Grant Bollmer, Inhuman Networks: Social Media and the Archaeology of Connection

Abstract

This work offers a media archaeological/genealogical analysis of nodal citizenship, which is defined as a citizen who manages their behavior according to the demands of an ontology-based view of the network. Although this project tackles the topic of social media, it does so broadly, through the framework of French philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, in which social media is seen primarily as a form of proper conduct. Bollmer does this by dividing his work into eight chapters covering three distinct parts to the manuscript, moving from the historical narrative of networks and connection to its implementation in contemporary forms of nodal citizenship. Bollmer concludes with critiques of current forms of resistance against the concept of nodal citizenship that he has explored.