Virality

Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book Virality by Tony D. Sampson, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Tony D. Sampson ISBN: 9781452933795
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: June 26, 2012
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Tony D. Sampson
ISBN: 9781452933795
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: June 26, 2012
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

In this thought-provoking work, Tony D. Sampson presents a contagion theory fit for the age of networks. Unlike memes and microbial contagions, Virality does not restrict itself to biological analogies and medical metaphors. It instead points toward a theory of contagious assemblages, events, and affects. For Sampson, contagion is not necessarily a positive or negative force of encounter; it is how society comes together and relates.

Sampson argues that a biological knowledge of contagion has been universally distributed by way of the rhetoric of fear used in the antivirus industry and other popular discourses surrounding network culture. This awareness is also detectable in concerns over too much connectivity, such as problems of global financial crisis and terrorism. Sampson’s “virality” is as established as that of the biological meme and microbe but is not understood through representational thinking expressed in metaphors and analogies. Rather, Sampson interprets contagion theory through the social relationalities first established in Gabriel Tarde’s microsociology and subsequently recognized in Gilles Deleuze’s ontological worldview.

According to Sampson, the reliance on representational thinking to explain the social behavior of networking—including that engaged in by nonhumans such as computers—allows language to overcategorize and limit analysis by imposing identities, oppositions, and resemblances on contagious phenomena. It is the power of these categories that impinges on social and cultural domains. Assemblage theory, on the other hand, is all about relationality and encounter, helping us to understand the viral as a positively sociological event, building from the molecular outward, long before it becomes biological.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In this thought-provoking work, Tony D. Sampson presents a contagion theory fit for the age of networks. Unlike memes and microbial contagions, Virality does not restrict itself to biological analogies and medical metaphors. It instead points toward a theory of contagious assemblages, events, and affects. For Sampson, contagion is not necessarily a positive or negative force of encounter; it is how society comes together and relates.

Sampson argues that a biological knowledge of contagion has been universally distributed by way of the rhetoric of fear used in the antivirus industry and other popular discourses surrounding network culture. This awareness is also detectable in concerns over too much connectivity, such as problems of global financial crisis and terrorism. Sampson’s “virality” is as established as that of the biological meme and microbe but is not understood through representational thinking expressed in metaphors and analogies. Rather, Sampson interprets contagion theory through the social relationalities first established in Gabriel Tarde’s microsociology and subsequently recognized in Gilles Deleuze’s ontological worldview.

According to Sampson, the reliance on representational thinking to explain the social behavior of networking—including that engaged in by nonhumans such as computers—allows language to overcategorize and limit analysis by imposing identities, oppositions, and resemblances on contagious phenomena. It is the power of these categories that impinges on social and cultural domains. Assemblage theory, on the other hand, is all about relationality and encounter, helping us to understand the viral as a positively sociological event, building from the molecular outward, long before it becomes biological.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Militarizing the Environment by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Brand Aid by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Nobody Is Supposed to Know by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Zombie Theory by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Photo-Fiction, a Non-Standard Aesthetics by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book All about Almodóvar by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book The Social Project by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Citizen Swain by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Airport Urbanism by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Only the Dead by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Consumers And Citizens by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book John Vassos by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Desert Dreamers by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Reinventing Citizenship by Tony D. Sampson
Cover of the book Repainting the Walls of Lunda by Tony D. Sampson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy