Radical Left Organisation and Networks of Communication

Swann, Thomas

doi:10.1332/policypress/9781529208788.003.0002

Cited by 3 publications

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“…This also features in Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's account of anarchy as the fullest expression of order (Colson, 2019: 41-45). This affinity between anarchism and cybernetics has been recognised in the past (McEwan, 1963;Walter, 1963;Ward, 1966;see Duda, 2013 for an overview) and more recently through a proposed anarchist cybernetics (Swann, 2018(Swann, , 2020b and in mathematical modelling for scale in anarchist social organisation (Apolito, 2020). Responses on the COVID-19 pandemic by cyberneticians have tended to spotlight considerations of the adaptability of national healthcare systems (Espejo, 2021;Lassl, 2020) and mutual aid groups are conspicuous in their absence.…”

Section: Autonomy and Control In Cybernetics And Anarchismmentioning

confidence: 96%

‘Anarchist technologies’: Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis

Swann

2022

Organization

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The COVID-19 pandemic that gripped the world since the end of 2019 has been felt most immediately both as a health crisis and an economic, social and political crisis. Secondary impacts of social distancing and lockdown in many countries have put strains on people’s capacities to provide essential food and medicines for themselves and their families. In response, outside of centralised government and voluntary sector frameworks, local mutual aid groups have emerged around the world as a primary site of community resilience. Given mutual aid’s strong links to the anarchist political tradition, for example in its identification by Kropotkin as a factor in evolution, this article suggests that these new mutual aid groups can be understood best through the related concept of self-organisation. Tying anarchist approaches to mutual aid and self-organisation together, it is argued that cybernetics and Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) offer useful tools in helping both academic analysis and on-the-ground practice assess and improve the effectiveness of mutual aid in and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. The article offers a qualitative thematic analysis of anarchist and related texts published during the pandemic that reflect on mutual aid practice. In doing so, it highlights some of the challenges and tensions such self-organised mutual aid practice might face and proposes a participatory research agenda drawing on Beer’s VSM.

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Section: Autonomy and Control In Cybernetics And Anarchismmentioning

confidence: 96%

‘Anarchist technologies’: Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis

Swann

2022

Organization

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“…Stafford Beer (1926Beer ( -2002 was a British operational research, management, and cybernetics professor. Among Beer's many contributions to cybernetics, probably the most significant is the Viable Systems Model (VSM), which characterises a system with the goal of surviving in a changing environment [5,6]. The concept was created and implemented in organisations.…”

Section: The Viable Systems Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The viability of cooperative societies from the anarchist- cybernetics perspective: a systematic review of the field and research opportunities

Osejo-Bucheli

2023

ing. Solidar

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Introduction: This article is part of an ongoing research project that started in 2022 and investigates the viability of cooperative associations from an anarchist-cybernetics perspective at the Universidad del Valle, Department of Administrative Sciences. Problem: Management Cybernetics and anarchism are fields with significant coincidences regarding organisational theory. From the point of view of anarchism, voluntary organisation is a form of exercising individualfreedom, while in cybernetics, autonomy is the desirable state of organisation. Objective: The article aims to identify the current state of academic development in the field of anarchist-cybenetics, specifically around the concepts of “autogestión”, “self-management” and “self-control”. Methodology: The article proposes a systematic literature review of the last 10 years in nine academic datbases. Results: The field presents research on radical political groups but lacks research on voluntary organisations such as cooperatives. The predominant research methods used are qualitative for empirical research, and non-empirical research is relevant in this field. Latin America and the developing economies are interesting fields for future development. Case studies and the historical method are relevant for the study of anarchy, and Beer ́s VSM is the most used tool for cybernetics in this field. Conclusion: The field appears to be of great interest for various multi-decade old journals. Originality: This is one of the few research projects to link the organisational side of anarchism and management cybernetics. Anarchist-cybernetics is a novel subject after almost 60 years of not having any academic publications. Limitations: As a novel subject, not many publications fit the requirements for the review.

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“…The connection between anarchism and cybernetics established since the sixties has seen a rebirth in the last few years. The academic conversation about “anarchist-cybernetics” (Swann, 2016, 2018, 2020) in current studies has gravitated around the discussion regarding communication and organization of groups of activists, such as Occupy Wall Street (Swann, 2016). Traditionally the term “anarchism” has been used to describe a revolutionary form of political activism, characterized by the implementation of tactics aimed at unbalancing the status quo and reclaim control of the means of production and distribution; tactics such as strikes, uprisings, riots, boycotts, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He went even further as to quote Kropotkin as reference in his accounts and found interesting the concepts of “control” and “self-organization”. In fact, as Swann (2018) notices, McEwan uses the concept of self-organization, much in the same way as Stafford Beer does. Anarchist writer Colin Ward also acknowledges that self-organization in cybernetics leads in the same direction as in anarchism (1966).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We consider it essential to contribute to the subject. Firstly, while it is true that first-level research in anarchist-cybernetics is in progress, exploring self-organization, both in cybernetics and anarchism (Duda, 2013); or cybernetics in activism, communications and spontaneous organizations (Swann, 2016, 2018, 2020); or even cybernetic communism (Apolito, 2020); there is still an opportunity to contribute to narrowing the gap between cybernetics and anarchism by researching on formal organizations. Secondly, anarchist thinkers have received a lot of attention by modern scholars, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributions to anarchist-cybernetics, identifying committee directorates in Errico Malatesta's theory: content analysis using dynamic causal diagrams and viable system modelling

Osejo-Bucheli

2023

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PurposeThe purpose of this research is to increase academic understanding of the relationship between systems' political identity and their viability, and to contribute to anarchist-cybernetics by examining the idea of organization proposed by Malatesta using Viable Systems. The research also develops the understanding of the relationship between Viable Systems and the environment.Design/methodology/approachThe author developed a content analysis method that uses dynamic analysis, identifying how some variables affect others, and data is analysed using the Viable Systems Model. The author used Dynamic Causal Diagrams and the Viable System Model to draw conclusions and build theory. The author examined 137 documents produced by Errico Malatesta, studying in detail 39 documents containing the researched concepts.FindingsThe article identifies the literature, proposes an organizational theory for society and for cooperatives, strongly grounded in both, self-management and control. It presents a theory of self-management as a balancing effort to the control exercised by the external economic, political and societal forces of the environment. The literature also shows a form of organization that can be interpreted using the VSM framework. The ideas about self-management found in the literature, extend to economics, social theory, ethics, organizations, management and even operations management. The article finishes proposing a set of committees linked to the VSM structure, and successfully bridges anarchism and organizational cybernetics.Originality/valueThe article presents a novel method of systems analysis for the study of literature. It discovers the theory proposed by Malatesta not identified previously. Using the VSM framework, the ideas presented by the author, are translated into the organizational identity, and the operation of cooperatives. It makes an important contribution to anarchist-cybernetics.

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Radical Left Organisation and Networks of Communication

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

‘Anarchist technologies’: Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis

‘Anarchist technologies’: Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis

The viability of cooperative societies from the anarchist- cybernetics perspective: a systematic review of the field and research opportunities

Contributions to anarchist-cybernetics, identifying committee directorates in Errico Malatesta's theory: content analysis using dynamic causal diagrams and viable system modelling

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