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The Performativity of Networks

Publication ,  Journal Article
Healy, K
Published in: Archives Europeennes de Sociologie
August 7, 2015

The performativity thesis is the claim that parts of contemporary economics and finance, when carried out into the world by professionals and popularizers, reformat and reorganize the phenomena they purport to describe, in ways that bring the world into line with theory. Practical technologies, calculative devices and portable algorithms give actors tools to implement particular models of action. I argue that social network analysis is performative in the same sense as the cases studied in this literature. Social network analysis and finance theory are similar in key aspects of their development and effects. For the case of economics, evidence for weaker versions of the performativity thesis is quite good, and the strong formulation is circumstantially supported. Network theory easily meets the evidential threshold for the weaker versions. I offer empirical examples that support the strong (or Barnesian) formulation. Whether these parallels are a mark in favor of the thesis or a strike against it is an open question. I argue that the social network technologies and models now being performed build out systems of generalized reciprocity, connectivity, and commons-based production. This is in contrast both to an earlier network imagery that emphasized self-interest and entrepreneurial exploitation of structural opportunities, and to the model of action typically considered to be performed by economic technologies.

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Published In

Archives Europeennes de Sociologie

DOI

EISSN

1474-0583

ISSN

0003-9756

Publication Date

August 7, 2015

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

175 / 205

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

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ICMJE
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Healy, K. (2015). The Performativity of Networks. Archives Europeennes de Sociologie, 56(2), 175–205. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975615000107
Healy, K. “The Performativity of Networks.” Archives Europeennes de Sociologie 56, no. 2 (August 7, 2015): 175–205. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975615000107.
Healy K. The Performativity of Networks. Archives Europeennes de Sociologie. 2015 Aug 7;56(2):175–205.
Healy, K. “The Performativity of Networks.” Archives Europeennes de Sociologie, vol. 56, no. 2, Aug. 2015, pp. 175–205. Scopus, doi:10.1017/S0003975615000107.
Healy K. The Performativity of Networks. Archives Europeennes de Sociologie. 2015 Aug 7;56(2):175–205.
Journal cover image

Published In

Archives Europeennes de Sociologie

DOI

EISSN

1474-0583

ISSN

0003-9756

Publication Date

August 7, 2015

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

175 / 205

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology