Collective network

Last updated

A collective network is a set of social groups linked, directly or indirectly, by some common bond. According to this approach of the social sciences to study social relationships, social phenomena are investigated through the properties of relations among groups, which also influence the internal relations among the individuals of each group within the set.

Contents

Overview

A collective network may be defined a set of social groups linked, directly or indirectly, by some common bond, shared group status, similar or shared group functions, or geographic or cultural connection; the intergroup links also reinforce the intragroup links, hence the group identity. In informal types of associations, such as the mobilisation of social movements, a collective network may be a set of groups whose individuals, though not necessarily knowing each other or sharing anything outside the organising criteria of the network, are psychologically bound to the network itself and are willing to maintain it indefinitely, tying the internal links among the persons in a group while forming new links with the persons in other groups of the collective network.

Background

It may be interesting to note that the term collective network was firstly officially used in the public domain not in science, instead in a global meeting called by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN): on July 27, 1996, over 3,000 activists from more than 40 countries converged on Zapatista territory in rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, to attend the “First Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism”. At the end of the Encuentro (Meeting), the General Command of the EZLN issued the “Second Declaration of La Realidad (The Reality) for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism”, calling for the creation of a “collective network of all our particular struggles and resistances, an intercontinental network of resistance against neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of resistance for humanity. [1] ”

In science, the term collective network is related to the study of complex systems. As all complex systems have many interconnected components, the science of networks and the network theory are important aspects of the study of complex systems, hence of the collective network, too. The idea of collective network rises from that of social network and its analysis, that is the social network analysis, SNA.

Cynthia F. Kurtz’s group (Snowden 2005) developed methods of carrying out SNA in which people were asked questions about groups (SNA for identities) and about abstract representations of behavior (SNA for abstractions). Whilst the SNA is primarily concerned with connections among individuals, according to Cynthia F. Kurtz the collective network analysis involves the creation of ‘identity group constructs’ as abstract expressions of group-to-group interactions. [2]

Since 2007 the campus-wide interdisciplinary research group CoCo at Binghamton University, U.S. state of New York, studies the collective dynamics of various types of interacting agents as complex systems. CoCo’s goals are (i) to advance our understanding about the collective dynamics of physical, biological, social, and engineered complex systems through scientific research; (ii) promote interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty and students in different schools and departments; (iii) translate the understanding to products and processes which will improve the well-being of people at regional, state, national and global scales. [3]

In 2011 Emerius, the Euro-Mediterranean Research Institute Upon Social Sciences, based in Rome, started the development of an experimental collective network named Yoosphera with the purpose of studying the intra- and intergroup dynamics in order to reinforce the sense of community in territorial groups along four main components: (i) the rational and affective perception of the affinities with other individuals both within a person’s main group and other groups; (ii) the consciousness and acceptance of the dependence to the intra- and intergroup bonds; (iii) the voluntary commitment to keep the dependence as far as it is valuable and useful for both the person, his main group and the perceived macrogroup (the Yoosphera); (iv) the will of not being detrimental to other individuals, groups or macrogroups. [4]

Experiments

Emerius’s research on collective networks incorporates the small-world network graph, with the nodes represented both by the individuals and their groups, as well as it embeds the idea of Malcolm Gladwell expressed in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference , though whilst Gladwell considers that “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts, [5] ” according to Emerius the success of any social epidemic is also strongly dependent on the involvement of special groups with a strong intra- and intergroup degree of cohesion.

Social sciences aim also at the development of new models to manage groups and their internal and external relations according to the limits and the abilities of the human nature, so that to increase the efficiency of the groups. This is the reason behind the Yoosphera, the experimental collective network which is being continuously monitored and developed through a specific piece of software, also named Yoosphera, which reinforces the sense of community in territorial groups as mentioned above. It also nurtures the creation of small groups organised in concentric rings, being small groups easily to be managed according to the theories of Professor Robin Dunbar, in particular Dunbar’s number.

The first observations of the Yooshpera experiment seem to point out that it tends to improve the quality of the relationships between each individual and its environment through the organisation of small cooperative groups which back their own members and the closest groups both in the material and the psychological aspects, thus creating also emotional and affective links.

To the function of socialisation, typical of the social networks, the collective networks add those of organisation and cohesion within and among the groups, that balance the need of maximising the community’s potentialities with that of respecting the different conditions of their members as regards with their culture, profession, family commitments, wealth, time, as well as keeping into account the tidal of those conditions and seconding them with the utmost flexibility.

Related to that of collective network is the definition of collective network intelligence, or colnetigence, which is close to collective intelligence though differs from it as colnetigence emerges from both intra- and intergroup competitive cooperation.

Notes

  1. ↑ Alex Khasnabish, Anarch@-Zapatismo: Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Power, and the Insurgent Imagination Archived 2013-02-26 at the Wayback Machine . Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, Vol 5, No 1 (2011).
  2. ↑ Kurtz, C. F. 2009d. Collective Network Analysis. White paper available at http://www.cfkurtz.com/.
  3. ↑ "Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems (CoCo) at Binghamton University". Coco.binghamton.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  4. ↑ http://emerius.ofelon.org/online/projects-2/yoospheraproject/ Archived 2014-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Malcolm Gladwell. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. p. 38.

Related Research Articles

Social dynamics Study of behavior of groups

Social dynamics is the study of the behavior of groups that results from the interactions of individual group members as well to the study of the relationship between individual interactions and group level behaviors.

Zapatista Army of National Liberation Libertarian socialist political and militant group in southern Mexico

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a libertarian socialist political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, leadership studies, business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies.

Social group Two or more humans who interact with one another

In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group. The system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group or between social groups is known as group dynamics.

