The human network revisited: responses to Brynnar Swenson’s “The human network: social media and the limit of politics”

Abstract

This article combines contributions from three authors, each of whom writes in scholarly response to Brynnar Swenson’s “The Human Network: Social Media and the Limit of Politics,” originally published in the Baltic Journal of Law & Politics 4:2 (2011): 102-124. Ignas Kalpokas reads Swenson’s theories of revolt and social change alongside a robust theory of sovereignty drawn from Carl Schmitt, while also expanding Swenson’s interpretations of the media representations of the Egyptian revolution and the 2011 riots in England by an appeal to theories drawn from Lacanian psychoanalysis. J.D. Mininger also draws from psychoanalytic discourse as he revisits a key interview given in Swenson’s account of the media interpretations of the London riots of 2011. Viktorija Rusinaitė addresses Swenson’s provocation about the limits and status of politics, turning to media theory and the concept of politics found in the work of Jacques Rancière.

Exploring the many faces of social media

“…Hence, this special issue calls for a balanced approach to social media and their contribution to everyday life. In fact, it is crucial that social media are understood to have no essence of their own, but instead are seen as empty vessels, as carriers of whatever is generated by the users themselves (Kalpokas, Mininger, Rusinaitė, 2013).…”