An inspiring, dangerous idea. The science and politics of self-organization.

Sociology Seminar

Lecture

Self-organization is an idea whose time has come. As an explanatory concept, self-organization is central to complexity theory, which is quickly becoming a powerful and perhaps even dominant paradigm in both the natural and social sciences. As a political idea, self-organization is filling the void that is opening up as both the state and market are increasingly perceived as undemocratic, unjust and inefficient. In this lecture, I explore the science and politics of self-organization. I argue that self-organization indeed is an inspiring ideal but that it is often misunderstood and may produce adverse consequences when it is used as a political guide. I present research showing how self-organization leads to inequalities both online and offline, in cyberspace and in cities. While self-organization is too inspiring to abandon, its harsh realities need to be accounted for if we want to think and work with it.

Published by  AISSR