Collective action Action taken together by a group of people to further a common objective

Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and economics.

Peoples Global Action

Peoples' Global Action (PGA) was the name of a worldwide co-ordination of radical social movements, grassroots campaigns and direct actions in resistance to capitalism and for social and environmental justice. PGA was part of the anti-globalization movement.

Social network analysis Analysis of social structures using network and graph theory

Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes and the ties, edges, or links that connect them. Examples of social structures commonly visualized through social network analysis include social media networks, memes spread, information circulation, friendship and acquaintance networks, business networks, knowledge networks, difficult working relationships, social networks, collaboration graphs, kinship, disease transmission, and sexual relationships. These networks are often visualized through sociograms in which nodes are represented as points and ties are represented as lines. These visualizations provide a means of qualitatively assessing networks by varying the visual representation of their nodes and edges to reflect attributes of interest.

Computational sociology Branch of the discipline of sociology

Computational sociology is a branch of sociology that uses computationally intensive methods to analyze and model social phenomena. Using computer simulations, artificial intelligence, complex statistical methods, and analytic approaches like social network analysis, computational sociology develops and tests theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions.

Subcomandante Elisa is a Mexican activist from Monterrey, Nuevo León. In the 1980s and early 90s, she served as a subcomandante in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). She was arrested in February 1995 in connection with the 1994 Zapatista uprising. In 1996, the Mexican government acknowledged it was a wrongful arrest and acquitted her of all charges. Today, she is a professor at the Autonomous University of Social Movements.

The Other Campaign is a political program by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation for the recognition and protection of indigenous rights and autonomy in Mexico. This program began in January 2006, and sent Subcomandante Marcos, the main spokesperson for the campaign, to travel across Mexico for several months. This tour was intended to create connections among the Zapatistas and pre-existing resistance groups throughout Mexico.

<i>A Place Called Chiapas</i> 1998 Canadian film

A Place Called Chiapas is a 1998 Canadian documentary film of first-hand accounts of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) the and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army.

Dynamic network analysis (DNA) is an emergent scientific field that brings together traditional social network analysis (SNA), link analysis (LA), social simulation and multi-agent systems (MAS) within network science and network theory. Dynamic networks are a function of time to a set of graphs; for each time point there is a graph. This is akin to the definition of dynamical systems, in which the function is from time to an ambient space, where instead of ambient space time is translated to relationships between pairs of vertices.

Group conflict, or hostilities between different groups, is a feature common to all forms of human social organization, and also occurs in social animals. Although group conflict is one of the most complex phenomena studied by social scientists, the history of the human race evidences a series of group-level conflicts that have gained notoriety over the years. For example, from 1820 to 1945, it has been estimated that at least 59 million persons were killed during conflicts between groups of one type or another. Literature suggests that the number of fatalities nearly doubled between the years 1914 to 1964 as a result of further group conflict.

Neozapatismo or neozapatism is the political philosophy and practice devised and employed by Mexico's Zapatista Army of National Liberation, who have governed a number of communities in Chiapas since the beginning of the Chiapas conflict. According to its adherents, it is not an ideology: "Zapatismo is not a new political ideology or a rehash of old ideologies. .. There are no universal recipes, lines, strategies, tactics, laws, rules or slogans. There is only a desire: to build a better world, that is, a new world."

Subcomandante Marcos Mexican activist

Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict, and an anti-capitalist and anti-neoliberal globalization icon. Widely known by his initial nom de guerreSubcomandante Insurgente Marcos, he has subsequently employed several other pseudonyms: he called himself Delegate Zero during the Other Campaign (2006–2007), and since May 2014 has gone by the name Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, which he adopted in honor of his fallen comrade "Teacher Galeano". Marcos bears the title and rank of Subcomandante, as opposed to Comandante, because, he is subordinate to, and under the command of, the indigenous commanders who constitute the EZLN's Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee's General Command.

In social psychology, collective narcissism is the tendency to exaggerate the positive image and importance of a group to which one belongs. The group may be defined by ideology, race, political beliefs/stance, religion, social class, language, nationality, employment status, education level, cultural values, or any other ingroup. While the classic definition of narcissism focuses on the individual, collective narcissism extends this concept to similar excessively high opinions of a person's social group, and suggests that a group can function as a narcissistic entity.

Social network Social structure made up of a set of social actors

A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors, sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics.

Women in the EZLN

Women have been influential in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, a revolutionary leftist group in Chiapas, Mexico, by participating as armed insurgents and civil supporters. In the 1990s, one-third of the insurgents were women and half of the Zapatista support base was women. The EZLN organization style involved consensus and participation by everyone, including women and children. Therefore, one aspect of the EZLN's ideology was gender equality and rights for women. After the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, the EZLN announced the Women's Revolutionary Law which was a set of ten laws that granted rights to women regarding marriage, children, work, health, education, political and military participation, and protected women from violence. Prominent figures who joined the movement early on such as Comandante Ramona and Major Ana Maria encouraged other women to join the Zapatistas.

Peace psychology is a subfield of psychology and peace research that deals with the psychological aspects of peace, conflict, violence, and war. Peace psychology can be characterized by four interconnected pillars: (1) research, (2) education, (3) practice, and (4) advocacy. The first pillar, research, is documented most extensively in this article.

Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities Zapatista territories in Chiapas, Mexico

Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities are de facto autonomous territories controlled by the neo-Zapatista support bases in the Mexican state of Chiapas, founded following the Zapatista uprising which took place in 1994 and is part of the wider Chiapas conflict. Despite attempts at negotiation with the Mexican government which resulted in the San Andrés Accords in 1996, the region's autonomy remains unrecognized by it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.