Rethinking ‘Civil Society' via the Sociology of Flows : Crowdfunding as Spaces of Alternative Ordering?
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2012-07-11
Author(s)
Abstract
Available conceptualizations of ‘civil society' tend to depict the subject matter as a ‘thing', often either credited with the potential to solve today's most pressing social problems (the progressive view) or, conversely, seen as perpetuating prevailing orders of power (the conservative view). To venture beyond these essentialist imageries which envision ‘civil society' as a static configuration which is always already there, we employ the metaphor of zooming in to argue that the social is radically open, that is, neither progressive or conservative a priori but becoming progressive or conservative in the way it is enacted through heterogeneous elements. With this as a backdrop, we introduce Actor-Network Theory and After to flesh out a post-foundational understanding of the social, and use the case of crowdfunding to reflect on how technology-mediated ordering practices might bring about alternative forms of sociality. The paper concludes that Actor-Network Theory and After - despite claims to the contrary - bears critical potential in the way it pinpoints, based on empirical insights, favorable ordering practices.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
Democratization, Marketization, and the Third Sector
Publisher
International Society for Third-Sector Research ISTR
Publisher place
Baltimore USA
Start page
1
End page
22
Pages
22
Event Title
10th International Conference ISTR
Event Location
Siena, Italy
Event Date
10.-13.07.2012
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
215585
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Siena_Dey_Marti.pdf
Size
353.23 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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