page 119 and 120: 108 Beyond resistance to global nex
Page 139 and 140: 7 The death of collective identity?
Page 141 and 142: 130 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 157: 146 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 161 and 162: 150 The map is not the territory of
Page 163 and 164: 152 The map is not the territory Ne
Page 165 and 166: 154 The map is not the territory mi
Page 167 and 168: 156 The map is not the territory or
Page 169 and 170: 158 The map is not the territory mo
Page 171 and 172: 160 The map is not the territory of
Page 173 and 174: 162 The map is not the territory ne
Page 175 and 176: Notes 1 Introducing global movement
Page 177 and 178: 166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
Page 179 and 180: 168 Notes 19 This practice has been
Page 181 and 182: 170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
Page 183 and 184: 172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
Page 185 and 186: 174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
Page 187 and 188: 176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
Page 189 and 190: 178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
Page 191 and 192: 180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
Page 193 and 194: 182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
Page 195 and 196: Index Note: Page numbers in italics
Page 197 and 198: 186 Index class: affinities 93; and
Page 199 and 200: 188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
Page 201 and 202: 190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
Page 203 and 204: 192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
Page 205 and 206: 194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
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