Sam Kinsley

It is frustrating that the push to build a career can, in many cases, motivate the forming of neologisms for the same old concepts, to stake a claim to ‘new ground’ - hijacking history in the name of the ‘new’. Which leads me to ask - when discussing the various ways in which we relate to one another (technically mediated or otherwise) do we really need ideas such as the recently posited notions: ‘weaving‘ or ‘connectors‘? ‘Weavers’ and ‘connectors’ are apparently facilitators of networks or ‘principal nodes’ therein. After brief reflection my first question, for example, might be: ‘can nonhumans (animals or things) be connectors or weavers?’, if so, are we actually talking about intensities of relations? Particularly since ideas of agency (especially tied to ‘intentionality‘) and power subsequently demand consideration. Plenty of social theorists, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, have articulated similar ideas in many ways, and so one doesn’t necessarily need to appeal to novelty.

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