Nothing New Under the Sun?

The argument put forward by the essays included in this book is a compelling one, and bears considerable theoretical significance: networks are fundamental forms of social organization throughout human history. Therefore, a network theory of society is a critical component of social theory, and it is relevant to all societies. A corollary to this statement: when, in my own research, I limited the validity of my analysis of the social structure that I theorized as network society to our contemporary society, tentatively identified as the Information Age, I was wrong both empirically and theoretically. Empirically: networks seem to have always been at the heart of social structure and social change, as the impressive body of archeological and historical evidence gathered by the scholars in this volume seems to indicate. Networks did not have to wait for microelectronics to be a decisive tool in organizing production, trade, power and communication. Theoretically: a network theory of society is relevant, and indeed fundamental, for general social theory, without being dependent from a given technological paradigm. So, what this volume suggests is the need to decouple network theory and the empirical analysis of social structure and social processes in the Information Age. 'Our' network society would be a specific form of the network society, as a trans-historical form. Thus, globalization is not new: under different forms, it appears to have happened not only in the 19th century of the common era, but thousands of years ago. Furthermore, my insistence in pointing at collective identity as a primary source of meaning to inform social action hardly qualifies as a historical novelty. Therefore, the conflictive interaction between global networks and communal identities is not a specific feature of the Information Age but a critical social dynamic in all forms of human organization throughout history. In the last analysis, there is nothing new under the sun. There are only variations on the theme of the human experience. While identifying the modalities and outcomes of this variation is still a worthy intellectual endeavor, the historical commonality of various social forms of existence of humankind provides the material support for a unifying social theory. A theory in which networks, identities, and their relationships would be key elements to anchor our understanding.