Social order in a network society

Abstract

This chapter first looks at the information age and its networking mindset. It then examines three tenets from the study of complex systems: structure, synchrony, and stability. It describes the concept of ‘improvising society’, which refers to new social forms of processing alignment and fine-tuning. In both tightly structured and more fluid compositions, arrangements and spontaneous play produce a kaleidoscopic image of networks, clusters and subcultures. The improvising society reflects the new institutional relations. Institutions develop on the basis of tradition and renewal, and give society stability. The alignment of one actor (person, organization) with another actor, and vice versa, ad infinitum, is the ordering process of the current network society.