Interpreting Networks: Hermeneutics, Actor-Network Theory, and New Media (Digital Society)

This book brings together hermeneutics, actor-network theory, and new media to formulate a theory of a global network society. Hermeneutics reopens the question of unity in a fragmented world, actor-network theory reinterprets the construction of meaning as networking, and new media studies show how networking is done. Networks arise, are maintained, and are transformed by communicative actions that constitute a social operating system offering an alternative to the algorithmic logic, functionality, and systemic closure dominating solutions to problems of overcomplexity. In the social operating system's world, filters and layers replace space and time as parameters of knowing and acting. Ultimately, this book proposes a theory for a global network society based on concepts that differ from those typical of Western modernity.